An English fireworks company with a flare for showmanship and drama.
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The inaugural show was designed to be absolutely stunning. It included approximately twenty individual pyrotechnic displays, each transitioning from one to the other in serial order. There were traditional fireworks like we see today on holidays, of course. But Pain went much, much further. He created elaborate scenes using props and meticulously prepared burning powders, in what essentially amounted to a display of nighttime art that you might expect would be possible only using multicolored LED lights. His Mammoth Silver Fire Wheel measured 51 feet in diameter and had concentric circles that would all change color, with certain colors appearing to travel from the inside to the outside and back, like the lights on a modern Ferris wheel. The 40-foot-tall Fairy Fountain had gold and silver jets streaming out of it. Perhaps the most amazing display was the recreation of what appeared to be an entire riverboat moving as it paddled its way along a river.
Over 100,000 people came to Coney Island that July Fourth, many expecting to see Pain’s show or perhaps take a ride in Professor King’s novel hot air balloon ride, also being inaugurated at Manhattan Beach. But the crowds would have to wait. A strong summer storm appeared that evening, preventing the Pains from putting on their show and the professor from giving rides to any of the 2,000 people who were eagerly waiting. The heavy rains even damaged some of the Pains’ props.
Undeterred, the Pains went ahead with their second show on Saturday, July 12th, and augmented it with a naval battle that really amazed audiences. In it, as a damaged warship tried to fight off its opponent, streams of lights arced out of each ship as they fired on each other. The scene culminated with the damaged ship being rammed by the attacker and sinking. For the rest of the 1879 season and the next several seasons, the Pains performed this show every Saturday evening. Some of the props changed from season to season, but the overall show remained largely consistent.
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