Irwin Allen

Irwin Allen (born Irwin O. Cohen, June 12, 1916 – November 2, 1991) 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 the disaster film genre.

Willis O'Brien, who had also worked on the pioneering special effects of the original Lost World (1925) and King 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 burning Van 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 of the Verne novel.

Lost World was a moderate hit and Voyage was very successful.

Five Weeks was a box-office disappointment.

Allen moved to Hollywood in 1938, where he edited Key magazine followed by an 11-year stint producing his own program at radio station KLAC.

The success of the radio show led to him being offered his own gossip column, "Hollywood Merry-Go-Round", which was syndicated to 73 newspapers.

He produced his first TV program, a celebrity panel show also called Hollywood Merry-Go-Round with announcer, and later Tonight Show host, Steve Allen (no relation), before moving into film production.

Allen became involved in film production at a time when power was beginning to shift from studios to talent agencies.

He put together packages consisting of directors, actors, and a script, and sold them to film studios.

Allen's first film as producer was Where Danger Lives (1950) with Robert Mitchum, directed by John Farrow and written by Charles Bennett.

Allen produced it with Irving Cummings, Jr.

The two men made two more films for RKO: Double Dynamite (1951) with Jane Russell, Groucho Marx, and Frank Sinatra, and A Girl in Every Port (1952), again with Marx and William Bendix.

It largely used stock footage and won the 1952 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

Carson was so disappointed with Allen's final version of the script that she never again sold film rights to her work.

The film includes gory images of whales being killed.

It was a success, making a profit over $2 million.

Allen made his directorial debut with the documentary, The Sea Around Us (1953).

This was based on Rachel Carson's best-selling book of the same name.

Allen returned to producing with the three-dimensional film Dangerous Mission (1954), his final film for RKO.

It starred Victor Mature, Bendix, Piper Laurie, and Vincent 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-minute stop-motion dinosaur sequence by Ray 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 the Hendrik Willem van Loon book of the same name.

It featured cameos from the Marx Brothers, Ronald Colman, Hedy Lamarr, Vincent Price, and Dennis Hopper.

The actors were each paid $2,500 (equal to $ today) for a single day's work with Allen relying on stock footage for the rest of the film.

Allen co-wrote (with Bennett) and produced The Big Circus (1959) for Allied 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."

Allen was fascinated by circuses as a child and briefly worked as a carnival barker at age 16.

In addition to The Big Circus, he worked circus-themed episodes into his TV programs Lost in Space and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and would try for years to get a widescreen, 3-D project called Circus, Circus, Circus into theaters.

He also created and produced the popular 1960s science-fiction television series Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Lost in Space, The Time Tunnel, and Land of the Giants.

Irwin Allen was born in New York City, the son of poor Jewish immigrants (Joseph Cohen and Eva Davis) from Russia.

He majored in journalism and advertising at Columbia University after attending City College of New York for a year.

He left college because of financial difficulties caused by the Great Depression.

Allen then went to 20th Century Fox, where he co-wrote (with Bennett), produced, and directed three films: The Lost World (1960), from the novel by Arthur Conan Doyle, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1961), and Five Weeks in a Balloon (1962).

With 20th Century Fox scaling back their film productions due to their huge expenditure on films such as Cleopatra (1963), in the mid-1960s, Allen concentrated on television, producing several overlapping science-fiction series for 20th Century Fox Television.

His most successful productions were The Poseidon Adventure (1972) and The Towering Inferno (1974).