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-I´ve been often asked the question,

"What´s so captivating about fireworks?

I believe a lot of it has to do with the energy.

Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX

It´s bigger than life.

There´s an edginess to it

because they know it´s dangerous.

But it´s so dynamic and so powerful

and sometimes so beautiful and so delicate.

♫♫

-Fireworks By Grucci is my life and soul.

Ready to do some work today?

-3-2-1, fire.

-♫ All my days... ♫

-A world-renowned fireworks company.

We were dubbed the "First Family of Fireworks."

-What´s our status? -...family owned...

-Put the third right next to senior --

Felix senior and Felix the third.

-And now in the sixth generation.

-Are you doing Vegas for New Year´s?

-Vegas. -The Gruccis have been

perfecting the art of pyrotechnics

since the 1850s in Bari, Italy. -And with each generation...

-The most spectacular event of the night -- the fireworks.

-...it got a little bigger each time.

The 2008 Olympics in China...

-What a stunning, stunning achievement.

-...multiple presidential inaugurations.

-He´s loving those fireworks. -Guinness World Records.

-It´s up!

-It´s a medium for our art form,

but it is explosive and it´s dangerous.

People think that it´s magic, that it just happens,

and they don´t see the many, many hours

that´s behind the scenes.

It´s a tremendous amount of pressure

when you push that button.

When you hear the crowd, the roar...

there is nothing like it.

-Come on.

-It´s not just a paycheck, it´s not just a form of income,

it´s our life.

-And it´s the heart of this family.

[ Firework explodes, crackling ]

Thank you.

Alright, put that behind you.

-Sink down into it, huh?

-Well, it´s a down, so no matter what you do,

it´s gonna sink a little bit. -Oh, yeah, that´s much better.

-Okay. Alright.

-How you doing? -Good.

-Phil and Debbie, take 1.

-I´m Phil Grucci --

Felix James Grucci, my formal name.

C.E.O. and Creative Director of both Fireworks By Grucci

and Pyrotechnique by Grucci

and husband to Debra Lynn Grucci.

-My name is Debra Grucci and I am wife to Phil Grucci,

mother to Christopher and Lauren Grucci, and...

-My rock. -Yes.

But that´s for you to say, not for me to say.

We have been married for 32 years.

So this is my office?

This is my office right here.

-I´m not good with dates and years.

She´s always good with dates and years.

-You know what? Actually it´s 33.

-It´s 33 years.

Yeah, that´s why I said, when you said that,

I´m thinking it´s 33 years.

33 years we´ve been married.

We have multiple members of the family

that are involved in the business.

My son Christopher -- Our son Christopher.

-Christopher Grucci, take 1.

-Christopher just got married.

-No matter what we do, fireworks or weddings,

there´s always a last-minute scramble.

-Our daughter, she does a lot of the photography.

-Um, should I start?

-Yeah. -Okay.

-She just blessed us with our first grandson.

-He knows he´s cute.

Yeah.

-Her and her husband, Emmett.

-Love you.

And then we have our nephew, Corey.

-I start my morning checking e-mails.

I´m sorry.

-There´s always something. -Always.

-He´s on.

-We have over 400 employees that work for us.

-Bodie´s been around since, what, the mid-80s doing this,

with the hand fire?

-I´ve been working for Fireworks By Grucci for 30 years.

-Although their last name is not Grucci,

they´re Gruccis.

-I´ve done everything but a divorce in fireworks.

I´d like to get that under my belt before I retire.

-♫ Everybody see me climb ♫

[ Fireworks exploding ]

♫ Everybody see me climb ♫

♫ Everybody see me cli-i-i-mb ♫

♫ Everybody see me cli-i-i-mb ♫

♫♫

-We have always had our studio office

and equipment distribution in Bellport.

It´s about 50 miles out from Manhattan on the south shore.

-This village is our home.

When we first started dating,

he brought me to visit his family for the first time.

From that first day, I said,

"This is where I would love to live.

This is where I want to live and die."

And so far, half of it has come true.

-Sure. -The other half I can wait for.

[ Telephone rings ]

-This weekend we´re going to be at the village of Island Park.

So we actually have the whole show programmed

before we even get to site.

Right now, I have the actual animation

for what the show will be like this weekend.

And I can actually watch to the millisecond

every effect that will happen.

