CMDF Headquarters

A very large set...

The CMDF (Combined Miniature Deterrent Forces) operating theater, control tower, main operations control center and miniaturization chamber represents one of the largest single sets ever built indoors.  All sections were integral to this one set meaning that the camera could have followed, uninterrupted, a character moving from one section to another until the entire complex had been covered.  Built between two sound stages through an adjoining door, the set would contain many working features including "video conferencing" between one set and another.  Note the standard desk type control panel which would be featured in so many Irwin Allen productions.  These  panels, along with the large banks of blinking lights which typically extend from the floor to height of about five feet and are seen in all these shows, are actually a part of a surplus air defense system which had been purchased at government auctions by the studio prop buyers.  One of these air defense installations is still maintained as a museum in the state of New York.  Close up views of many of the standard Irwin Allen instrument panels may be seen on the "Cockpit Instrumentation" page of the Spindrift from Land of the Giants.
 

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