Many Utah Valley inhabitants know that Stadium of Fire, the flamboyant, star-filled, pyrotechnical Osmond extravaganza that thrills thousands of people each Fourth of July during the Freedom Festival, celebrates its 27th anniversary this summer 2007. Most valley residents are unaware, however, that Provo's first bona fide "Stadium of Fire" (even though it was not staged under that name) occurred way back in 1928, 10 years after the end of The Great War.

For many years after World War I, the American Legion reigned as one of America's most influential and prestigious organizations. Provo's American Legion Post No. 13 possessed the manpower and clout to push through large community projects -- and it did.

In 1928, the ex-doughboys volunteered to organize and stage central Utah's largest Fourth of July celebration ever. They planned to cap the holiday with a stunning, fireworks-filled pageant recreating a World War I battle "in its naked reality."

The Legion named this spectacular program "The Spirit of No Man's Land," and planned to spent an extravagant $5,000 on its production. The Evening Herald asserted the pageant would be "the most intimate and realistic war dramatization ever produced in Utah." The newspaper went on to say the program would demonstrate the "courage and vim and intelligent loyalty to duty that stamped the American soldier as being in a peculiar class all his own."

Legionnaires selected the grandstand at the old Utah County Fairgrounds located in Provo (about 1200 South University Avenue) as the sheltered dugout from which the audience would experience this battle. The Sunday Herald promised, "Tons of fireworks will be used -- carloads of 'em ¬ -- gigantic monsters that will be a replica of the shooting and firing in war."

The battle re-enactment might have served as the featured attraction, but Frank Demming, the general chairman of the celebration, made sure various activities filled the day to the brim. In order to entertain revelers during the first half of the holiday, Legion committees planned cannon salutes, band concerts, a giant parade, a patriotic program and a baseball game. For late afternoon and evening entertainment, Legionnaires organized junior sports, horse racing, daylight fireworks, a rodeo and airplane stunts to take place at the fairgrounds prior to the pageant that night.

Following "No Man's Land," the Legion planned to sponsor a dance at the Glengarry resort in Springville and a "midnight frolic" at Vivian Park in Provo Canyon. The Herald claimed, "Everything conceivable in the realm of amusement and spectacular performances has been provided."

Creative advertising

The event assumed the characteristics of a statewide celebration when Utah Governor George Dern and other state, county, city and Legion dignitaries promised to attend. Post 13 adopted the less than genteel (but masculinely proud) slogan: "Everybody in Utah worth a damn will be in Provo for the big Fourth of July celebration."

The Provo Legion Post's commander, D. Orlo Allen, announced that in an effort to publicize the event, the Legion would "bomb" the principal communities of the state with advertising leaflets promoting the Provo celebration. Pilots Ray Beck and Bayard Taylor "bombarded" Ogden with advertising fliers on Sunday, July 1. Two Provo residents, Judge George S. Ballif and James P. Clayton, were in Ogden at the time of the raid. They reported to the Evening Herald that "the advertising stunt created quite a sensation in the northern city."

Due, in part, to the heavy publicity campaign, Legionnaires expected 30,000 people, 10,000 of whom would be from outside Utah Valley, to attend Provo's Fourth of July festivities.

During the week of July Fourth, Provo enjoyed an illuminating experience. In a frenzy of patriotic pride, L.W. Nims, manager of the local branch of Utah Power and Light Co. and a captain in Provo's National Guard unit, installed 16 flood lights with a total of 75,000 candle power, to light up the front of Utah County's new, neoclassical courthouse.

Nims's installation crew concealed all of the floodlights from view. Fifteen of the globes were white, but two hidden behind the building's front columns, one on each side of the door, were red. The resulting scene filled county residents with pride. The good news for taxpayers was that Utah Power and Light Company footed the bill.

Stirring up the war spirit

Although the Legion's plans for the Fourth of July sparked patriotic fervor in the souls of most local residents, some people objected to the military spectacle the Legion was about to produce. They complained to the Evening Herald saying it was "just simply awful that we should be reminded again of the horrible war by the battle the American Legion is putting on here on the Fourth. That thing will certainly stir up the war spirit around here."

