History Channel marvels at Zambelli

Zambelli will provide the show’s grand finale.

STAFF REPORT

NEW CASTLE, Pa. — Zambelli Fireworks will share billing with Pittsburgh’s PNC Park in a History Channel show airing this weekend.

“Modern Marvels: Night” will air at 8 p.m. Friday and again at 12 a.m. Saturday.

The show will explore activities that happen only at night. Included will be a look at how more than 600, 2,000-watt lights “turn night into day” inside PNC Park, the Pittsburgh Pirates’ stadium, according to the History Channel.

Its grand finale will be a display by Zambelli, America’s First Family of Fireworks, the History Channel said.

That’s a nickname Zambelli earned by putting on shows for several different U.S. presidents, including John F. Kennedy, said George Zambelli Jr., M.D., chairman of the company that has been in New Castle for more than 100 years.

“I am third generation, but I happened to go to med school,” said Zambelli, who is an ophthalmologist.

Zambelli said the fourth generation, his 20-year-old son, Jared, might be in the show, hand-firing some shells.

The show is using footage shot as Zambelli put on a display for Pittsburgh’s 250 Celebration Oct. 4. About 75,000 people were in the city that night to celebrate its 250th anniversary.

That display was heralded as having the largest number of launch sites — 17, Zambelli said. Fireworks were launched from barges on the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, from outside PNC park, from the West End Bridge, from Point State Park and from building rooftops, he said.

This isn’t the first time the company has been featured in documentaries. When the History Channel called, it was Zambelli who suggested the producer also include PNC Park, he said.

“When she told me her idea of doing something with stadiums, I said, “We have the No. 1 ballpark in the U.S.,” Zambelli said.

Zambelli added that a production crew also visited the New Castle factory twice and filmed in late summer and early fall.