Irwin Allen | |
|---|---|
| Born | Irwin O. Cohen (1916-06-12)June 12, 1916 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | November 2, 1991(1991-11-02) (aged 75) Santa Monica, California, U.S. |
| Resting place | Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1950–1986 |
| Known for | Science fiction movies and television series |
| Spouse | |
| Parents |
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Irwin Allen (bornIrwin O. Cohen; June 12, 1916 – November 2, 1991)[1] was an American film and television producer and director, known for his work in science fiction, then later as the "Master of Disaster" for his work in thedisaster film genre.[1] His most successful productions wereThe Poseidon Adventure (1972) andThe Towering Inferno (1974). He also created and produced the popular 1960sscience-fiction television seriesVoyage to the Bottom of the Sea,Lost in Space,The Time Tunnel, andLand of the Giants.
Irwin Allen was born in New York City, the son of poorJewish immigrants (Joseph Cohen and Eva Davis) from Russia.[2] He majored in journalism and advertising atColumbia University after attendingCity College of New York for a year. He left college because of financial difficulties caused by theGreat Depression.
Allen moved to Hollywood in 1938, where he editedKey magazine followed by an 11-year stint producing his own program at radio stationKLAC. The success of the radio show led to him being offered his owngossip column, "Hollywood Merry-Go-Round", which wassyndicated to 73 newspapers.[3]
He produced his first TV program, a celebrity panel show also calledHollywood Merry-Go-Round with announcer, and laterTonight Show host,Steve Allen (no relation), before moving into film production.[4]
Allen became involved in film production at a time when power was beginning to shift fromstudios totalent agencies. He put together packages consisting of directors, actors, and a script, and sold them to film studios.
Allen's first film as producer wasWhere Danger Lives (1950) withRobert Mitchum, directed byJohn Farrow and written byCharles Bennett. Allen produced it withIrving Cummings, Jr. The two men made two more films for RKO:Double Dynamite (1951) withJane Russell,Groucho Marx, andFrank Sinatra, andA Girl in Every Port (1952), again with Marx andWilliam Bendix.
Allen made his directorial debut with the documentary,The Sea Around Us (1953).[4] This was based onRachel Carson's best-sellingbook of the same name. It largely usedstock footage and won the 1952Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.[5]: 87 Carson was so disappointed with Allen's final version of the script that she never again sold film rights to her work.[6] The film includes gory images of whales being killed. It was a success, making a profit over $2 million.[7]
Allen returned to producing with thethree-dimensional filmDangerous Mission (1954), his final film for RKO. It starredVictor Mature, Bendix,Piper Laurie, andVincent Price.
Allen directed a semidocumentary about the evolution of life,The Animal World (1956). Again, making use of stock footage, but he also included a 9-minutestop-motion dinosaur sequence byRay Harryhausen. Before release, he toned down the gore from both the live action and the animation.
The film was released by Warner Bros. So was Allen's next film,The Story of Mankind (1957), a very loose adaptation of theHendrik Willem van Loon book ofthe same name. It featured cameos from theMarx Brothers,Ronald Colman,Hedy Lamarr, Vincent Price, andDennis Hopper. The actors were each paid $2,500 (equal to $27,989 today) for a single day's work with Allen relying on stock footage for the rest of the film.[8]
Allen co-wrote (with Bennett) and producedThe Big Circus (1959) forAllied Artists Pictures with Mature,Red Buttons,Peter Lorre, and Price. Allen was interested in making "an exciting, colorful show – something the public can't see on television."[9] Allen was fascinated by circuses as a child and briefly worked as a carnival barker at age 16. In addition toThe Big Circus, he worked circus-themed episodes into his TV programsLost in Space andVoyage to the Bottom of the Sea and would try for years to get a widescreen, 3-D project calledCircus, Circus, Circus into theaters.[10]
Allen then went to20th Century Fox, where he co-wrote (with Bennett), produced, and directed three films:The Lost World (1960), from the novel byArthur Conan Doyle,Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1961), andFive Weeks in a Balloon (1962).
