Irwin Allen Irwin Allen Irwin Allen (June 12, 1916 – November 2, 1991) was an American television, documentary and film director and producer with a varied career who became known as the "Master of Disaster" for his work in the disaster film genre. His most successful productions were "The Poseidon Adventure" (1972) and "The Towering Inferno" (1974). He also created several popular 1960s science fiction television series, such as "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 from
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea Wilkins. Calvert wrote the book "Surface at the Pole" about this and the other Arctic missions of USS "Skate." The film "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" begins with "Seaview" in the Arctic for the final phase of her sea trials, including a dive under the ice cap. Two milestones in underwater exploration were achieved in 1960, the year before "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" was released. On January 23, 1960, Jacques Piccard and Lieutenant Don Walsh (USN), in the bathyscaphe "Trieste", made the first descent to the bottom of the Challenger Deep. The Challenger Deep is