Photo of fireworks by Alejandro Scaff
What gets lost in the immigration rhetoric today is how many of our American businesses got started by immigrants. So as you watch beautiful fireworks this weekend, remember it was two immigrants to this country, Angelo Lanzetta and Antonio Zambelli, who created the two largest fireworks companies in the United States today – Fireworks by Grucci and Zambelli Fireworks.
If you would like to learn more about the fireworks industry in the United
States you can read my article Business of Fireworks.
Photo – Felix and Concetta Grucci – Grucci Website
Angelo Lanzetta. In the 1850s Angelo Lanzetta was an apprentice in a fireworks company in Bari, Italy. Then in 1870 he immigrated into America through Ellis Island and started a fireworks company near Elmont, New York on Long Island. His son Anthony took over the business in 1899 when Angelo died. Then in 1923 Anthony brought his nephew, Felix Grucci, into the business as an apprentice. In 1929 Felix Grucci organized the business and named it Grucci Fireworks Co. This company later became Fireworks by Grucci, which is the largest maker of “demonstration fireworks” in the United States. Fireworks by Grucci provided the fireworks for President Trump’s inauguration in January.
Antonio Zambelli. Born about 1877 in Teano, Italy (near Naples), Antonio Zambelli immigrated to the United States in 1893 where he settled in New Castle, PA, a city in northwest Pennsylvania just north of Pittsburgh. There Antonio went to work at Carnegie Steel. A few years later he went to work part-time with Fazzoni Brothers Fireworks Manufacturing Company, where he learned how to make and shoot-off fireworks.
Photo Antonio and Maria Zambelli – Website
As I read on the Lawrence County Memoirs website, Antonio and his wife, Maria, had to live apart for several years during WWI – she in Italy, he in New Castle. Antonio worked faithfully for Fazzoni until the early 1940s when he and his oldest son, Joseph, bought Fazzoni Brothers.
Eventually several other sons entered the business and by 1957 when Antonio died, his son George Zambelli, took over the management of the company. George Zambelli expanded the business and renamed the company Zambelli Fireworks Manufacturing Company in 1960.
The company gained fame after it did fireworks for the inauguration of popular U.S. President John F. “Jack” Kennedy in January 1961 and later Lyndon B. Johnson in January 1965 and Richard M. Nixon in January 1969. Today Zambelli is the second largest fireworks company in the United States. If you are interested in learning more about their history I recommend this link. Also here are a few interesting business videos about Zambelli fireworks.
As we celebrate Independence Day this year, remember the wonderful immigrant, fireworks entrepreneurs, Lanzetta and Zambelli, who started businesses that contribute significantly to our celebration.