Willis O'Brien, who had also worked on the pioneering special effects of the originalLost World (1925) andKing Kong (1933) films, was disappointed when Allen opted to save time by using live alligators and lizards instead of stop-motion animation for the film's dinosaurs.Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea was a scientifically dubious,Jules Verne-style adventure to save the world from a burningVan Allen belt. It was the basis for his later television series of the same name. The family film,Five Weeks in a Balloon, was a loose adaptation ofthe Verne novel.[4]Lost World was a moderate hit andVoyage was very successful.Five Weeks was a box-office disappointment.
With 20th Century Fox scaling back their film productions due to their huge expenditure on films such asCleopatra (1963), in the mid-1960s, Allen concentrated on television, producing several overlapping science-fiction series for20th Century Fox Television. They featured special effects byL. B. Abbott, who won threeEmmys for his work.[11]: 204 Allen used many of the same craftsmen on his TV shows as he did on his films, including composerJohn Williams andcostume designer and general assistantPaul Zastupnevich.[11]: 6
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (ABC TV, 1964–1968) established Allen's reputation as a television producer. The financial viability of the series was assisted by the reuse of many of the sets from the film; the cost of theSeaview submarine sets alone exceeded the budget of a typical pilot show of the era.[11]: 11 The series also benefited from Allen's by-now notorious use of stock film footage, particularly fromHell and High Water (1954),The Enemy Below (1957), and Allen'sThe Lost World.[11]: 16
Allen had originally intendedLost in Space (CBS TV, 1965–1968) to be a family show, a science-fiction version ofThe Swiss Family Robinson.[11]: 116 It quickly developed into a children's show with episodes concentrating on the young Will Robinson, the robot, and especially, the comic villain, Dr. Smith.[4]: 36–7 The show used several science-fiction elements that have since become common, such as the comic robot (e.g.Silent Running,Star Wars) or android (Logan's Run,Star Trek: The Next Generation), the heroic child (Meeno Peluce inVoyagers!,Wesley Crusher), and the wacky, lovable alien (Albert inAlien Nation,Vir inBabylon 5).[11]: 124
The Time Tunnel (ABC TV, 1966–1967), with each episode set in a different historical time period, was an ideal vehicle for Allen's talent for smoothly mixing live action with stock footage from films set in the same period. A change in network management led to the show being cancelled after just one season.[11]: 204 Allen citedThe Time Tunnel as his favorite of all of his television productions and he would attempt to revamp and relaunch the concept numerous times including a filmed pilot in 1976 calledThe Time Travelers and unfilmed concepts that included one calledTime Travel Agency and another calledThe Time Project that went through several incarnations.[12]
Land of the Giants (ABC TV, 1968–1970) was the most expensive show of its day at roughly $250,000 per episode.[13] As anothercastaway-themed show, Allen incorporated some of the successful elements fromLost in Space, although this time he did not allow the treacherous character to dominate the series.[11]: 273
Allen also produced several television films, such asCity Beneath the Sea, which recycled many props and models fromVoyage,Lost in Space, andThe Man from the 25th Century. Though intended as a pilot for a new TV series project, his small-screen success from the 1960s largely eluded him in the 1970s.
Lost in Space'sBill Mumy said of Allen that, while he was very good at writing television pilots that sold, his unwillingness to spend money hurt his shows' quality once on the air. A monster costume that appeared on one of his shows, for example, would appear on another a few weeks later with new paint.[14] Writer Jon Abbott described Allen as paradoxical. "Here was a man who, when told the cost of a spaceship for aLost in Space alien, snapped, 'Let him walk!' ... and then let the show be cancelled rather than take a cut in the budget".[11]
In 1969, Allen signed a three-picture deal withAvco Embassy to makeThe Poseidon Adventure,No Man's World, andAlmost Midnight,[15] but the deal did not lead to any films there.
