Rotarians hear presentation on Pyro Shows

By Charlotte Underwood

LAFOLLETTE, TN (WLAF)- The Campbell County Rotary Club heard a presentation on Pyro Shows on Tuesday at its luncheon held at the LaFollette Methodist Church.

Executive Vice President of Pyro Shows Michael Walden addressed Rotarians about the company and how it has grown over the years.

Pyro Shows was founded by LaFollette native Lansden Hill Jr. and has over a 50-year history of providing firework displays and special effects entertainment throughout the United States.

In addition to his leadership role at Pyro Shows, Walden was named President of Pyro Shows of Texas in 2013 and Vice President of Pyro Shows of Alabama in 2016. He is a graduate from the University of Tennessee with a bachelor’s degree in education, Biology, and Chemistry and formerly taught chemistry at CCHS for 11 years. Walden has “been in fireworks for 31 years.”

“Lansden talked me into leaving a career in education in 2002,” Walden said. He told a little about Pyro Shows, the history of the company and what they do.

“In 1969 Lansden Hill started Pyro Shows when he was a college student…He literally started it with a CJ5, and a guy welded him some mortars together and him and some of his college buddies and high school buddies found people that loved to shoot fireworks and they would get paid a little bit of money and they thought it was something fun to do … In 1976, Lansden said Hey, I might actually be able to make money at this, and that it could build into something. Since 1969 he’s been building it,” Walden said.

Walden started in January of 2003. In 2013, Pyro Shows expanded and “purchased the largest fireworks company in the state of Texas.”  From 2013, till 2018, Walden would spend every other week in Texas developing Pyro Shows of Texas.

“Lansden is a guy who wants to give everybody a chance, he will take a chance on anybody that is willing to work hard and take a chance as well,” Walden said.

Pyro Shows maintained the momentum and achieved success both nationally and internationally.

In 2016, Pyro Shows bought Pyro Productions in Alabama and in 2021, the company purchased East Coast Pyrotechnics which is now known as Pyro Shows East Coast.

“Those are the major acquisitions that Pyro Shows has went through over the last several years, there were several smaller acquisitions across the country that we just kind of absorbed into the other companies as we purchased the smaller mom and pop outfits,” Walden said.

Pyro Shows now “consists of four legitimate Inc. companies and also consists of two land companies.”

When I came to Pyro Shows in January 2003, there were eight of us, five of us worked in the office and three worked in the storage facility…we had 85 or 100 good old Campbell Countians and when Pyro Shows went to shoot something or perform somewhere we loaded all the boys up from Jacksboro, Caryville and LaFollette and we took off and we produced these fireworks shows,” Walden said.

One of the “profound moments” for Walden and for Pyro Shows was the first time the company did the Super Bowl in 2005.

“In order for a small-town company in LaFollette Tennessee to get that contract, we had to do a presentation in front of the Super Bowl Committee that consisted of leaders in Jacksonville Florida and the NFL… Lansden has always been very good about networking, he never meets a stranger…He had made contact over the years with a guy out in California and we literally went in as the only company in America that had the ability to literally show them a video of the city of Jacksonville with fireworks up and down the riverfront and across three bridges and coming off the tops of 13 buildings and when we made that presentation there was no question about who would get the contract at that point, because no one else had the technology, we didn’t have the technology, one of Lansden’s friends had the technology,” Walden said.

Another major milestone for Pyro Shows was that for 15 years, the company did the Nation’s Independence Day celebration at the capital.

“That gave a small company from Campbell County Tennessee credibility. From that day forward, we could walk into any town, big or small, and say we did the nation’s fireworks, those two events are markers for us,” Walden said.

Another event that was a marker for Pyro Shows was in 1998, when Pyro Shows competed in world competition, and finished second in Stockholm Sweeden. 

Walden said he gets asked all the time, ‘what makes Pyro Shows different?’

“Our philosophy at Pyro Shows is really simple, we have one motto, you do the next right thing, whether you are talking about your employees, your customers, regulators, whatever that is. We have members of Pyro Shows staff that are on NFPA, that’s the National Fire Protection Agency that writes all the codes that fireworks follow. We have them on the American Pyrotechnics Association; Pyro Shows is putting our influence nationally in the United States and beyond and it all started right here. The reason we are able to be in those places is because we are trusted,” Walden said.

He told Rotarians that Pyro Shows ran its business along the same guidelines as the Rotary motto.

“Is it the truth, is it fair, is it better for everyone; that’s how we run our business, that’s how Lansden has always run the business, that’s how Pyro Shows is run. We take in consideration our customers and our employees,” Walden said. 

Pyro Shows to date this year has produced 2,714 shows across the United States. It has over 1800 part time employees that go from the Outer Banks of North Carolina all the way to New Mexico and operates in 16 states.

The company does over 25 college and professional football teams every weekend. During the Spring and Summer, the company does over 25 college and professional baseball teams weekly

“This year we are in a number of NCAA basketball arenas every single night that there is a game, men and women’s …. we do six soccer teams from February to October every year and we do all the work for the US Soccer team and travels internationally,” Walden said.

“We get calls all the time, here in LaFollette, Tennessee, from people all over the country wanting us to come perform where they are. We couldn’t do that without the people here, the way we manage our business and the way we treat people. Doing the next right thing is the most important part of that,” Walden said.

Pyro Shows “tries to stay connected” in the community and give back.

“We do the lights how at Freeman Park … Locally, in Campbell County, to date, we have done about 38,000 worth of donations, pyro technic affects in services. Nationally, we have given back about $208,000,” Walden said.

He said Pyro Shows was not going to stop and that the company would “continue to employ people in Campbell County for years to come and be based here for years to come.” (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED-11/20/2024-6AM)