Now you can see that´s the opener.

Many years ago, a lot of this was written down in a notebook.

This is showing me exactly what is firing at each time.

So at 5 minutes, 20 seconds, this event is gonna fire.

This is actually gonna be

a fan-shaped strobe chrysanthemum mime

with pink Dahlia.

There it is.

♫♫

Every time we have a fireworks show,

yes, this is where we´ll come to pick up the trucks

and actually pick up the fireworks.

You´re not gonna see this on the map,

mainly because we don´t want anyone

to really know where it is.

♫♫

These bunkers have been here since the ´40s.

They used to actually store ammunition for the military.

We´re gonna get a look inside.

In this bunker here, we have our mortars.

This is a 4-inch mortar...

5, 6.

8s back here, these are 12s.

This is a 10-inch.

And when you first look at it,

some people say, "How do you figure that out?"

But looking at these for so long,

you pick it up quickly.

♫♫

♫♫

-That´s good.

-One of the biggest things that everyone assumes

is we just show up 10 minutes before a show,

load the fireworks, fire it and break it down.

And that is absolutely not true.

-How´s it going, man? -Good. How you doing?

-To perform at our level,

we´re there, you know, 6:00, 7:00, 5:00 in the morning.

-It´s like a jigsaw puzzle. -Yeah.

-We´re not leaving site until the driver comes

to pick up all the equipment and unexpended product

and bring it back to storage

until sometimes 2:00 in the morning.

Very good.

Whether it be just one device or thousands of devices,

it still takes the same amount of effort.

These are wireless modules. What this is --

Technically it´s a controller.

The panel´s the brain.

So now when I turn this on,

our wireless system will communicate,

and it will know exactly at what time it´s to fire

whatever circuits we have plugged in.

If this was Mod 4, Q1, at that very specific moment,

Mod 4, Q1 will ignite

and that we expect you´ll see in the air tonight.

When my grandfather was doing fireworks,

he would literally light it, he´d run back.

The shell would fire,

and you were right next to that mortar.

He wanted to make the world´s largest firework and he did

and there´s an image of him

being lowered down into the mortar with a crane

to pretty much fuse that shell in the mortar.

Now everything we fire

is with computers and electric matches.

We are no longer putting any part of our body

over that mortar.

All shows on Long Island hit a certain way,

´cause it´s right in your backyard.

I was here with my grandfather,

I was here with my uncles years ago.

My great grandfather has performed here before,

and here I am tonight carrying that torch.

-I´ve lived in Island Park almost my entire life.

I´ve come here every summer to see the fireworks.

-They put on an amazing show.

Everyone´s smiling and oohing and ahhing

and you feel that sense of community.

-I´ve been coming here since I´m a little kid myself

with my grandmother and parents, and we´ve come every year.

-We are less than 30 minutes away.

Definitely have that preshow jitters right now.

Every show, no matter how big, no matter how small,

that last hour leading up

really starts hitting home.

So we´ll hang out here till after the national anthem,

then we´ll hit play. -And then we go home.

-Then we go home. -We go home.

-It´s not that easy.

Once you start seeing everyone gathering together

and you really hear the audience talking

and you know, "Wow, this is it. We´re in show time."

-It´s so exciting.

[ Laughs ]

Love it. Love it.

-They say the moment you lose that, it´s time to retire."

[ Fireworks crackling ]

♫♫

♫♫

This is why we do it.

You know? You hear everyone get excited.

You know, you feel that power.

You ever listen to music...

...and you feel that bass drum in your chest, in your body...

there´s something that happens, you know,

gets you excited.

And to hear and feel and see, you´re getting all the senses.

The best part about fireworks is when you hear the crowd.

The roar -- there is nothing, nothing like it.

And you really get a feel of what a sports athlete

or a famous rock star, a musician would feel like

at a big event.

♫♫

♫♫

You smell all the mortars...

[ Crowd cheers ]

...like, "Oh, there it is, the smell of success."

Like, "Wow. That´s us."

♫♫

-To understand the development of fireworks,

you actually have to go back to ancient China.

There was a tradition

of throwing bamboo stalks into fires

to ward off evil spirits.

My name is Voula Saridakis,

and I am a curator at the Museum of Science and Industry

here in Chicago.

