[1] It depicted Joseph Smith's encounter with the golden plates (translated into English as the Book of Mormon), as well as a dramatization of the events recorded therein.

[3] The pageant traces its roots to the early 1920s and the "Cumorah Conference" of the Eastern States Mission,[4] which was held each year annually in late July.

Mission president B. H. Roberts would take some of his missionaries from New York City and travel to Palmyra and the recently acquired Smith Family Farm to celebrate Pioneer Day, acting out scenes from the Book of Mormon and LDS Church history as part of the commemoration.

[1] Over the next decade, the conference grew in duration and scale, and New York University English professor H. Wayne Driggs wrote the script America's Witness for Christ for the first official performance of the Hill Cumorah Pageant, which premiered on July 23, 1937.

[1] In 1997, Donny Osmond left his starring role in the tour of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat to participate with his family in the cast of the pageant.

[10] The New York Times contrasted the pageant's sincerity with the raucous tone of another major production, the satirical Broadway musical The Book of Mormon.

Since the pageant soundtrack was prerecorded by professional actors, with singing by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, cast members needed only to memorize movements and follow cues.

[4] There were 8,000 chairs available for audience seating in a large outdoor "bowl" at the foot of the stage, which was built on many levels up the side of the hill.