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172 THE SATURDAY EVENING POST October 13, 1951

HE. SETS THE 0qt West, Pat Lizza did even better
than all right. At fifty-four he owns
SKY ON FIRE! most of two profitable explosives com-
panies, Bermite Pow9-er Company, of
( Continued from Page 43) Saugus, and Golden State Fireworks,
of Redondo, properties valued at $2,-
Want "natural"
fe~tivals 1nd patriotic gatherings all 000,000. His ~ldest son, Hugo, now wood effects? Get 'em
over the ·country. This year he will put thirty, is general manager of Bermite, th
on relatively .few. · which concentrates largely on wall wi SATINLAC*
"When we have good times, we· orders, ~n railroad and highway flares On unfinished panelling
shoot fireworks; when we have.war, we and on explosive pellets for perforating f u ~ n i tu re · · · b o o ks h e I v ~ ~:
make war stuff," explains Lizza. This oil-well casings. Golden State will be Satinlac brings out and pre-
serves ~ wood grain and
year, flares for Korea is big business. something for fourteen-year-old Tiverio. color. Easy to brush or spray on
Fuses for rockets is big business. Fire- Though the fireworks ·end of the plywood or solid wood.
works is just a side line." business is now "just a pleasure affn.ir,"
During World War II, Lizza's two as Lizza puts it; it satisfies the artist.in . Building plywood bookshelves?
powder plants at Saugus and Redondo him. It is poetry and music in the star-
Beach turned out 103,000,000 illumi- lit sky. There is also a ch~llenge in the . f in\sh 'em with *
nating shells and flares so fast that mass production of parachute flares ·.FIRZITI
he and his workers won five Army- that turn no man's land into an eerie . on fir plywood.
Navy E awards and two Naval Ord- pale daylight. Lizza takes great pride Tames wild gr~IO . e or check·
Minimizes gram rfa,st finish of .
nance Development awards. They did in the flares he manufactures for Union ing, msure s per ec
.
mel For blond,
it without a single accident, handling Pacific, which insists on jumbos that t ·n ena ·
paint, s a, ' . t d effects on any
tons upon tons of high explosives. On are visible three miles to the engineer P ickled, or t,n e . .
White F1rz1te.
one big order, on which the Army of a 'high-speed streamliner, whereas wood, use . .
allowed him thirty-six months to reach standard railroad flares are seen only
peak production, Lizza hit the peak in a mile. Chair Joints loose 7
ten months. At present he has a $6,- But when he ·sits down with a pad Tighten 'em with
000,000 backlog of war orders-flares, of paper to sketch out big fireworks WElDWOOD®
fuses, train shells, rocket motors and ideas for shows like the state fair or PLASTIC RESIN GLUE
detonators. the Fourth of July celebration at the Makes joints stronger than th
"That's our secret~ how 'to do it," Coliseum, in Los Angeles, and some- . wood its~lf! Use it to mend o e
1
explains Lizza, wiping his wet brow. times as many as sixty other Fourth of sistant g Y water re- r
make things, Hi hi
'"We've been making fireworks thirty July shows simultaneously, that is - ··· easy to use.
years~ I tell them, 'Listen, in the ;fire- when the bead~ of sheer inspiration *Trade Marks
works -business, I got to be ready to ooze out of Pafrick Lizza's forehead.
shoot the fireworks at nine o'clock on Lizza starts his creating about three
the evening they say.' You can't shoot months ahead of a show, because there
fireworks tomorrow, if the crowd is are numerous intricate staging and
waiting tonighL You're in the graqd- timing problems to be solved, once he
stand when the lights go out at nine has given birth to a fireworks brain
o'clock. Okay, we_ start shooting fire- child and figured out the right com-
works at nine o'clock.'' binations of powders, fuses, boosters, VERTICAL
Which is one reason for Mr. Patrick lances and paper parachutes to do the
Lizza's popularity with the directors of job. The packaged product isn't much LETTER
state fairs and pageants. The other rea- to look at-just a round, paper-bound VAULT
son is his resourceful ingenuity in tell- Gylinder, weighing as much as twenty-
One-Hour Furnace Tested
ing stories in fire, know-how inherited five pounds, ja•m-packed with an assort-
from two generations of pyrotechnics ment of explosives synchronized to go MEILINK STEEL SAFE CO .
impresarios, . beginning, with Grand-'· off at split-second.intervals.
father Antonio Lizza, of San Giovanni, , "In this business, , everything de-
Italy, where Pat Lizza's father, Justin pends upon timing," explained Lizza.
