Early Seaview Design

During the pre-production design phase, submarine Seaview went through various incarnations. One of the original concepts documented was that of the more conventional tear-drop shape submersible with a totally unconventional transparent viewing room aft of the conning tower. Two indications of this were made public. One was the original cover of the Voyage novel published June 17th of 1961, about three weeks prior to the film’s release July 12th.

Another relic of pre-production artwork was included in a photo-promo insert included in the June 7th issue of Motion Picture Exhibitor, artwork which depicted the same transparent viewing room as graced the cover of the novel, but from the opposite perspective —inside the submarine.

I’d never been absolutely sure about the factualness of this early reported design, but the two graphics in combination, one of which (that included in the Motion Picture Exhibitor insert) definitely came from the Twentieth Century Fox art department, are pretty convincing evidence.