Gunpowder was developed out of the work

of the Chinese alchemists who used their tools

to grind these compounds into powders.

You begin to see more and more Chinese

using gunpowder and pouring small amounts of that

into the bamboo, throwing that into the fire

and creating even bigger explosions.

And eventually, because of the developments

going on in the military, they thought to themselves,

"Well, if they´re sending these projectiles into the air,

maybe we could do the same thing."

And that´s how you see the birth of aerial fireworks.

When they traveled out of China,

they eventually made their way to Europe.

Early on, the biggest celebrations using fireworks

focused on European leaders and the monarchs.

They loved fireworks.

Then what happens is in the middle of the 15th century,

you have the Renaissance.

Where does that birth happen?

It happens in Italy.

But then in the 1800s, you have a number of different

Italian families emigrate from Italy

through Ellis Island to the United States,

such as the Rozzis, the Zambellis,

and, of course, the Gruccis.

♫♫

-How did we both meet?

We met in high school in our senior year.

We knew each other in -- -From the beginning.

-Right, so there was that slightly giddy chatter

back and forth

and I knew I was in love with her when I saw her.

And then we went on our senior trip upstate.

That´s where it all began.

I didn´t make my move quick enough.

So she asked me for a kiss.

-And then our psych teacher pulled him over one day

and said, "Are you..." -Mr. O´Neil.

-"Are you, uh, dating Debbie?"

And Phil said, "Um, yeah, I think so."

And he said, "You´re done, buddy.

You´re done. It´s over."

[ Both laughing ]

[ Rooster crows ]

[ Vehicles passing ]

-I grew up with tons of cousins, and, you know, aunts and uncles.

And we would always kind of go to all these firework shows

as, like, a little army.

[ Chuckles ]

This one here was done for Oswego´s Harbor Fest.

I´m a photographer.

And then this one...

Through the photography,

I definitely look at the fireworks very differently.

It´s like a dance with them

when you´re trying to capture them on film.

It´s a little nerve-wracking ´cause you --

you kind of have that, like, one chance to get that shot.

Our family has always been very, very close.

Usually at lunchtime, we like to call Grandma.

Phe gets a lot of FaceTime with Pop Pop, which is my dad,

and Grandma, my mom, and he loves it.

-[ Gasps ] -Who´s that?

-How´s my buddha bear?

-Can you say hi to Gamma?

Wanna do claps for Phelim?

Claps for Phelim.

-Oh, that´s funny, Lauren.

He´s trying to figure out how to clap.

-With the popsicle in his hand. -With the popsicle.

-So Phe turned one on August 6th,

and I tried to have a small, little get-together,

but... -Go to Mommy.

-...that doesn´t happen with our family.

There´s so many of us.

-That´s his little cake.

-Come on, everybody, out of the pool!

Come on! Let´s go! Let´s go!

-I´m really happy, and I feel really fortunate

that Phelim is gonna grow up with

still a tight-knit group.

-♫ Happy birthday to you ♫

[ All cheering ]

-[ Laughing ]

-Just what yous are doing. Line up.

-Are you gonna be in the picture?

-Get in the center. You and Mommy get in the center.

-When my great-grandmother was around,

it was very important to us that we always gather.

-Come on, Felix. Look this way.

There we go. One more.

-So, like, every Sunday, we would get together

and we would have Sunday dinner.

-Come on, now. Everything is getting cold.

-When I was thrust into the Grucci family,

we had a place at that table every Sunday.

We knew where we sat.

I enjoyed it to the point that I made sure

I was the first one there

so that I could be behind the stove with Nanny.

And I learned how to make all of her traditional dinners,

her sauces.

-I mean, it was like --

If you didn´t go to Sunday dinner,

it was, like, you know, it was, like, a big deal.

-We´re telling war stories.

So that is the boardroom, if you will.

-Being around the dinner table on Sundays

is definitely where the next generation

learns about the dynamic of the family, what it was like.

-The first generation of our family --

Angelo, was in Bari, Italy.

He was a produce distributor.

But yet his love and passion was to go and build fireworks.

This is, you know, back in the 1800s.

And then his son Anthony, also in the Bari region,

apprenticed under my second great-grandfather.

And they both came through Ellis Island.

They took the journey like many other immigrants did

and came and set their flag right here

very close to the town of Bellport that we´re in now.

