George Pal (bornGyörgy Pál Marczincsak,[1]Hungarian:[ˈmɒrt͡sint͡ʃɒkˈɟørɟˈpɑːl]; February 1, 1908 – May 2, 1980) was a Hungarian-Americananimator, film director and producer, principally associated with the fantasy andscience-fiction genres. He became an American citizen after emigrating from Europe.
He was nominated forAcademy 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 withWilliam S. Darling andErnest Laszlo) afterMiklós Rózsa.
Pal was born inCegléd, Hungary, as Gyula György Marczincsak the son of Gyula Marczincsak, Sr.[2] and his wife Mária Tikó; in 1936 he officially changed his last name Marczincsak to "Pál", becoming György (George) Pál. He graduated from theHungarian University of Fine Arts in 1928 (aged 20). From 1928 to 1931, he made films forHunnia Film Studio ofBudapest, Hungary. In 30th June of 1930 in Budapest, he married Elisabeth "Zsóka" Grandjean,[3] and after moving to Berlin, founded Trickfilm-Studio GmbH Pal und Wittke, withUFA Studios as its main customer from 1931 to 1933. During this time, he patented the Pal-Doll technique (known asPuppetoons in the US).
In 1933, he worked in Prague. In 1934, he made cigarette[4] advertisement films in his hotel room in Paris, and was invited byPhilips to make two more ad shorts. He started to use Pal-Doll techniques inEindhoven, in a former butchery, then at villa-studio Suny Home. He made five films before 1939 for the British companyHorlicks Malted Milk.[5] In December of that year, aged 32, he emigrated from Europe to the United States,[6] and began work forParamount Pictures. At this time, his friendWalter Lantz helped him obtain American citizenship.
As an animator, he made thePuppetoons series in the 1940s, which led to him being awarded anhonorary 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 withThe Great Rupert (1950).
TheAcademy Film Archive has preserved several of George Pal's films, includingRadio Röhren (Valve) Revolution (1934),[14] an advertising short forPhilips,Jasper and the Beanstalk (1945), andJohn Henry and the Inky Poo (1946).[15]
^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.
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