Lizza, and Pat, too, were born. One difficulty is that there is no way
Pat Lizza remembers that Grand~ to be up there, to check, when the
father Lizza had trouble getting his stuff goes off, so Lizza has to depend Hundred s of factories save
fireworks to shoot, and that 'he some- on three generations of experience to ~~i!~d !if~r~le~f-&~Pi,tegi~~
E nd Finger Guards. For han-
times had to build bonfires to make hi~, get his effects rig~t. He also fires trials dling rough , s harp articles,
buffing, grinding, sanding, and
Roman candles and skyrockets hiss on a ranch he own~ nearby with a small punch press work, hundreds of
into the sky. . ·stadium on it, or on the proving ground other jobs. Protect fingers or
thumbs, frpnt or back, from
'.'He didn't have the powder to work he maintains in the hills back of his cuts, abrasions or blisters.
Various designs in leat hers
with," apologizes Pat. " Now we have plant for testing war explosives. and other m a terials: elastic
web back for snug, cool, com-
good powder, good chemicals, good Lizza's breath-taking displays are forta ble fit. Sizes for men a nd
women. Send 10c for sample.
ideas. Modern fireworks display is\built built around fast and slow bursts, fired Catalog of Safety A pparel Free.
aroun4 the bombshell, which has 'to from pipes which give the projectile a INDUSTRIAL GLOVES. CO.
A Corporation
have split-second timing. Grandfather twist, like that of a rifle shot. This 1186 Garfield St., Danvllle, Ill.
didn't know ~bout bombshells. My makes them go straight,and burst at (In Canada, Safety Supply Co., Toronto)
father learned how to make them and the spot in the sky where he wants fire • GOLD•SILVER•RED•
how to discharge them from a pipe, when he wants it. In some of his larger
so they ·go where he wants them and salutes, packaged in , a single two-foot It's easy ... and
not crazy, every which way, like a bomb, Lizza achieves_ sixty small it adds so much
skyrocket~ My father has -· lot~ of "breaks" ·in half a dozen colors follow-
noise and spread to his bombshells, ing the main burst. • To gioe that extra
but they are too big and dangerous. "You've got to have a lot of things •
I like better to send up a dozen ,in a to make fireworks like . that- colors, .. personal touch.
flight. It makes the same display and powders, ,papers,: twine, pin wheels,
is safer." charges," s~.ys Lizza. "If you don't
It was Justin Lizza, who moved the know' your noodles, you are in trouble,
clan from Italy to the United States, and fast.''
when Pat and his brother, Beby, were One of Lizza' s prides is his fireworks
No matter what youngsters. The Lizzas settled in Dun- waterfall, which he has named "Ni-
the elements do- you do
right in this handsome jacket. bar, Pennsylvania, not far from Pitts- agara Falls.'' He achieved the effects ··
Sturdy acetate twill or burgh, where they establi~ped the Key- with slow-burning aluminum powder, •
gabardine is rain-repelle_nt. stone Fireworks.Company. Be~y Lizza which ashe says, "doesn't burn 'boom,'
New, snug side-shirred and his sons still run Keystone. There but slowly, like water falls.'' The wa-
bottom. Warm quilted lining; was a lot of artistic temperame~t in the terfall runs into money, but it is worth
mouton fur collar. At a family, so in 1926 Fat Lizza decided to it when he can fill an area like the Los
sub-zero price. Ask for
the Town Topic Jet Jacket take Horace Greeley's advice. He Angeles Coliseum with slowly falling
at your local store. packed his part of the family and moved fire that burns for three arid a half • ~~
across the continent to Redondo Beach, minutes. To achieve the illusion, Lizza •
"For Over 70 Years - The Talk California. suspends the slowly burning flares from LETTERSETS
of the Town for Quality/ 1
, "After that, we don't get fireworks paper parachutes, some the size of an
S . LIEBOVITZ &SONS in each other's hair," he explained ap- umbrella, some as large as a room. For Bettering Your Lettering
75 Leonard Street, Nflw York 13, N. Y.
preciatively. Lizza has a way with parach tes, •