Four generations of family members in this village.

Okay. Alright. Sounds good.

Alright, thanks, Shel. Bye-bye.

Go ahead. Uppie, uppie.

Good girl.

Okey-doke.

We´re heading right now to the four corners of Bellport

where we´re going to be building our studio.

It´s not much right now to look at.

You know, using your imagination,

I look at the building and I know what it could be.

My great uncle owned this building before he passed away.

So he owned the whole corner here

and then he sold it to an independent,

not related to the family.

So that was another special part

about getting it back into the family.

Come on, take a look at this. This a good plan?

-These are the new ones?

-So here´s where we´re standing. This whole corner...

And having our studio right in the heart of that,

that´s a dream to me to keep that here.

And then all the offices --

Danny with music and Corey and graphic artists.

-Yeah, I like that. That´s nice.

-My generation saw the evolution of the technology

from going up to the firework shell,

lighting it with a torch, which is a little bit

more refined than a cigar or a burlap sack,

to firing a firework electronically,

push of a button,

just like you would flick the light switch.

My first memory of anything related to the business,

I was about 5 years old.

I was on the barge with my dad.

Back then, it was an old, rickety, wooden barge,

and if my father gave me the scissors

to cut one piece of fuse, I was on top of the world.

That´s probably where I got the fever

and got the attraction

and the love for this art form.

The highlights of our family business,

in my memory, date back from --

certainly dominating, if you will,

on Long Island firework displays when it was very regional,

back in the ´60s and ´70s.

♫♫

Producing firework displays at Coney Island

every Tuesday night.

Rockaways´ Playland every Wednesday night.

Then we had that one opportunity

to put the name on the world stage.

That was in 1979.

♫♫

We went to Monte Carlo

to compete against four other countries --

Spain, France, Denmark, and Italy -- and then us.

Scared as can be to go over there

and compete against the big boys.

My father, he was the one that was driving this competition,

wanting to compete.

Finally, Dad was able to convince my grandmother,

because she was the one that really made the decision,

for us to take the chance and go over there.

Then we put all of our efforts to it.

We went over there and won the competition.

[ Cheers and applause ]

So this is the medal that we actually were presented

in Monte Carlo when we won the --

what would be equivalent of the Olympics of fireworks.

This medal, as important as this was to us,

we put this in the casket with my father,

so we, uh...

you know, we put --

we...let him stay with the medal.

-This is a 6-inch firework, we call it.

It´s 6 inches in diameter.

That´s how you measure a firework, never by the length.

-In 1983, we had the highest and the lowest year

in the history of our family.

♫♫

We just finished producing

the centennial of the Brooklyn Bridge.

[ Patriotic music plays ]

-Happy Birthday, Brooklyn Bridge.

Thanks to the Felix Grucci family,

we were dazzled this week

by the most spectacular fireworks display

this city has ever seen.

-I was in my first year of college.

I´ve got a beautiful picture.

I´m on the top of the Brooklyn Bridge on one of the towers,

and you see the necklace of the Brooklyn Bridge

and the roadway below it.

It´s one of my favorite pictures of just, like, back in the day.

-It took 6 days and 28 men to rig the 9 launching sites

from which the shells were fired electronically

on preset music cues.

-That was something that was spectacular.

It set the benchmark up as high as it could be.

-There were swimming fishes darting over the East River,

bursts of golden palm trees,

chrysanthemums spreading hundreds of feet

from shore to shore.

[ "The Stars and Stripes Forever" playing ]

-When they write about the celebration

in the history books, they´re gonna write about Grucci

doing this mammoth firework show

to exceed what was done for the opening.

And that, in itself, is a feat that --

that we´re gonna be real proud of.

[ "The Stars and Stripes Forever" continues ]

[ Somber music playing ]

-And then in November,

we had an explosion in our factory

right here in Bellport.

[ Explosions ]

-Several explosions in the Grucci compound

rock the Long Island neighborhood this morning,

damaging over 75 nearby homes.

-Because the facility was so small,

it basically went through the entire facility.

-There were people running out of their homes

with blood coming down.

Windows just blown out.

It was just a terrible sight to view.

-We believe it was chemically related

based on a formulation that we were working with

at the time that was drying in the buildings.

-officials estimate that as many as 75 to 100 houses in the area

were so badly damaged that their residents had to be evacuated.

