Winton C. Hoch and Irwin Allen Film on Sersen Lake

Winton C. Hoch and Irwin Allen on a crane high up above the full size Seaview bridge set in the Sersen Lake on the 20th Century Fox backlot.

The Sersen Lake was named after Fred Sersen who founded and headed the special photographic effects department at 20th Century Fox for some 34 years. He won an Academy Award for "The Rains Came" (1941) which utilised the lake. He died in December 1962 at the age of 72. The Sersen Lake was demolished after filming of the 1961 movie Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea as part of the sell off of land on the Fox backlot. A new lake and backing was set up at the Fox Ranch in Malibu and was used for surface shots of the Seaview in the subsequent television series of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1964-68). L. B. Abbott affectionately referred to this new lake as Sersen Lake.