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artist's original sketch from which the stage sets for "the great escape" were designed. 'The Great Escape" Staging Specialists at NBC Adapt a Thrillttig Wartime Episode for Telerision Presentation Providing Viewers with One of TV's Outstanding Dramas. By Robert J. Wade M imager, Staging Services Division, National Broadcasting Company. C^ REATING scenery for the "av- ^ erage" television drama, no matter how spectacular or gigantic the presentation may be, normally presents no great problem for NBC's experienced production staff. But occasionally designers of the network's stage settings are con- fronted with a script which chal- lenges even the most imaginative mind and the most extensive TV facilities. Such was the case with NBC's production of "The Great E.scape", one of the most thrilling adventure stories to come out of World War II. In this escapade, which took place in 1944, 76 British and Amer- ican airmen, overcoming seemingly insurmountable obstacles, tunneled their way to freedom from the German prison camp called Stalag Luft II. Their achievement was no less amazing than its transition to the television screen. How is it possible to simulate a tunnel 300 feet long and 30 feet underground? Why is barbed wire hard to get nowadays? How can four tons of dirt be made to weigh just one-quarter of that amount? What happens to the paper holes cut from loose-leaf notebooks? These were only a few of the questions to be answered by the staging specialists who prepared the scenery and props for "The Great Escape". Scenic designer Otis Riggs, who has created set- tings for more than 200 television productions, found this to be his most difficult assignment. In order to create the illusion of underground activity for the key scenes in the drama, Riggs had to create a set which was substantially above the ground. He constructed the barracks room (where the un- derground trap-door was located 10 feet above the studio floor ir NBC's studio 8-G, with the room'.' rafters resting just below the 17- foot-high studio ceiling. A six-foot vertical shaft was con- structed leading from the barracks room to the horizontal tunnel be- low. This vertical opening was a facsimile of one dug to a depth of 30 feet by the Allied PWs in Silesia. The second studio tunnel, 20 feet long and two feet wide, represented the original escape medium which ran underground for 300 feet to the outside of the German camp ini the actual escape. Tunnel Built Above Floor The main escape tunnel had to be raised four feet off the studio' floor so that all action would be ■ on a level with normal camera height. To support the weight of this off-the-floor construction, as well as the players and props, elab- orate and sturdy platforms were erected—the largest ever demanded by an NBC show. The winter setting of the drama caused NBC's Staging Services De- partment to reach for another su- perlative. Six hundred square feet of playing space, representing the [16 RADIO AGE]