In the 1970s, Allen produced the most successful films of his career:The Poseidon Adventure (1972) andThe Towering Inferno (1974), directing the action scenes for both. Their showmanship was compared to that ofP. T. Barnum andCecil B. DeMille, and they prompted scholarly analysis of the subsequent popularity of thedisaster genre.[16]
The Poseidon Adventure was based on thePaul Gallico novelof the same name and directed byRonald Neame. Unable to find a studio to fully back the venture, Allen raised half the $5 million budget, with 20th Century-Fox putting up the rest; the film eventually grossed over $100 million. L. B. Abbott andA. D. Flowers won aSpecial Achievement Academy Award for the film's optical and physical effects.[4]: 38 [17]
Allen hoped to follow up on the success ofThe Poseidon Adventure with a film based on the novelThe Tower, but the film rights had already been taken byWarner Bros. He looked for an alternative and found a similar story inThe Glass Inferno. Rather than produce competing movies, 20th Century-Fox and Warner Bros. agreed to coproduceThe Towering Inferno with a script based on both novels and a $14 million budget. It was the first time two major studios made a film together, splitting the costs. Despite its nearly three-hour run time, the film, directed byJohn Guillermin, was a hit and won three Academy Awards.[4]: 39
The success of the films led to Allen receiving an offer to make three television films. "I missed television", said Allen. "There's a hysteria and an excitement in television that exists nowhere else in business."[18]
Each was made for Fox television at a budget of $1 million with a view to possibly going to series. They screened on different networks:Adventures of the Queen (1975),The Swiss Family Robinson (1975), andTime Travelers (1976). OnlySwiss Family was picked up for a series, running for 20 episodes.[18]
Allen left 20th Century Fox when a change in management in 1976 cancelled the remaining three planned disaster films, with incoming studio chiefAlan Ladd, Jr. feeling that the disaster genre had run its course. Allen was offered a deal at Warner Bros. by Jon Calley, who built an office building for Allen. Allen continued to work there for the remainder of his career.[19]
The rise of new filmmakers such asGeorge Lucas reportedly caught him off guard. According to one book, the success ofStar Wars (1977) bewildered him; he could not understand how a film with apparently no stars or love story could enrapture audiences so fervently.[20]
Allen produced three made-for-TV disaster movies:Flood! (1976),Fire! (1977), andHanging by a Thread (1979). He also madeViva Knievel! (1977),The Amazing Captain Nemo (1978), andThe Memory of Eva Ryker (1980).
For theatrical release, he produced and directed the big-budgetedThe Swarm (1978) andBeyond the Poseidon Adventure (1979), and producedWhen Time Ran Out (1980). These three films were back-to-back-to-back box office disappointments, with the final failure ofWhen Time Ran Out effectively ending his theatrical film career.
Allen also purchased the rights to severalMarvel Comics characters including Daredevil, Black Widow and others for television adaptation in the 1980s; he commissioned a script for aDaredevil pilot from writerStirling Silliphant, but the project never went before cameras.[21]
"No, I'm not going to run out of disasters", he said in a 1977 interview. "Pick up the daily newspaper, which is my best source for crisis stories, and you'll find 10 or 15 every day ... People chase fire engines, flock to car crashes. People thrive on tragedy. It's unfortunate, but in my case, it's fortunate. The bigger the tragedy, the bigger the audience."[22]
Allen later went to Columbia to make a short-lived TV series,Code Red (1981–1982). His last films for Warner Bros. wereThe Night the Bridge Fell Down (1983) andCave-In! (1979, though not released until 1983). Shortly beforeCave-In! made its TV debut, Allen was awarded a Worst Career AchievementGolden Raspberry Award.
While at Columbia, Allen made a $14 million TV version ofAlice in Wonderland (1985).[23] His last credit was the TV movieOutrage! (1986).
Allen planned to make a star-studded musical ofPinocchio, but his declining health forced his retirement in 1986. He died in Los Angeles from a heart attack on November 2, 1991.[24][25] He is buried in the Garden of Heritage 5, upper-level wall crypt 39J inMount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.[26]
The "Irwin Allen rock-and-roll" is when the camera is rocked as the on-screen cast rushes from side to side on the set, simulating a ship being tossed around.[27] It is employed in many episodes ofLost in Space andVoyage to the Bottom of the Sea. This camera technique was employed in theMystery Science Theater 3000 episode "First Spaceship on Venus". Here, the camera tilts to simulate the spacecraft being hit. During this scene, Joel shouts out, "Irwin Allen presents...".
Allen's career in film and TV was the subject of a 1995 documentary,The Fantasy Worlds of Irwin Allen, produced and directed byKevin Burns, co-founder ofFoxstar Productions, originally set up as the production unit responsible for creating a series ofAlien Nation movies for television. Numerous cast members and associates from various Irwin Allen projects appeared in the film, lending recollections of their time working with him.
