George Pal (born György Pál Marczincsak;[1]Hungarian:[ˈmɒrt͡sint͡ʃɒkˈɟørɟˈpɑːl]; February 1, 1908 – May 2, 1980) was a Hungarian-American
animator, film director and producer, principally associated with the fantasy and
science-fiction genres. He became an American citizen after emigrating from Europe.
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, the son of György Pál Marczincsak, Sr.[2] and his wife Mária. 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 1931, 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[3] advertisement films in his hotel room in Paris, and was invited by
Philips to make two more ad shorts. He started to use Pal-Doll techniques in
Eindhoven, in a former butchery, then at villa-studio Suny Home. He made five films before 1939 for the British company
Horlicks Malted Milk.[4] In December of that year, aged 32, he emigrated from Europe to the United States,[5] 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).
The
Academy Film Archive has preserved several of George Pal's films, including Radio Röhren (Valve) Revolution (1934),[12] an advertising short for
Philips, Jasper and the Beanstalk (1945), and John Henry and the Inky Poo (1946).[13]
^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.
Schepp, Ole and Kamphuis, Fred. George Pal in Holland 1934–1939. Den Haag: Kleinoffsetdrukkerij Kapsenberg, 1983.
Miller, Thomas Kent. Mars in the Movies: A History. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2016.
ISBN978-0-7864-9914-4.
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.
ISBN978-3-030-27938-7.