-24 others, most of them area residents, were injured.

-We lost my dad and my cousin, the family.

Totally leveled everything. We lost everything.

-My dad and my cousin, it was on a Saturday.

And they were outside of the building.

That´s what hurts even more.

It wasn´t a, you know, human error or something like that.

They were that close to being off the facility

when this took place.

And it destroyed us.

We were cut short.

I was 19 years old when we had the explosion.

So I was just getting into the time

where I would´ve enjoyed working with my dad

side by side, going out on many shows.

-It´s not known yet

if Grucci Fireworks will ever be seen again.

-We had no business, we had no inventory.

We obviously lost two members of the family.

And I remember it like it was yesterday --

sitting around the table

and then determining what we´re gonna do.

So we´re, uh...

if it wasn´t for the strength of the family...

I´m sorry.

If it wasn´t for the strength of the family

and the people, the employees that we had,

we would´ve never had decided to keep going forward.

-My sister and myself and the rest of my family,

we sat around that same table

where there was many joyous Sunday afternoon dinners.

We found ourselves huddled around that same table,

having to make some of the --

probably the toughest decisions of our life,

whether or not we were gonna stay in the business,

should we get out.

-To be completely transparent, we´ve had bankruptcy attorneys

at my grandmother´s house around the table

when all of that happened, saying,

"How are we gonna afford to pay the bankruptcy attorneys

to go into bankruptcy, never mind go through bankruptcy?"

-The answers all came back to the same point.

If we´re going to get out of the business,

it can´t be left on that negative of a mark.

We can´t be remembered for the catastrophe,

for the explosion, for the deaths.

-So my answer was very clear -- "We need to go forward."

♫♫

We all made the decision, and it was all heads down

and working out of a garage, you know, for two winters.

-It was one of those moments that you either band together,

have each other´s back and support each other through it,

or you fall apart and we´re still here.

-I think he would be very pleased to see

what has happened and where we are.

♫♫

The first program after that,

we were called by Steve Wynn out in Las Vegas.

He said, "Hey, I want you to come out and do my opening."

And my brother and myself got in a U-Haul truck

and drove from New York all the way out to Las Vegas,

through the Mojave Desert,

breaking down five times getting there.

And we produced this major performance in Las Vegas,

which basically put our flag in the Las Vegas market,

which is our second-biggest market.

[ Fireworks exploding ]

And then multiple presidential inaugurations.

President Bush...

...then President Clinton...

...President Trump.

And then I was commissioned as the lead designer

for all of the fireworks in the 2008 Olympics in China,

the birthplace of black powder.

It was a big moment in my personal career

as well as in our family´s.

-What a stunning, stunning achievement.

-We´re being invited back now to the Middle East.

So it´s an exciting time.

But, you know, the clock doesn´t stop.

The clock keeps ticking.

-Fireworks still capture the imagination of Americans,

and especially for the 4th of July.

It´s a tradition that goes back

to the very first Independence Day.

On July 3, 1776, you have John Adams,

who eventually becomes the second president

of the United States, write a letter to his wife,

Abigail, saying that the first independence

of the colonies from the British should be celebrated

with bonfires and illuminations.

And by this, he means fireworks.

And it was, in fact, celebrated with fireworks

all throughout the colonies

and has become a major staple of July 4th celebrations

all throughout the country since then.

-Long story short, what they´ll accept are these 8-inch grids.

-This is the third round in the kitchen for breakfast.

-What time is it now? -3:00.

-Yeah, we gotta be there by 5:00.

What does it say, an hour to get there?

That´s fine.

-Well, 56 minutes. -With traffic and...

-Aha.

-Aha, aha.

-Where are you going? You going home?

-We´re going to a fireworks show.

-Oh, fireworks?! -You want to come?

-You want to throw that in, Lauren, that thing?

Just in case you want to walk around?

-No, I have a stroller.

♫♫

-It´s July 1st. It´s the start of the 4th of July weekend.

Yeah, load it up.

Little Phelim is there, ready to go.

It´ll be our first sight to see how he reacts to fireworks.

♫♫

See you later, buddy. [ Smooches ] Alright?

You feel better? You got a little rest?

How you doing, man? You all ready to go?

-I´m ready.

-Copy that. All of you, use your...