In 1994, while senior VP of Foxstar, Burns founded Van Ness Films, a nonfiction and documentary production unit. That same year, he met Jon Jashni, a Fox film executive who shared Burns' interest in Allen's works. In 1998, the two collaborated on a TV retrospective special,Lost in Space Forever. Hosted byJohn Laroquette, it chronicled the series' creation and run on TV in the 1960s and beyond, and featured appearances by Bill Mumy,Jonathan Harris,June Lockhart,Angela Cartwright,Mark Goddard, andMarta Kristen, as well as film footage of vintage interviews withGuy Williams. Also appearing wereBob May, who donned the robot suit, andDick Tufeld, who supplied the character's voice. The flight deck set of theJupiter 2 spacecraft from the series was recreated as the backdrop for parts of the special.
It also was used as a vehicle to promote the 1998Lost in Space film version of the original television series, starringWilliam Hurt,Matt LeBlanc,Gary Oldman,Lacey Chabert,Mimi Rogers, andHeather Graham.
Burns and Jashni later formed Synthesis Entertainment, and began developing and producing remakes of, and sequels to, several Allen properties, including a 2002Fox Television pilot for an updated version ofThe Time Tunnel, which did not sell, and remakes of films includingPoseidon (2006) andVoyage to the Bottom of the Sea. The 2002 TV pilot was included as a bonus feature on Volume 2 of Fox's 2006 DVD release of the 30-episodeTime Tunnel (1966–1967) TV series.
| Year | Title | Director | Producer | Writer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1950 | Where Danger Lives | Yes | |||
| 1954 | Dangerous Mission | Yes | |||
| 1957 | The Story of Mankind | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| 1960 | The Big Circus | Yes | Yes | ||
| The Lost World | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| 1961 | Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| 1962 | Five Weeks in a Balloon | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| 1972 | The Poseidon Adventure | Yes | Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama | ||
| 1974 | The Towering Inferno | action sequences | Yes | Nominated—Academy Award for Best Picture | |
| 1978 | The Swarm | Yes | Yes | ||
| 1979 | Beyond the Poseidon Adventure | Yes | Yes | ||
| 1980 | When Time Ran Out | Yes |
| Year | Title | Director | Producer | Writer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1953 | The Sea Around Us | Yes | Yes | Yes | Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature |
| 1956 | The Animal World | Yes | Yes | Yes | - |
On January 3, 2008,BBC Four showed a night of Allen's work which included the 1995 documentaryThe Fantasy Worlds of Irwin Allen[citation needed] along with episodes ofLost in Space,Land of the Giants andVoyage to the Bottom of the Sea.[28]
Episode 57 of the Disney TV seriesDuckTales, broadcast on December 8, 1987 and titled "The Uncrashable Hindentanic", features a character called "Irwin Mallard" who films the destruction ofScrooge McDuck's airship called theHindentanic in the disaster movie style of Irwin Allen.[28]
"The Irwin Allen Show" was a skit onSCTV. The Irwin Allen Show was aJohnny Carson–style talk show with Allen as the host. The guests were stars in Allen's movies, and they were each individually victims of an Irwin Allen–style disaster while a guest on the talk show (e.g. Red Buttons was attacked by a swarm of bees).[29]
In the filmOcean's Thirteen (2007) Linus Caldwell (played byMatt Damon) announces aloud to a catatonic Reuben Tishkoff that Rusty Ryan is doing an 'Irwin Allen' which is a reference to the fake earthquake they stage later in the story.
American noise rock bandKilldozer released a song about Irwin Allen's work called "Man vs. Nature".[30]
The second half of "Marge vs. the Monorail," often considered the best episode of the long-running animated comedyThe Simpsons, is a parody of Irwin Allen's disaster films.[31][32]
Much like Alfred Hitchcock earned the title Master of Suspense, Irwin Allen earned the title Master of Disaster.
Still, it all began with Allen, the son of poor Russian-Jewish immigrants, and his series called Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.
Another summer job that Irwin took on, reportedly at age 16, was as a barker for a Skee-Ball alley at a carnival—a gig that initiated a lifelong fascination with circuses.
