George Pal (born György Pál Marczincsak,
He was nominated for Academy Awards (in the category Best Short Subjects, Cartoon) for seven consecutive years (1942–1948) and received an honorary award in 1944. This makes him the second-most nominated Hungarian exile (together with William S. Darling and Ernest Laszlo) after Miklós Rózsa.
Early life and career
Pal was born in Cegléd, Hungary, as Gyula György Marczincsak the son of Gyula Marczincsak, Sr.
and his wife Mária Tikó; in 1936 he officially changed his last name Marczincsak to "
Pál", becoming György (George) Pál. He graduated from the Hungarian University of Fine Arts in 1928 (aged 20). From 1928 to 1931, he made films for Hunnia Film Studio of Budapest, Hungary. In 30th June of 1930 in Budapest, he married Elisabeth "Zsóka" Grandjean,
and after moving to Berlin, founded Trickfilm-Studio GmbH Pal und Wittke, with UFA Studios as its main customer from 1931 to 1933. During this time, he patented the Pal-Doll technique (known as
Puppetoons in the US).
In 1933, he worked in Prague. In 1934, he made cigarette[Pal, his wife and son, were second cabin passengers on the S.S. Statendam which arrived at the Port of New York from the Netherlands on December 3, 1939.] and began work for Paramount Pictures. At this time, his friend Walter Lantz helped him obtain American citizenship.
As an animator, he made the Puppetoons series in the 1940s, which led to him being awarded an honorary Oscar in 1943 for "the development of novel methods and techniques in the production of short subjects known as Puppetoons". Pal then switched to live-action film-making with The Great Rupert (1950).
He is best remembered as the producer of several science-fiction and in the 1950s and 1960s, such as When Worlds Collide,
Death
In May 1980, he died in Beverly Hills, California, of a heart attack at the age of 72, and is buried in Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City, California.
The Voyage of the Berg, on which he was working at the time, was never completed.
Awards and honours
Pal has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1722 Vine St. In 1980, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences founded the "George Pal Lecture on Fantasy in Film" series in his memory.
George Pal (along with the film When Worlds Collide) is among the many references to classic science fiction and horror films in the opening theme ("Science Fiction/Double Feature") of both the stage musical The Rocky Horror Show and its cinematic counterpart, The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975).
In 1975, Pal received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement,
Pal's Puppetoons Tulips Shall Grow and John Henry and the Inky-Poo (1946) were added to the Library of Congress 1997 and 2015 National Film Registry.
In 2023, film historian Justin Humphreys released the biographical book George Pal, Man of Tomorrow.
Preservation
The Academy Film Archive has preserved several of George Pal's films, including
Radio Röhren (Valve) Revolution (1934),
an advertising short for
Philips,
Jasper and the Beanstalk (1945), and
John Henry and the Inky Poo (1946).
Filmography
Puppetoons
Live-action feature films
| 1950 | The Great Rupert | | | |
| Destination Moon | | | |
| 1951 | When Worlds Collide | | | |
| 1953 | Houdini | | | |
| The War of the Worlds | | | |
| 1954 | The Naked Jungle | | | |
| 1955 | Conquest of Space | | | |
| 1958 | Tom Thumb | | | |
| 1960 | The Time Machine | | | |
| 1961 | Atlantis, the Lost Continent | | | |
| 1962 | The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm | | | |
| 1964 | 7 Faces of Dr. Lao | | | |
| 1968 | The Power | | | |
| 1975 | | | | |
|
Unreleased, unfinished, or projected films
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Gulliver's Travels (1935)
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Sinbad (1935)
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Three Little Princes (1935)
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Casey Jones (1945)
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Davy Crockett (1945)
[ Chico Record. "Hollywood". Virginia McPherson. 25 October 1945. Chico, page 2.]
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Johnny Appleseed (1946)
[ The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. "Ellen Drew Named For Film Comedy". 13 April 1946. Brooklyn, page 14.]
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After Worlds Collide (1955)
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Odd John (1967) (rights acquired only)
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Logan's Run (1968)
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When the Sleeper Wakes (1972)
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War of the Worlds (1974–75) Unfinished TV pilot
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(1976)
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The Time Traveller (1977–78) aka Time Machine II. A novelization with Joe Morhaim was published posthumously in 1981.
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The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1979)
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The Disappearance (1980) (only in preproduction)
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Voyage of the Berg (1980) (only in preproduction)
Posthumous collection
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The Fantasy Film Worlds of George Pal (1985) (Produced and directed by Arnold Leibovit)
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The Puppetoon Movie (1987) (Produced and directed by Arnold Leibovit)
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The Puppetoon Movie Volume 2 (2020) (Produced and directed by Arnold Leibovit)
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The Puppetoon Movie Volume 3 (2023) (Produced and directed by Arnold Leibovit)
Bibliography
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Gail Morgan Hickman. The Films of George Pal. South Brunswick, NJ: A.S. Barnes & Co., 1977. .
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Schepp, Ole and Kamphuis, Fred. George Pal in Holland 1934–1939. Den Haag: Kleinoffsetdrukkerij Kapsenberg, 1983.
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Miller, Thomas Kent. Mars in the Movies: A History. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2016. .
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Peters, Mette. "George Pal’s ‘Cavalcade of Colours, Music and Dolls’: 1930s Advertising Films in Transnational Contexts". In: Animation and Advertising. Thompson, Kirsten Moana, Cook, Malcolm (Eds.). Palgrave Macmillan, 2019. .
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Justin Humphreys. . Albany, GA: BearManor Media, 2023.
External links
