{"id":1410,"date":"2013-09-11T04:01:51","date_gmt":"2013-09-11T04:01:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/?p=1410"},"modified":"2014-12-23T20:00:52","modified_gmt":"2014-12-23T20:00:52","slug":"zambelli-fireworks-over-pittsburgh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2013\/09\/11\/zambelli-fireworks-over-pittsburgh\/","title":{"rendered":"Zambelli fireworks over Pittsburgh"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Joseph <\/a>
Joseph (left) and Lou Zambelli Sr. in 1985. (Photo credit: Unknown) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"George <\/a>
George Zambelli prepares for a Community Day Salute in 1963. (Photo by Tom Walczak) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Lou <\/a>
Lou Zambelli Sr. and Jr. work on red, white and blue aerial shells for a Star Spangled Banner display at Three Rivers Stadium on July 2, 1976. (Andy Starnes\/The Pittsburgh Press) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Lou <\/a>
Lou Zambelli with a stogie in 1984. (Harry Coughanour\/Post-Gazette) <\/div> <\/div>
\"Fireworks <\/a>
Fireworks over Three Rivers Stadium. (Bill Levis\/Post-Gazette) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

July 1978:<\/strong> Zambelli fireworks over Pittsburgh<\/em><\/p>\n

Like many immigrants, Antonio Zambelli nurtured a big dream. As he journeyed from Italy to America in 1893, he carried his pyrotechnic skills and guarded a little black book that held his family\u2019s recipes for making fireworks.<\/p>\n

He settled in New Castle and began building Zambelli Fireworks Internationale. Today, the company has about 52 full-time employees but hires about 2,000 part-time employees each summer.<\/p>\n

Since its founding, the business has passed through three more generations of Zambellis and to many Western Pennsylvanians, that name is synonymous with eye-popping displays of colorful, controlled combustion that celebrate everything from the Fourth of July to First Night.<\/p>\n

George Zambelli Sr., \u00a0son of the company\u2019s founder, was the Wizard of Ahhhs<\/em>. He oversaw fireworks shows for Ronald Reagan\u2019s second inaugural on the White House Lawn, Kuwait Independence Day, the canonization of Mother Seton and the introduction of a perfume by Yves St. Laurent called Opium.<\/p>\n

He was still running the company in July 1986 when the Zambellis were one of three fireworks producers to participate in a 28-minute, $2 million display called the Big Bang to celebrate the centennial of the Statue of Liberty.<\/p>\n

That triumph in Manhattan held special meaning for family members because Antonio Zambelli, while passing inspection by immigration officers, met his future wife, Maria, at Ellis Island, just across the water \u00a0from the Statue of Liberty in New York City\u2019s harbor.<\/p>\n

In 1992, George Zambelli Sr. traveled to China with his son, Dr. George Zambelli Jr., an ophthalmologist. While the elder Zambelli demonstrated his new Niagara Falls in the Sky shell for the Chinese, who invented fireworks in the 9th century, his son showed doctors at two Beijing hospitals how ultrasonic waves can break cataracts apart.<\/p>\n

Today, Dr. George Zambelli Jr. is \u00a0chairman of the company and his son, Jared, who represents the fourth generation of the family, is a technician in the business.<\/p>\n

The family\u2019s passion for blending chemistry, physics and aesthetics into dazzling displays continues and they still consider themselves \u201cpainters whose canvas is the night sky,\u201d as described by William Ecenbarger in a 1989 story for The Pittsburgh Press.<\/p>\n

As George Zambelli Sr. remarked to Mr. Ecenbarger, \u201cHey, it\u2019s a dangerous business and you have to trust the person working next to you. That\u2019s why we keep it in the family, OK?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Like many immigrants, Antonio Zambelli nurtured a big dream. <\/p>\n

Look at the picturesZambelli fireworks over Pittsburgh<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1411,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[946],"tags":[975,1024,987,994,996,1057,1033,1047,1165],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/tumblr_mswx6rFE001rr5swxo4_1280.jpg?fit=1280%2C995&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7991,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2017\/07\/04\/1980s-fireworks-fourth-of-july-pittsburgh-point\/","url_meta":{"origin":1410,"position":0},"title":"Gnarly Fourths at the Point","date":"July 4, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"It was a different time. 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