MovieChat Forums > Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1964) Discussion > Why the cheesy cheap uniforms for the en...

Why the cheesy cheap uniforms for the enlisted sub sailors?

posted 15 years ago by jeffyoung1
1 reply | jump to latest

I never understood why Hollywood dressed up the SeaView's enlisted submarine crew in those red or blue cheesy, cheap-looking jumpsuits. The pants legs were too short, what we call, 'high water pants', term of ridicule. Add the cheap tennis shoes the enlisted guys wore, too. I'm sure Hollywood could have done better. At least Admiral Nelson, Captain Crane, the XO, the doctor, and Chief Starkey wore the sharp, military looking khaki uniform still in use by the U.S. Navy. The crews of U.S. submarines today all wear essentially the same, blue, jumpsuit uniform, including the officers.

[–] ddc300 15 years ago

The reason for the jumpsuits was three fold: (1) they wanted to make the submarine look less militaristic and more research-based with the non-com uniforms, (2) they wanted to 'post-date' the uniforms since the series was supposed to be set 10-15 years into the future, and (3) by color-coding the crew the audience is able to more easily identify the minor cast members (Kowalski in red; Patterson in blue, etc).

I'm sure it also made for cheaper costumes since Irwin Allen & Co. most likely bought the jumpsuits wholesale from JC Penny (male technicans in the "Time Tunnel" complex wore yellow- and green-colored versions of the same jumpsuits). All of the VTTBOTS suits were reused in "Conquest of the Planet of the Apes".