The Herald responded to this complaint by saying the Legion was presenting the program "to promote universal peace, one of the greatest projects of the American Legion." The newspaper issued the following reassuring invitation to all dubious residents of the valley: "Come and see the military spectacle and you'll agree with the men who went through that struggle that war must cease."

As a prelude to the big celebration, soldiers belonging to the 38th Infantry staged an exhibition in Pioneer Park on the evening of July 3. After the infantry drilled, the crack Logan American Legion Drum and Bugle Corps played music and marched.

The morning of what was now being billed as the largest July 4th celebration ever held in the state of Utah began with a bang -- more than one, in fact. A 21-gun artillery salute shook the city at dawn, apparently to ensure that residents would be primed and ready for the giant parade beginning at 9:30 a.m.

The barrage must have worked. The Herald estimated 25,000 people attended the parade. The newspaper also reported that highways leading to Provo were "teeming with cars throughout the day, and frequent traffic tie-ups occurred at important intersections."

Dan Hunter, chairman of the parade committee arranged the procession into 10 related sections, each led by a band. The military section, led by the Logan Fife and Drum Corps, consisted of representatives from the 222nd Artillery, the 38th Infantry, Civil, Spanish American and World War I veterans, plus Provo's National Guard. Many members of various American Legion Posts also marched in this section.

Prize-winning floats

In the commercial category, Pacific States Cast Iron Pipe Co. won a first prize for a float portraying a Salvation Army hut located at the front in France. Lassies dispensed doughnuts from the hut to parade watchers standing all along the route.

An old rig in the horse and buggy section of the parade bore a sign saying "Conference or Bust," and in the antique auto category, George Startup's 1905 "Merry" Oldsmobile bore the sign, "First Car in Utah County." Two boys representing a walking elephant won second prize in the comic division.

The parade route stretched for about a mile and a half, but the parade countermarched and covered the route twice. Entries started on 200 East and marched west on Center Street. They were supposed to turn around on 600 West and march back east, but the crowd was so dense and so many cars were parked along the route, that there wasn't room for entries to turn until they reached 900 West.

On the way east on Center Street, the parade turned north onto University Avenue. The procession was supposed to turn around and countermarch on 600 North, but the mass of cars and people forced it to continue on to 1000 North, which was basically on the outskirts of town in those days.

The procession moved right along; it only took about 20 minutes for it to pass. Of course, the parade wasn't over until it countermarched and passed viewers twice.

After the parade, about 5,000 people crowded into Pioneer Park for the 11 a.m. patriotic program. For the benefit of the audience, workmen set up a public address system complete with radio speakers.

The Provo-Elks Band played "Stars Stripes Forever," and Provo Mayor Alma Van Wagonen welcomed the crowd. Utah Governor George Dern offered the first oration. The minute he stepped onto the stand, a 19-gun salute began. Dern chose to speak on the theme: "Every good citizen should think more of his duties and obligations than of his rights."

Other speeches alternated with band numbers, and Algie Ballif read the Declaration of Independence. At the conclusion of the program, soldiers fired, for the first time in Provo's history, a 48-gun salute to the United States.

Some of the dignitaries who attended the program were State Legion Commander E.A. Littlefield and his adjutant, Otto Weisley, Senator William H. King, Representatives Elmer O. Leatherwood and Don E. Colton, Utah State Attorney General Harvey H. Cluff, plus many other state officials and would-be state officials.

Next on the celebration agenda came a 1:30 p.m. baseball game between Provo and Bingham held at Timp Park. Two bands provided music during the game.

At 2 p.m., bands positioned in various sections of the city led residents on a march to the fairgrounds, where most of the rest of the activities took place. Admission charged at the gate was 50 cents for adults and 25 cents for children. A reserved seat in the grandstand for the pageant cost another 25 cents. About 15,000 people paid admission.

Children's sports with over $50 worth of prizes began at 3 p.m. in the fairgrounds, where continuous band concerts started at the same hour.

Thousands witnessed the 4 o'clock horse races. J.I. Wheeler's team won the $25 prize in the chariot race. L.L. Gilpin won the half-mile harness race, which was run in three heats. J. Jones, Floyd Horton, Howard Sanford and Ed Barney won prizes in pony races held for youngsters.

