Italian Americans tap into cultural heritage and technology to spark Independence Day with patriotism and grandeur.
MARTINSVILLE, Ohio—Along a Clinton County country road, adjacent to a winter wheat field, July 4 magic is in the making—all year long.
This nondescript 110-acre parcel is where the Rozzi’s Famous Fireworks crew incubates ideas and assembles its regional, national, and international shows—upholding a family legacy that originated in Italy more than a century ago.
While the company puts on close to 400 shows per year, almost 100 of them happen on and around Independence Day throughout the Midwest and the Eastern United States.
“It’s hard work, and everything rides on the Fourth of July,” said Joe Rozzi, the company’s vice president of sales and pyrotechnics designer. “When you guys are looking forward to having a barbecue on the Fourth of July, we’re working all year long for the Fourth of July; that’s what we do.”
Above all other holidays, the annual Independence Day celebration makes or breaks U.S. fireworks businesses, small and large alike, Rozzi and other industry leaders told The Epoch Times.
For Rozzi, it’s more than a business. It’s about stoking family pride, keeping traditions while modernizing, caring for those who work for the company, and entertaining spectators who delight in Rozzi’s spectacle in the sky.
“That’s what I like most about it: the people,” Rozzi said.
Even though the work is perilous and requires physical labor in all types of weather, “everybody who does this loves to do it,” Rozzi said.
With just 11 full-timers—including a fifth-generation Rozzi—the company relies heavily on part-time employees—300 of them.
Many part-timers return year after year and have become extended family to the Rozzis. They include bankers, lawyers, firefighters, an optician—and even a professional magician, James Finkelmeier.
“It is a form of magic,” Finkelmeier said, referring to when all the carefully orchestrated parts of a fireworks show come together.
A part-time Rozzi’s shooter for 20 years, Finkelmeier, 45, often makes a nearly four-hour drive from his Cleveland-area home so he can stage Cincinnati-area events.
“At the end of the show, when you hear the crowd cheering, we’re all smiles. That’s the best part … when the last boom is gone, we hear you,” Finkelmeier said.
