Four-Day Coming-Out Party : Spectacular Fete to Greet Rejuvenated Lady Liberty

It was an act of unabashed love.

For months, workmen had toiled building the special aluminum scaffolding surrounding the Statue of Liberty. The task was delicate; for safety’s sake no piece could come closer than 18 inches to the statue’s fragile copper skin, and the framework had to be rigid enough to sway only three inches in 100-m.p.h. winds.

But as the scaffolding approached the top of the 151-foot statue, workmen began to race, like schoolboys at a picnic, to see who would fit the last section of pipe in place. When he finished turning the final bolts, the winner reached over and joyously planted a big kiss on Lady Liberty’s three-foot-wide mouth.

If that private tribute at the start of the statue’s restoration was little noticed, official ceremonies marking the work’s completion--and the statue’s 100th birthday--promise to be impossible to ignore.

Taken in its totality, the four-day festival over the Fourth of July will be one of the biggest parties in New York’s and the nation’s history. On the first evening, July 3, President Reagan and French President Francois Mitterrand, whose nation gave the statue to America, will preside from the deck of an aircraft carrier anchored just off Liberty Island as the statue is revealed, bit by bit, in a blaze of lights.

Chief Justice Warren E. Burger will administer the oath of citizenship to 40,000 immigrants nationwide, choruses will sing and church bells will ring from one end of the country to the other.

Tall Ships Parade

The next day, millions of spectators will watch Reagan cruise down the Hudson River on the battleship Iowa to lead a massive international naval review, followed by a parade of tall sailing ships. About 200 aircraft spanning the history of aviation will fly overhead.

Coast Guard officials estimate that 40,000 boats, including hundreds of sailing vessels, will clog the harbor--prompting some familiar with Manhattan’s occasional traffic gridlock to predict that the rivers will suffer “shiplock.” The biggest fireworks display in American history will light up New York’s skyline.

Yachts have been charted for prime rates; restaurants facing the waterfront have been sold out months in advance. The spectacle promises to be bigger than New York’s celebration of the nation’s Bicentennial.

There will be a concert so large that it will be presented in two arenas, as well as other events including a conference of scholars, statesmen and journalists.

Producer David L. Wolper, who staged opening and closing ceremonies at the 1984 Olympic Games, is staging the entire weekend. The only thing he has tried and failed to do is borrow the Liberty Bell from its pavilion in Philadelphia. Officials feared that if Reagan rang the bell, it could crack even further.

No historical renovation has so captured the hearts of the American people as the renovation of the statue designed by the French sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi and engineered by Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, designer of the Eiffel Tower. Schoolchildren sold cookies, raffle tickets and recycled cans for it. Corporations funneled funds. In all, thousands upon thousands of donors on both sides of the Atlantic raised $233 million for the renewal effort. Letters to the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation show the depths of interest and emotion.

“Dear Lady Liberty,” wrote one youngster in a note with hand-drawn smiling butterflies, accompanying a contribution, “I wish you very good luck on your 100th birthday. Wow, you look as if you were 20!”

“Dear Statue,” a young girl wrote. “We’ve been saving cans so you could get a face lift. We raised $61.10 so far. Now that’s a lot of money.”

“Enclosed is my check for $315, which was earned in nickels, dimes and quarters by the 25 children in my third grade classroom over a period of about 2 1/2 months,” wrote Alice List, a teacher in Riverton, Wyo. “The children put up posters and collection boxes in various stores and businesses.

Raffles, Bake Sales

“They spoke on the radio and at clubs and organizations. They had raffles and bake sales plus going from door to door. None of these children have ever seen the Statue of Liberty, nor have I, but if any of us ever do, she will mean even more to us since we have contributed to her survival.”

The patriotic spirit also spread to the construction crew. “There is some kind of aura that draws you in,” said Richard S. Hayden, chief architect for the restoration. “It is such an important symbol to the United States and to freedom everywhere that craftsmen and artisans put that little extra in.”

Liberty Weekend is designed to build upon that sentiment with the slogan “Remember, Rejoice, Renew.”

“It’s going to be an emotional experience,” Wolper predicted.

To prepare for the ceremony, Wolper studied the original unveiling on Oct. 28, 1886, when President Grover Cleveland presided. Then, about 300 ships moved slowly in rain and fog down the Hudson River and assembled near the statue. A band played when the President mounted the platform on Bedloe’s Island (later renamed Liberty Island).