Aerial spectacular

The evening provided plenty of thrills. An hour-long rodeo began at 5 p.m. Ray Beck and Bayard Taylor, whose Eagle Rock planes "bombed" Wasatch Front communities earlier in the week, performed daredevil stunts, loop-the-loops, barrel rolls and tailspins from 6 to 7 p.m.

While the pilots performed, crowds viewed daylight fireworks for the first time in Provo. Fantastic shapes were released in the air as more than 125 "Japanese bombs" exploded at great altitudes. The "bombs" contained silk and tissue paper figures which floated earthward.

The Logan Drum Fife Corps played for the crowd. Then Samuel Jepperson Jr. conducted a half-hour concert performed by an ensemble band of 200 members, which included the Wool City Band of Fountain Green.

The finale of the day, "The Spirit of No Man's Land," Provo's original "Stadium of Fire," began at 8:30 p.m. and lasted for more than an hour and a half. The pageant represented World War I from the time the troops left the United States until the armistice was signed.

At the beginning of the program, Red Cross nurses and Salvation Army lassies singing war songs, including the famous "Over There," passed in front of the grandstand along with combat wagons, heavy artillery, machine guns and ambulances.

War in Provo

After the martial review ended, the audience's attention switched to a half-ruined farmhouse used by the Red Cross as a field hospital. Near the farmhouse lay wounded doughboys waiting to be treated. Nurses worked over casualties, stretcher bearers brought in soldiers needing medical attention and a chaplain administered the last rites to a dying soldier. Volunteers from the Salvation Army passed out coffee and doughnuts to those soldiers who were able to eat.

In front of the field hospital lay "No Man's Land," the area that separated the two combating armies. Debris from previous engagements -- unburied dead, churned up earth, disabled wagons and guns, and rolls of barbed wire -- littered the desolate district.

Suddenly, the crowd spied an enemy infiltrator skulking toward the field hospital. The German lit a flare, alerting the enemy artillery of the location of the American outpost.

Inter-mountain Fireworks Company's manager, R. Williams, and a factory expert had prepared the evening's fireworks earlier in the day, and at this point, the pyrotechnical show began in earnest.

The German artillery launched a barrage which hit the American field hospital, causing it to catch fire and burn to the ground. The flames from the burning building illuminated the scene with an eerie red glow. American field pieces returned the German fire. This artillery battle lasted 10 minutes. The Evening Herald reported, "The whistle and shriek and roar of the huge shells followed one another in ... rapid succession."

A plethora of realistic shrapnel shells, gas shells, high explosives, mines and flares dazzled the crowd. The local newspaper claimed the "deafening roar was such as to almost 'wake the dead.' "

American commanders prepared to attack by sending out men who crawled forward amid machine gun and rifle fire to cut paths through the barbed wire. Tanks moved forward and as "zero hour" arrived. Doughboys went "over the top" and rushed across "No Man's Land" toward two bridges which were eventually destroyed by mines. The attack proceeded, however, and all the while the bombardment continued.

The doughboys reached the enemy trenches and as the Germans surrendered, a pyrotechnical U.S. flag ignited. The doughboys then ran proudly toward the grandstand, lined up and took a bow.

As a final touch, a replica of Marshal Foch's railroad car moved onto the earthen stage, and as the armistice was signed, a huge patriotic fireworks picture lighted the sky. As the scene darkened, a bugler played taps, and the pageant ended.

Provo's Chamber of Commerce noted in their first meeting after the Fourth of July that during the American Legion celebration, business in Provo doubled. The Chamber's officers "expressed the opinion that an annual affair of the same proportions would be of the greatest advantage to Provo." They were correct.

This successful Fourth of July program became the first in a series of entertaining and original Independence Day celebrations produced in Provo by the American Legion. The city's public-spirited festival eventually grew until it gained nationwide fame.

Provo's tradition of staging outstanding Fourth of July programs started in 1928 with the production of "The Spirit of No Man's Land" in the arena at the old Utah County Fairgrounds. This humble facility with its wooden grandstand could be called Provo's first "Stadium of Fire." Although that name was never mentioned in 1928, (Pardon me, Shakespeare.) a Stadium of Fire by any other name, looks and sounds the same.