Radio should be on Channel 2 right now.

-Yes, it is. -Who´s doing aerials?

-Kim is doing aerials.

-There´s a lot of pressure when you go on one of these programs.

Thank you.

You have the safety aspect that weighs heavily on you

and then you got the entertainment aspect

to please the client, please the audience,

and do it all safely.

-Phil´s grandmother, a.k.a. Nanny --

-Nanny. -Nanny. Her name was Concetta --

would sit in the command center.

And during the program, she did the entire rosary

and she would just continue doing the rosary

until it was over.

-She would go down -- -...see her sitting there

and the rosaries would just start moving faster

and faster and faster-

-Like a chain saw, it was going so fast.

-[Laughing] Because she was so nervous.

The main thing that worries me

was all the work and time and energy

that goes into these programs...

[ Indistinct conversations ]

...that when they go to start that computer,

that computer doesn´t run

or something will not start when it´s supposed to start.

[ Indistinct conversations ]

-So we´re gonna have you right over at that corner.

Right there. -Alright.

We´re about three and a half, four hours from showtime.

The sun is starting to set.

-You can square off to me a little, yeah.

-My stomach right now is starting to churn a bit.

You know, you got the preshow jitters.

-I am here with Phil Grucci, CEO of Fireworks By Grucci.

They are the first family of fireworks,

and there are 20,000 people here to see your display.

-They are. They´re here. They´re waiting.

They´ve been here for a few hours now.

There is a series of things that could go wrong.

[ Indistinct speaking over radio ]

-Copy.

-And we have a protocol and a checklist

on what to do if this happens, what to do if that happens.

-Timecode is going.

-We don´t get a dress rehearsal.

If something fails then,

not only are you disappointing yourself,

you´re disappointing everybody in that crowd.

-Thank you very much. Let´s hear it, Nassau County!

We are [indistinct]

We have over 20,000 people here tonight

for the Grucci fireworks.

[ Cheers and applause ]

-Good evening.

The New 104.7 WHLI

is live here at Eisenhower Park at East Meadow

to celebrate America...

It´s time to celebrate.

Let´s all count down together.

10, 9, 8, 7,

6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

-It´s time to celebrate.

Let´s all count down together.

10, 9, 8...

-The audience is hearing the narration

that led up to the show.

-...5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

-But when the countdown got to zero,

there were no fireworks launching because the timecode

is what drives our computers to fire the fireworks.

-I know.

Alright, so what´s the best way to go about this now?

-You´re always running through your mind what could go wrong

and what do you do when it goes wrong?

-If there´s any type of technical issue,

it´s always a little nerve-wracking.

But I just have a lot of confidence in my dad...

...and the crews that are out there doing all the work

that like, "They´ll figure it out."

-Pat, go to channel --

[ Cheers and applause ]

-During the program,

you´re looking at all the technical aspects

and the safety aspects of it.

But when it´s all over,

and then you hear that roar of the crowd...

[ Explosions ]

[ Cheers and applause ]

...it makes all of that pressure all worth going through

time and time again.

[ Fireworks exploding ]

♫♫

♫♫

The number of employees we have

between the two companies that we have

all total is over 400.

Fireworks By Grucci is the entertainment company.

Pyrotechnique By Grucci is the manufacturing firm.

Every day when Christopher and that staff

that goes into that facility,

you´re hoping that they follow the procedures

because they´re working with explosives.

They´re not manufacturing sneakers.

Hence the hairline that I have here.

[ Both laughing ]

-In a week or two, I have to go out to Vegas,

so I´m gonna be traveling again in a couple weeks

and then again for New Year´s. -Mm-hmm.

-I think my earliest memory of fireworks has to be

when we were out on a beach somewhere watching a show,

and [laughs] I actually had to take my socks of--

Or my mom had to take my socks off and put them in my ears

because when I was younger,

the fireworks actually used to scare me.

They were too loud for me. I didn´t like them.

And we had members of the family and friends being like,

"Ah, look, the youngest Grucci with socks in his ears

because he´s scared of fireworks."

But, obviously, I grew out of it.

-Most of the business that Pyrotechnique By Grucci does

is manufacturing, uh, with government contracts.

-Our company has a long history with supplying our soldiers

with training devices, primarily.

It started with my grandfather, back during the Korean War.

