We spotted a rare find in the latest auction from Heritage Auctions, 25-26 JULY 2024 Hollywood/Entertainment Signature® Auction #7361, namely Irwin and Sheila Allen’s directors chairs. We remember seeing Irwin’s chair in their sitting room when visiting with Sheila in the 1990s. Sheila’s chair says “Mother” on the back, the role she played in the 1985 television movie Alice in Wonderland. The auction also features a couple of Alice in Wonderland items.
Great news for Irwin Allen fans, especially those who weren’t able to afford or get hold of the original The Fantasy Worlds of Irwin Allen by Jeff Bond. The cost of shipping such a substantial book overseas will have been prohibative for many. Advance orders are now being taken in both the US and UK for a re-release of this amazing book which is being re-published with a fresh cover design and a lower price point by Titan Books on 15 October 2024.
Here is the cover of the catalog for the Heritage Auctions Irwin Allen Collection featuring the final poster artwork by John Berkey for The Towering Inferno. This jam-packed catalog is a collectible in itself.
Heritage Auctions are a top auction house for original Irwin Allen props, costumes, artwork and collectibles and have an amazing collection of original Towering Inferno Storyboard paintings and drawings coming up for auction in the Hollywood/Entertainment Signature® Auction #7351 – The Irwin Allen Collection on 29 July 2023.
Included in the upcoming Hollywood/Entertainment Signature® Auction #7351 are 22 lots featuring original Land of the Giants concept art paintings, several of which appeared in the Land of the Giants Presentation Reel.
Original Land of the Giants Concept Art Lots at Heritage Auctions
Irwin Allen Collection – Land of the Giants Auction Gallery (courtesy HA.com)
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all who enjoy Irwin Allen’s work. Here’s a little festive Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea treat from talented artist G Foulds.
The Fantasy Worlds of Irwin Allen by Jeff Bond with foreword by Lost in Space star Bill Mumy is now shipping and is the ultimate Irwin Allen coffee table book. This beautifully presented hardback book runs at 600 colour pages with many never before seen photos, storyboards and blueprints.
The Fantasy Worlds of Irwin Allen covers all of Irwin Allen’s productions with chapters dedicated to each of the hugely popular sci-fi series. Through this book, we gain knowledge on the production of both the early movies and the later disaster movies, culminating in a final chapter which illustrates how the productions continue thrive for new generations including the exciting Netflix Lost in Space. Available exclusively at www.creaturefeatures.com.
Irwin Allen’s wife Sheila spoke fondly of her desire for there to be a coffee table book on producer Irwin Allen and his career, and finally that dream is coming true with Jeff Bond’s new book The Fantasy Worlds of Irwin Allen with a foreword written by Lost in Space star, Bill Mumy.
Creature Features in association with Synthesis Entertainment and Legendary Pictures presents THE FANTASY WORLDS OF IRWIN ALLEN, the definitive coffee table book more than two and a half years in the making!
This deluxe 600+ page limited edition hardback is the first and only book of its kind to take a visual journey through the mind and career of legendary producer Irwin Allen, the “Master of Disaster”—the man behind some of the most popular television programs of the 1960s and the visionary who invented the special effects movie blockbuster format with his 1970s hits The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno.
Authored by Jeff Bond with the full participation and cooperation of the Irwin Allen Estate, THE FANTASY WORLDS OF IRWIN ALLEN follows the ambitious icon from his early days as a Hollywood agent and radio personality to his lengthy stint at 20th Century Fox, where he produced movies such as The Lost World and Five Weeks in a Balloon and the popular television shows Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Lost in Space, The Time Tunnel and Land of the Giants.
Allen employed the studio’s sprawling lot and soundstages, its library of movie footage, costumes and props, and its veteran special effects craftsmen to bring vivid color and movie-quality action, miniature effects and visuals to television viewers accustomed to low-budget, black and white programming. Allen’s flare for action and visual punch gave audiences some of the 1960s most popular and iconic figures: Admiral Nelson and Captain Crane of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea; the Lost in Space Robot and Jonathan Harris’ nefarious Dr. Zachary Smith; Will Robinson and the Robinson family of space travelers; the pop art kaleidoscope of The Time Tunnel; the Jupiter 2, the Seaview, the Flying Sub, the Spindrift.
Before George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, Irwin Allen broke box office records with two of the biggest movie blockbusters of all time: The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno. Wooed to Warner Bros. at the height of his power with the offer of a building named in his honor and one of the most generous studio contracts ever given a producer, Allen faced his biggest challenge: topping himself with The Swarm, Beyond the Poseidon Adventure, When Time Ran Out, and a series of ambitious projects for television.
Illustrated with more than 2,000 images including concept and production artwork, storyboards, blueprints, design sketches, miniatures and behind-the-scenes photographs, many of them never before published, THE FANTASY WORLDS OF IRWIN ALLEN is the ultimate guide to Allen’s famous productions, from his documentaries The Sea Around Us and The Animal World to his spectacular TV-movie City Beneath the Sea, plus fascinating unproduced projects, all explored in detail for the first time.
This hardbound masterwork will be offered in a standard edition of 1000 copies, and a deluxe signed edition of 250 copies autographed by author Jeff Bond and actor Bill Mumy, who penned the foreword.
Pre-orders begin on a first come, first served basis exclusively at www.creaturefeatures.com on Friday, April 19th at 12 noon Pacific Standard Time.
The book is slated to arrive at our door in mid-July and begin shipping immediately, though shipping schedules are always subject to change.
PLEASE NOTE: Creature Features is the only authorized source for new copies of this book and will not be offering it thru Amazon or any other retail sellers.
Sample pages from the book The Fantasy Worlds of Irwin Allen
12th June 2016 marks the 100th birthday of Irwin Allen, the “Master of Disaster”, and all round king of science fiction and movie making. It’s amazing to think that he was already in his fifties when busy making his quartet of science fiction shows in the mid to late sixties and this shows us all how much can be achieved even in our later years. He has inspired many movie makers who followed in the decades since, and his name and productions are often referred to and compared with when critiquing current day producers’ work. That influence shows no sign of abating as we commemorate Irwin Allen’s 100th birthday. We are working on a number of projects in the coming months and years to help keep his body of work in the public eye well into his second hundred years and beyond. Your input to these projects is a vital and a most welcome contribution to ensuring his legacy for the future. Please feel free to share your Irwin Allen creations, collections, and research any time via our contact page.
