Final Touches Hurried for Cumorah Drama

August 1, 1961

By Clarence S. Barker

Deseret News Staff Writer

Palmyra, N.Y. – A group of 175 missionaries and 200 other Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints members Tuesday were putting finishing touches on an anticipated record-breaking pageant production here.

The presentation, “America’s Witness for Christ,” will be given Wednesday through Saturday nights at historic Hill Cumorah before an estimated 100,000 spectators.

This will be the 19^th enactment of the pageant which is believed to be America’s largest and most colorful religious spectacle. Two large trailers provide desk space and telephones for newspaper and wire service correspondents covering the event.

Performance Added

Overflow crowds of last year have led to extending the presentation over the four days instead of three as in the past, President Gerald G. Smith of the Eastern States Mission reported. He said neither talent nor expense had been spared in the production.

In all, $250,000 worth of buildings, landscaping and other improvements are utilized at and near the settings for the epic musical pageant.

Prior to a dress rehearsal Tuesday night, the many-tiered outdoor stage on the west slope of the sacred hill was teeming with players and technicians.

Rain Threatens

A major anxiety was that soaking showers so prevalent in this rain-drenched area might interfere with the production.

“While Mormons in the West are praying for rain, we are praying for sunshine,” President Smith declared.

Dr. Crawford Gates, chairman of the music department of Brigham Young University, has written the score of the pageant.

This covers 286 full orchestral pages and required 3 ½ years to compose. It is performed by the 80-piece Utah Symphony Orchestra, combined choirs of BYU and the Salt Lake Tabernacle organ, all recorded on five-track stereophonic tape.

Sound System

The music, together with speaking voices directed by D. Harold I. Hansen is carried by a unique sound system to spectators assembled on a 500-acra track west of the Hill.

Dr. Hansen, chairman of the department of speech and drama arts at BYU, has directed the pageant since its inception in 1937.

The 175 missionaries, 120 volunteers from BYU and other Utah universities, and 64 volunteers from the Eastern States Mission act out the scenes, speak the parts, and take care of technical functions.

All voices, music and some sound effects are taped and broadcast from sound towers over a system designed by Dr. Harvey Fletcher, formerly of Bell Telephone Laboratories.

President Smith said more than $10,000 in new lighting equipment had been added this year. This includes four miles of underground electrical cable on the hill, four new light towers, and a new control panel.

Source: David McKay Barker

Transcribed by: Emily Barker Farrer