He was commissioned by the Navy to build

a atomic-bomb simulator.

-This is the simulator my family made.

It was a big explosion.

It meant to simulate the mushroom cloud

that you would see when a nuclear bomb were to go off.

And it was to help with training purposes for timings

and "When this is happening, this is how you react."

-In 1997, I was saying to myself,

"We have to diversify our company."

Because we´re totally locked into entertainment.

If there was ever anything that happened

on the entertainment side, the economy takes a crash,

we have to diversify to support ourselves.

Sure enough, unfortunately, we had 9/11.

And who was celebrating?

And then COVID came along...

-It´s now officially declared a global health emergency.

-...no outdoor entertainment again.

-...triggering a new closure culture.

-March Madness games are on hold.

-The lights have gone out on Broadway.

-We ended up having maybe 6 shows that 4th of July.

-A Fourth of July holiday like no other.

-The vast majority of parades and firework shows are canceled.

-To go from 40 to 60 down to 6 for one Fourth of July

is just --

I´ve never seen anything like that.

Then New Year´s came,

and there was no shows for the New Year´s.

And that´s when we offered everyone the chance

to go down to Virginia to work on the manufacturing plant

because that plant was running the whole time

´cause it was an essential business.

Having that side, the military side,

being able to keep functioning even through the pandemic

kept everyone on board

and kept everyone having an income during that time

when a lot of people lost theirs.

Winnie. [ Whistles ] Hey, come here.

-Come here. -Here she comes.

Come on, Winnie. -Winnie, come here.

-I just got married to Lemonia a couple weeks ago.

-Hi, girl!

One of the first times we hung out,

my arms got tired

and I made you row the whole way back.

-I don´t remember that. -Yeah.

-It sounds like you, though.

We´ve been together for a while,

but finally made it government official.

[ Cheers and applause ]

-This is my favorite memory of our wedding.

It was our first look that we did before our ceremony.

The fireworks were the very finale of the wedding night.

[ Cheers and applause ]

And it just meant so much that it came from him

that was so meaningful.

-Hey, Siri, call Corey Grucci, mobile.

Hey, Corey. -Hey, how are you?

-Good. You´re here, right? On property?

-Yeah. -Yeah, why don´t you come over?

Alright? Bye-bye.

We´re working on a program right now in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia,

for the World Tourism and Trade Commission.

It´s a big convention that´s gonna happen.

Over here, Mohammed bin Salman,

which is the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia,

will be sitting here with a very keen eye,

looking at us put explosives on their most important

historical facility in their country.

So that ratchets everything up another level

when it comes to the pressures when you´re pushing the button.

-Fireworks were very limited in color for the longest time.

Up until the beginning of the 19th century,

for the most part, they were orange or this amber-like color.

It´s not until the beginning of the 19th century

that you see the brilliant colors

that we´ve come to associate with fireworks today.

And that´s because instead of potassium nitrate,

they switched over

to a very unstable compound, potassium chlorate.

-♫ Like a chandelier ♫

♫ Grateful just to have me here ♫

-And, depending on the metal salt,

you would get a different color.

So, for example, if you used copper filings in your recipe,

you would get this green color and the potassium chlorate

would make that an even more brilliant green color.

♫♫

♫♫

-How you doing, man?

Getting ready for a good show?

This show started about four months ago,

believe it or not -- a very short timeline.

Let´s have you look at that one, right?

The other one I´m okay with.

Look at this one.

What if that thing fires into those objects?

What makes this program also very unique,

it´s a UNESCO site, so it´s a Heritage significant facility.

Alright, next.

It´s a very sensitive location,

multiple hundreds of years old

and a very sensitive spot.

And we´re gonna be putting pyrotechnics on this structure.

Got that helmet on still, huh?

We have over 100 pyrotechnicians,

electricians, sound technicians, other designers.

We´re flying drones with pyrotechnics on it.

We have lasers and we have lights

and we have pyrotechnics and fireworks.

Looks pretty impressive, doesn´t it?

No, it´s gonna be good. -Your team is the best.

-The emotions that go through all of us

as we prepare for these types of programs,

we really have to focus on the stage.

How do we bring this building to life?

[ Speaks indistinctly ]

All of those little fine details on top of the design,

what could we do different on this program?

