
It starred Victor Mature, Bendix, Piper Laurie, and Vincent Price.Īllen directed a semidocumentary about the evolution of life, The Animal World (1956). Īllen returned to producing with the three-dimensional film Dangerous Mission (1954), his final film for RKO. It was a success, making a profit over $2 million. The film includes gory images of whales being killed. : 87 Carson was so disappointed with Allen's final version of the script that she never again sold film rights to her work. It largely used stock footage and won the 1952 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. This was based on Rachel Carson's best-selling book of the same name. 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.Īllen made his directorial debut with the documentary, The Sea Around Us (1953). Allen produced it with Irving Cummings, Jr. He put together packages consisting of directors, actors, and a script, and sold them to film studios.Īllen's first film as producer was Where Danger Lives (1950) with Robert Mitchum, directed by John Farrow and written by Charles Bennett. RKO Īllen became involved in film production at a time when power was beginning to shift from studios to talent agencies.


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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. 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 left college because of financial difficulties caused by the Great Depression.Īllen moved to Hollywood in 1938, where he edited Key magazine followed by an 11-year stint producing his own program at radio station KLAC. He majored in journalism and advertising at Columbia University after attending City College of New York for a year. Irwin Allen was born in New York City, the son of poor Jewish immigrants (Joseph Cohen and Eva Davis) from Russia. 1.5.4 The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno.
