Published: July 03, 2007 11:31 pm         

Western Enterprises customizes 75 shows per year on Fourth of July

On a warm July evening, to a background of patriotic music, fireworks shoot into the air, explode into colors and shapes. Then, they drift slowly back to earth and die out, only to be followed by another as the crowd on the ground watching emits appreciative “oohs” and “aahs.”

But those few minutes of excitement take months of manufacturing time, preparation and choreography.

Gary Caimano, vice president of Western Enterprises, is primary choreographer for the hundreds of shows Western Enterprises performs each year.

“We do 75 shows for July Fourth alone. That means every show is a custom show,” Caimano said.

When he’s working on a show, music is selected for a theme and a soundtrack is made to use as a guide for the visual show. Caimano looks at each performance as a cast of performers, with thousands of products at his disposal.

“They all do different things, have different temperaments and are put up in tandem. That’s the magic of what you see,” he said.

Caimano has to be in tune with the production and decide which fireworks are best for each show. Each show is different, and he must also know the stage where the performance will take place. That stage is the sky, he said.

The music pulsates and transfers the fireworks display to another level and makes the audience feel special, he said.

Caimano has been choreographing fireworks for 30 years. He choreographed fireworks displays at Olympic Games in Los Angeles and Atlanta.

Caimano recalls doing a performance in Dallas at dawn one year for a new housing development. A woman had brought her estranged son with her. The music to the performance was a recording of Louis Armstrong’s “What a Beautiful World.” Caimano said he was told the couple became mesmerized by the performance, and the son took his mother’s hand and told her, “If we can do fire together, we can do love.”

“Fireworks takes you to another level,” Caimano said. “On July Fourth, people want a Sousa march, ‘The Star Spangled Banner,’ and you put it all together so it becomes a character in the sky. You can use rock, country, classical, every type of music so everyone is touched by something.”

This year, he has choreographed a number of Centennial celebrations, including choreographing fireworks to “Oklahoma Rising.”

He typically starts in March and April getting ready for July Fourth. His clients approve the music he selects, and he puts shows together for performances all over the United States.

Enid’s annual fireworks show is a little different. Enid Symphony Orchestra Director Doug Newell picks out the music, while Western Enterprises President Jim Burnett choreographs the fireworks display.

“(Burnett) does all the live-show scripting and combinations,” Caimano said. “He knows what will work there. Doug picks the music and scripts to the score. It puts effects on there, and it’s timed to break where things will happen.”

Western Enterprises is one of fewer than a dozen fireworks manufacturers in the United States, which operate primarily in a six-state area including Oklahoma, New Mexico, Nebraska, Colorado, Texas and Kansas.

“It’s a beautiful, exciting job to be able to put fire to music, one of the greatest. It’s a lot of hard work, but if it means something it’s worth it,” Caimano said.

Western Enterprises trains and sends out crews who set up performances and pray they will have good weather.

“This year we are wondering,” he said.

Caimano and Burnett are working shows together at Grand Lake, which also are sanctioned by the Oklahoma Centennial Commis-sion as official events.

“It makes you feel good to represent the state that way,” he said.

And, now, it isn’t just the Fourth of July that keeps the company busy. There are shows throughout the year.

“We are constantly in operation. Twenty years ago it wasn’t that way,” Caimano said. “Last year we finished July Fourth and went right into the opening of the Centennial in Tulsa.”

Before fireworks can be used in a performance, they must be manufactured, and that’s where Steve Frantz comes in. Frantz is vice president of Western Enterprises and president of Starworks Ltd., the manufacturing arm of the company.

If you count all varieties of fireworks in terms of size, color, design and configuration, Starworks manufactures more than 10,000 types. A 3-inch shell, for example, may have 30 varieties, Frantz said, and each variety may have six to eight designs and up to 10 colors.

Starworks makes two classes of fireworks. One is for displays like the ones typically seen at July Fourth shows. Those shells go up in the air and explode in the sky, Frantz said. Starworks also has designed a new class of fireworks that can be used in close proximity to the ground. They are designed to be used from rooftops and in areas where there is not as much safety zone as needed for traditional fireworks, he said.

Starworks developed the line of pyrotechnics that can be shot at closer distances and lower elevations in 1999.

Starworks also has customized a specific line of shells for Disney World and Disneyland. Starworks collaborates with Disney designers to achieve the effect they want. Starworks also has done specialty products for several movies.

To begin, the company designs the type of shell it wants to create, Frantz said. The process is to determine a chemical formula for each shell, which is like the recipe of a cake. Workers mix a variety of chemicals and colors together to create the effect they want, he said. Then, additional enhancements are placed to make the fireworks brighter, to make pastel colors or to create other effects, he said. Then, an additional composition is used to bind all the chemicals together.

The most color changes Starworks has done so far in one shell is nine, Frantz said.

Western Enterprises has 18 to 20 full-time employees, but during July Fourth week the company hires between 1,500 and 1,800 additional people to do all its shows.

“One of the things limiting our growth more than anything is the ability to train new people sufficiently to have the experience to safely conduct a fireworks show on their own,” Frantz said. “When they have experience and training enough, we can put them on as a lead operator.”

Starworks also provides training for the state fire marshals in Oklahoma, New Mexico, Missouri and Kansas, he said.

Frantz is president of American Pyrotech-nic Association, the principle trade association for all fireworks companies in the United States.