"...HAPPY NEW YEAR! "

April 3rd, 1972.  Soundstage 6 on the 20th Century Fox lot.   Stewards set the tables for dinner as Nonnie rehearses The Morning After.   This was the first day of principal photography for the Poseidon Adventure, and the only time this cavernous dining salon set was in pristine condition.

Production Designer William Creber is credited with creating some of the most striking and memorable images in American film history.  His exciting production design made the world believe that primates could rule in "Planet of the Apes", and that a 135 story skyscraper could burn in "The Towering Inferno", however it's Mr. Crebers work on "The Poseidon Adventure" that has earned him a loyal following of admirers.  His extraordinary creation of the first class dining salon of the S.S. Poseidon is one of his most impressive sets to date.



This beautiful set was an extremely ingenious piece of work.  It was an exact duplicate of its prototype on the Queen Mary in everything but a few details in decor, one of which was a replica of  a famous antique statue of the Greek God, Poseidon, except for a slight alteration.  The original is equipped with standard genitalia while a fleur-de-lis design preserves the modesty of the replica.  This was not prudishness on the part of producer Irwin Allen, but the desire not to distract from important scenes played in front of the figure.



Stella Stevens makes adjustments between takes

Although the fictional ship was Greek, the dining salon was covered in Egyptian murals.   This was because William Creber recycled pieces of several other famous Fox film sets.   The wall murals were originally used in "Cleopatra" 11 years earlier.   Several pieces of the Harmonia Gardens set from the film "Hello Dolly" were also incorporated.  Creber and his team cut the tops of the arches off, butted them together to form  the 3 skylights of the S.S. Poseidon.  The 2 glass windows at either end of the salon were also borrowed from Hello Dolly.

 

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William Creber had blueprints for the Queen Mary, and also obtained photographs which he could invert, but his imagination had to take it from there.  It took unremitting vigilance to prevent some right-side-up detail from appearing in this upside-down world, both in the building of the sets and in shooting  of the picture.



"The only two sets that we moved at all were the radio room, which we rotated in a tank, and about an 18 X 30 foot piece section of the main ballroom set was tilted.  All the sides of the room were up about 3 feet above the main dance floor.  We inverted all that, enabling us to tilt just one little piece of the set to get the initial gravity of the glasses falling, plates sliding and the chairs moving.  The remainder of the capsize was all done with the camera."

Click here for Part Two