As the speeches went on, sculptor Bartholdi climbed inside Liberty’s crown. He was to pull the rope that removed the flag covering Liberty’s face, but he yanked too soon--right in the middle of one speech. The speaker was stranded in mid-sentence. The flag fell, cheers filled the air as Liberty’s face was shown to the public. Ships in the harbor sounded their horns and whistles, cannons fired salutes. When all the noise subsided, President Cleveland addressed the audience.

“We shall not forget that Liberty has made here her home,” he said, “nor shall her chosen altar be neglected. . . . Reflected thence and joined with answering rays, a stream of light shall pierce the darkness of ignorance and man’s oppression until Liberty enlightens the world.”

This time, the restored Statue of Liberty will be unveiled in the dark by a series of lights. On July 3, Reagan, Mitterrand, a symphony orchestra, a choir and 3,000 guests will gather on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy. The President will press a button to send a stream of lights across the water. The statue will be relit section by section as the chorus sings “America the Beautiful.” Church bells will ring across the nation, ships in the harbor will turn on their lights and thousands of spectators will add the glow of flashlights.

On Ellis Island, Chief Justice Burger will swear in 1,500 immigrants; another 40,000 new citizens will take the oath from Burger via television in such locations as Miami’s Orange Bowl, the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and under the St. Louis arch. When Liberty is illuminated, all of the new Americans will sing “God Bless America.”

The next evening--July 4--more than 30 barges will fire 40,000 fireworks shells (New York’s usual Fourth of July celebration is mounted from just three barges). The fireworks will be choreographed to a special musical score. On the south lawn of New Jersey’s Liberty State Park, the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra will perform a patriotic concert with such stars as John Denver, Johnny Cash, Barry Manilow, Joel Grey, Jack Lemmon, Whitney Houston and Melissa Manchester.

The Statue of Liberty will be officially opened on July 5. An essay contest for elementary school students is being held and has been named in honor of Sharon Christa McAuliffe, the schoolteacher killed aboard the space shuttle Challenger. Essay contest winners from each of the 50 states, and students from France where a similar contest is under way, will be the first to enter the statue. In the evening, half a million classical music lovers are expected to gather for a concert in Manhattan’s Central Park.

The festival’s closing ceremonies, the evening of July 6, are too big to be contained in just one stadium. Both the Byrne Arena and Giants Stadium in New Jersey will be used. Gymnast Mary Lou Retton will perform; the Harlem Globetrotters will play the NBA All-Stars. Frank Sinatra, Kenny Rogers and Elizabeth Taylor will be among those performing. The spectacular has a cast of 20,000--including, in a typical Wolper flourish, 1,000 violinists and 1,000 tap dancers.

Needless to say, all this takes preparation. The entire program will be paid for through television rights and ticket sales to some events. Wolper, whose grandparents came to the United States through Ellis Island, has set up headquarters in unkempt offices on lower Park Avenue and has recruited some of Hollywood’s noted directors and producers--Gary Smith, Dwight Hemion, Don Mischer and Walter Miller--to aid in the effort. The office--strewn coffee cups, scattered filing cabinets, threadbare carpeting--resembles a hastily erected campaign office in a presidential primary state.

Working there the other day, Wolper and his chief creative consultant, Tommy Walker, who has staged pageantry for such events as the Super Bowl, reviewed snippets of videotape. They evaluated performers ranging from the Harlem Boys Choir, a marching band from New Jersey and an aerialist who unfurls a 250-square-foot American flag made from parachute silk while he dangles from a hang glider as red smoke spews from his boots.

Wolper worried about the enterprising aerialist. “I’ve got nervousness about parachutes that day,” he said. “It’s too gimmicky.”

Later, he played a tape of the opening and closing theme aboard the aircraft carrier. Some parts of the music still sounded like a Broadway show tune, he complained, but he expressed confidence in the melody and overall lyrics concept--”She was more than a statue . . . more than a symbol.”

The speaking order of Reagan Administration Cabinet members was discussed. So was the logistics of releasing doves and balloons. When the tall ships pass in review near the Statue of Liberty, fireboats should be spraying water in the air, Wolper observed.

“Only one boat can pump red, white and blue water,” one of Walker’s aides interjected. Wolper looked just a bit displeased. “We can get into that,” the aide quickly promised.