By CLARENCE BARKER, Deseret News Staff Writer (published August 1961)
PALMYRA, N.Y. - Records were shattered once more Friday night when an estimated 40,000 persons attended the Hill Cumorah Pageant.
Provided fair weather continues for the closing performance Saturday night, a grand total of 130,000 is expected to attend the four performances.
A steady stream of cars from New York and many other states and Canada began arriving at the pageant hill before 5 p.m.
Before the performance began at 9 p.m., available bleacher and chair seating for 11,000 was long since filled.
Thousands of other spectators brought chairs with them and pothers sat on blankets on the grass. Many watched the great pageant from inside or alongside their cars in the big parking field.
The pageant and parking areas cover 500 acres.
It was a tribute to the five track stereophonic sound system with three nine-foot-long loud speakers that spectators half a mile away could hear as distinctly as those immediately below the many-tiered stage on the West slope of the hill.
The sound system approxi mated the "still small voice" of Jesus which was carried throughout a whole country during his ministry on the continent after his resurrection as recorded in the Book of Mormon.
Symphonic compositions of Crawford Gates were sung by the Brigham Young University combined choruses and played by the Utah Symphony andSalt Lake Tabernacle organ. These, plus superlative sound effects and excellent recorded speaking parts, gave the production positive values even to persons half a mile away.
Elder Mark E. Petersen of the Council of the Twelve, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, offered the invocation Friday night.
Transcribed by: Emily Barker Farrer, 2007
Source: David McKay Barker