August 4, 1961
By Clarence Barker
Deseret News Staff Writer
Palmyra, N.Y. – Encouraged by sunny skies, a new all-time record total of about 35,000 persons Thursday evening attended the Hill Cumorah pageant on its second performance this year.
Leonard Richmond, undersheriff of Ontario County, said three times as many cars were driven into the parking areas for the great music drama Thursday as on the opening night Wednesday. Heavy rains and overcast skies preceded the Wednesday night performance.
Earl Minderman, New York publicity representative, said Thursday’s overflow crowd exceeded that of the previous record high attained on the closing performance Saturday night a year ago.
Favorable weather Friday and Saturday could easily result in surpassing the anticipated total attendance of 100,000 for four scheduled performances.
Elder Richard L. Evans of the Council of the Twelve, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, offered the invocation and has kept a close watch over pageant operations.
“The performance went over well,” he said. “Every year, however, we find things to work out and improve,” he added.
Elder Mark E. Petersen of the Council of the Twelve described the production as the Church’s “Oberammergau.” “I am hoping,” he added, “to see it run for a full week in the future, instead of four days as at present.”
The cast of more than 300 young men and women – most of them from the Eastern States missionaries – maintained a high spiritual tone in all their preparations and in the presentation.
As in the Wednesday night performance, the sound and lighting effects and overall production made a profound impression upon the immense audience.
Crawford Gates’ original symphonic music with superlative sound effects added depth and feeling to the religious presentation.
The music is played by the 80-piece Utah State Symphony and the Salt Lake Tabernacle organ and sung by the combined Brigham Young University choruses.
Voices of the ancient American prophets, “risen out of the dust,” are interpreted by leading speech artists of the West.
A five-track stereophonic sound system carries every syllable over the vast 500-acre pageant area.
Brilliant and vari-colored spotlights, the best obtainable, light up each setting in turn as action shifts from one stage to another on the many-tiered slope on the west side of the hill.
Entitled “America’s Witness for Christ,” the great religious spectacle tells the story of the Book of Mormon which was translated by the Prophet Joseph Smith from the plates he obtained from the Hill Cumorah in 1823.
Transcribed by: Emily Barker Farrer, 2007
Source: David McKay Barker