What could we do that´s utilizing

our new technology of drones,

integrating that into the program?

So the emotions are -- are wildly different

from intimidation, fear, excitement, pressure.

There´s a lot of pressure to --

´Cause we can´t ask for another week if we´re not ready.

The show is gonna start.

-Huh? -The show´s gonna start...

-[ Speaks indistinctly ]

♫♫

-Good luck, my friend. -Good luck.

♫♫

♫♫

♫♫

-We worked so hard at it.

Every night, we were rehearsing,

making tweaks and cutting things out.

♫♫

♫♫

We don´t let technology drive the design.

It´s the other way around.

The design is driving the technology.

Continuing using our imagination,

we´re gonna continue to drive that design.

I think we were very successful.

We had a great team.

[ Fireworks exploding ]

[ Cheers and applause ]

Nice job.

Nice job.

You did a fantastic job. You were ready to go.

It was a smooth performance.

♫♫

♫♫

-The fireworks aspect of our family

has always been a roller-coaster ride,

as any entertainment business is.

You have one year, it could be a great year

and you´re living off of caviar.

And the next year,

you´re having meetings with bankruptcy attorneys.

But the true testament behind this family

has always been the strength to move forward

and to find a way to make it happen.

-Everyone who is part of the family

and working with the company wants to be involved.

-It´s part of the job. I´m gonna be going away a lot.

-It´s not just part of the job. It´s just...

-Part of the family.

-Yeah. That´s just how the family is.

The secret ingredient that´s kept us together

and going for six generations is the choice.

-We may have to scratch the set pieces

because they´re requiring 75 feet.

So we´re trying.

-My dad -- the passion that he has for the company --

I´ve never seen anything like it.

-So drones --

So we´re not gonna ship them to Dubai.

-Right. He knows that, yeah.

-I´m convinced at this point

that retirement phase will never really happen.

-Okay. Alright.

-The succession is on paper...

[ Inhales ]

...but that paper´s in the cloud.

-Okay. Thank you.

-I personally don´t think he´ll ever completely

be uninvolved with the company.

-Got a kind of funny 10-year plan

that´s 15, 16 years old right now

that in 10 years, we would be moving into that retirement age.

Be there in two minutes.

-[ Laughs ]

Um, I think we´re in year 20 of his 10-year plan.

-How can we dress this up if it´s gonna happen?

Fortunately, I still love what I do.

You know, I still get up in the morning

with the energy and love what I do.

♫♫

♫♫

♫♫

It´s bigger than life.

You´re not looking at e-mails.

All of the troubles of the world kind of disappear.

♫♫

I´ve watched the audience, and you could see

a grandfather sitting with his grandson.

And with the exception of the wrinkles on the grandfather,

they both have the same look on their face.

You know, the eyes are wide open, the mouth is open.

And then hearing the roar of the audience, you know,

that´s -- that´s somewhat cliché, but it´s the truth.

-Never did I ever think

that I would end up working

and being a part of a fireworks family.

So it has just been --

As an outsider coming in, now an insider --

-33 years, you´re no longer an outsider.

-Oh, no longer, but I´m so grateful to be a part of it.

-We´ve got still a lot more to go, too.

-♫ I won´t break ♫

♫ Oh oh oh oh ♫

♫ I won´t break ♫

♫ My heart´s strong, I won´t break ♫

♫ I won´t break ♫

♫ My heart´s strong, I won´t break ♫

-♫ I won´t break, nah, I can´t break ♫

♫ Waiting to get my chance ♫

♫ I got more than what it takes ♫

♫ I changed from nothing to the man I am ♫

♫ Waking up at 9:00 am ♫

♫ Trying to get to see a better me ♫

♫ Every chance I am ♫

♫ They say, "Can you just take a break ♫

♫ For your mother´s sake?" ♫

♫ I just want to see her move in right next to a lake ♫

♫ I might bend and, yeah, I might shake ♫

♫ But against the strongest matches ♫

♫ Believe I won´t break ♫

♫ Never break ♫

♫ No matter what they say ♫

♫ Prepare for what comes my way ♫

♫ I got more than what it takes ♫

♫ I might bend, but I cannot break ♫

♫ I won´t break ♫

♫ My heart´s strong, I won´t break ♫

♫ I won´t break ♫

♫ My heart´s strong, I won´t break ♫