As one of the nation's largest "display" companies, Melrose produces around 80 percent of its business--more than 800 fireworks shows--during the week of July 4, handling everything from the city's July 3 Lakefront extravaganza to WXRT's Memorial Day show to smaller shows for more than thirty suburbs. And that's not to mention regular commitments to sporting teams, including the White Sox (with whom they've worked since the 1950s) and the NASCAR circuit.

"It's busy, busy, busy," says Bob Kerns, director of sales for Melrose. "Big shows, like the July 3 show, are computer-choreographed and computer-fired. We have four barges tied to the Monroe Harbor breakwall and it's all run by controller, and we have people out on the barge, but it still takes three to four days to get everything in place."

In fact, setting up Chicago's Independence Eve fireworks actually takes a full year. "The day after the show ends, we start on next year's," Kerns says. At least part of the process involves designing how the show will look, which requires precise measurements--from how quickly the firework shell leaves the ground to when it fires in the sky. "Say you want something blue by the time you hit the word 'blue' in a song," Kerns says. "You don't want to have orange up there. We have to test everything, even products we've used before."

Thus the company's locale--an industrial park in Kingsbury, Indiana. "We don't have too many close neighbors," Kerns says with a smile in his voice. "It's good for us because we do need to have an area like that to test."

And there's even more testing as fireworks displays have taken off in recent years. Kerns says every year the company finds more demand, from store openings to weddings: "A lot of communities find that during festivals, when there are fireworks the attendance levels are a lot higher," he says. But Melrose isn't riding a new wave--the company has been around, in some form or another, for more than 100 years.

Over time the constantly shifting fireworks technology has increased the sophistication of their shows, Kerns says. And, the products aren't just from China anymore. "We import from eight different countries. The Spanish and French [products] are good at lower-level fireworks, products that begin showing their color at ground level and going up one-hundred-fifty to two-hundred feet. Aerial shells go up three-hundred to twelve-hundred feet, so that way you're filling the whole volume of sky."

If working with fireworks sounds fun, well, it is, Kerns says. But the job is something you have to enjoy doing--designing fireworks can be repetitious and requires a flair for drama. "You want to develop the show like a rollercoaster, so you go up and back down to mood music or if there's no music, you still need to build intensity so the ending is the high point," he says.

Of all the shows Melrose does, however, Kerns notes that Chicago's July 3 fireworks are wholly unique. "With most computer-fired shows, everything is done with taped music. We get the music into the studio and then can go in and place event positions in the computer--tell the computer when you want what type of thing to appear. That creates a firing table, or script," Kerns says.

"For Chicago's fireworks, we use a tape to develop the table, but the day-of it's a live performance, so the conductor has to listen to the taped music in ear pieces and get the orchestra to perform in sync with what he's hearing in one ear on the tape," Kerns says. And it isn't as if someone learns it once and then has the hang of it. "I think it's been a different conductor every year. But they do a good job keeping time," he says. "That makes it a whole different experience."

Also by Elaine Richardson

MOVE OUT
"It may be 'the projects' to you... a bleak lookin' place you pass as you drive along the Dan Ryan expressway, or see from Comiskey Park," Williams says early in the documentary. "But to me, these bricks are a real community. Some parts are pretty messed up, but it's still home."
(2002-05-16)

AMERICAN ICONS
The truth is that Hollywood makes stars, but the public makes icons. But we can't tell you why. However, when two Chicago cultural institutions turned to the glamour days of Hollywood this month for material, we couldn't resist the chance to reflect on the question.
(2002-05-09)

LAST RIDE
A full twenty minutes before its final performance, a massive crowd has packed into the lobby of the Theatre Building, clutching the general admission tickets to the final ride of playwright Will Kern's nine-year-plus running play, "Hellcab."
(2002-05-09)

FASHION AVENUE
"There's a lot of things you can buy in Nordstrom's that you'll now be able to get in the neighborhood," Naimowicz says of the merchandise in her 9-month-old store. "And you don't have to pay fourteen dollars to park," Harwell dryly adds. And that's at least part of the reason why, as the population of Wicker Park and Bucktown grows, buoyed by a nice proximity to downtown and the artistic pull of the area, retail expansion has followed.
(2002-05-02)

TOTTERING TOWN
(2002-04-25)

MEET AND GREET
(2002-04-18)

HOT AIR
(2002-04-11)

MR. BEAN
(2002-04-04)

STREET TEAM
(2002-03-21)

FEEDING FRENZY
(2002-03-21)

POLL POSITION
(2002-03-14)

AD BUSTERS
(2002-03-14)