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EULOGY for GEORGE PAL: Holy Cross Cemetery 6 April 1980 (Forry Ackerman)

GEORGE PAL, tho born in Hungary, had two fathers, one French, the other English--both spiritual. George Pal never produced a motion picture based on a work by Jules Verne but the spirit of the famous French author surely led him leagues beneath the sea to the legendary island of Atlantis; and, with the aid of the Dean of Science Fiction, Robert Heinlein, George cinematically set astronauts' feet upon the surface of our satellite 20 years before the historical reality of 1969's lunar triumph.

His English inspirator was H.G.Wells, via whose imagination George visualized for the world what that other Welles, Orson, so dramatically dramatized on radio that traumatizing night of fright, Halloween 1938, when Mars Invaded Earth. In transferring WAR OF THE WORLDS to the silver screen, George Pal took this reviewer's breath away, for I forgot to inhale during the entire time the epic film was being unspooled at the preview; later audiences in turn held their breaths.
George Pal was the living proof that "big things come in small packages" for, tho of medium stature, his mind was a phosphorescent fountain of fantasy, an amazing example of that sixth sense, the Sense of Wonder. Via the future-traveling mechanism of H.G.Wells he whirled us almost to world's end in THE TIME MACHINE.
I am a veteran of 41 years of international science fiction conventioneering. Only once before at a convention have I witnessed an audience so stunned when an announcement was made of the demise of a prominent figure. There were audible gasps when conventioneers learned some years ago of the untimely passing of Ernest Hemingway; last Saturday, when it fell my sad lot at the science fiction conclave in Nashville, Tennessee, to inform my audience of the sudden unexpected end of George Pal's life, the shocked reaction was akin to the passing in the mundane world of a popular president, a world-famous statesman, a best-selling, award-winning novelist.
Awards? Pal earned them aplenty. Eight Oscars from the motion licture industry. The Count Dracula Society, 18 years in existence, is a prestigious organization which has honored Rouben Mamoulian, Boris Karloff, Fritz Lang, former actress and congresswoman Helen Gahagen Douglas and the recently-deceased Sir Alfred Hitchcock. The society's president, Dr. Donald Reed, tells us: "George Pal received 3 awards from our organization, of which he was an honorary chairman. In addition, from our more recent Academy Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, he received the Life Career Award and 4 other important honors and was prominent on last year's telecast of the proceedings of the Academy." Douglas Wright, founder of the International Society of Science Fiction, Horror & Fantasy Films, chose George to be one of the select few on the Advisory Board after he had been inaugurated into the Hall of Fame and the separate fantasy oriented Hall of Fame.
Like the pioneer of silent science fiction films, Fritz Lang, George Pal was schooled in architecture and art. An excellent artist, he visualized many of his motion pictures with pre-production paintings and storyboards of his own devising and was very generous in donating many of these, as well as props from his sci-fi and fantasy films, to the Science Fiction Museum of Hollywood.
Hollywood? Yes, and--Hooray for Dollywood. On my last visit to Holland I made a pilgrimage to the studio in Einhoven where George Pal pioneered his beloved puppetoons. Old-timers there still remembered him with affection and admiration. Here on the home front, praise has been pouring in from friends and associates.
William Tuttle, makeup man who worked with George on so many of his films: "I don't think I've ever known a man who had such a vivid imagination, almost childlike in simplicity, coupled with great artistry, and also a man with a great sense of humor and unselfish in his praise for his co-workers. I considered him a great artist, a great friend and one of the all-time greats in the motion picture industry."
Ray Bradbury, word wizard of fantasy and the Martian Chronicler: "I feel that George Pal's films will be around for a good many years. I think that THE TIME MACHINE and WAR OF THE WORLDS may be the definitive versions of those books done by anyone. He knew how to frighten us, how to delight us; the sad thing is not only that George Pal is gone but we miss the fact there will be no more films from his hands."
Tom & Terry Pinckard, co-hosts of the Science Fiction Writers Salon: "Whenever we think of George Pal, the titles of his great movies will flash thru our minds, yet our favorite knowing of him is of him and Zsoka entering a room, talking and joking with friends, but always nearby each other; and if they were close, they held hands. The love they had for each other--that is the memory we'll keep dear."
Gail Hickman, who authored 'The Films of George Pal': "He was the man who could work miracles."
Robert Bloch, who had recently completed work for George on writing assignments for IN THE DAYS OF THE COMET and THE VOYAGE OF THE BERG: "I feel I have lost a friend and the world of science fiction films has lost a giant."
Ann Robinson, star of WAR OF THE WORLDS, her words frequently punctuated by sobs of sorrow: "I will never forget the 25th Anniversary of that film on Hollywood Blvd. I was extremely lucky and fortunate to have been in the car with him on that occasion. We were driving to the theater and there were lines and crowds of people. There was la look on his face I'll never forget. He was astonished at the turnout; he couldn't believe that 2000 people or more would come to see a movie 25 years old that they could see on television. So I looked at him and said, 'They came to see YOU, George; it WAS you.' When my son heard he'd died he said, 'It was like he was my grandfather.' There was that kind of kindness about George. He was never too busy, never rude, never unkind. Gosh, I grew up with him. He was just like family. He kept you up, just having someone like that to care enough."
Reached in London, Ray Harryhausen, long the world's greatest animator of stop-motion models, said: "Working with George Pal was an enormous break in the beginning of my career. He was a kind and gentle genius."
My wife: "In an industry where rudeness is the rule and egos are everywhere, George Pal's old world charm, gentility and modesty were as refreshing as a breeze from an emerald lake in the land of Oz. His sons David and Peter and 4 grandchildren can remember a father and grandfather who was a living legend and has left a legacy of stellar magnitude to moviegoers, young and old alike, for ages to come."
In the science fiction genre we speak of the World of Unwrought Things. Left unfilled now are so many marvelous projects we had hoped from Pal: sequels to WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE, THE TIME MACHINE, perhaps even WAR OF THE WORLDS; the film bio of ODD JOHN, a superman with an IQ of 10,000; the spectacle of clashing robots in Lord Dunsany's THE LAST REVOLUTION; the unique and fascinating plot of Philip Wylie's THE DISAPPEARANCE; the possible remake of METROPOLIS; the return of DOC SAVAGE; a sound version of the mythical classic THE GOLEM. But still to look forward to are George's co-novelization of THE TIME MACHINE II and his inspired book about the mysterious artist Hieronymous Bosch.
Now I would like to share with you a few memories of my own of George Pal over a period of 40 years of friendship. The verse is from the tender love story "Three Lines of Old French" and is a message of immortality and reunion from one who has passed on to one who remains.

To me he was the Disney of Fantasy and Sc-Fi Films, a pied piper whose irresistible tune lured us to realms unknown and worlds of wonder. In 1939 when I was an employee of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences I was drawn into the auditorium adjacent to my office where I was galvanized by a screening of "The Ship of the Ether" and became an instant Pal fan. Years later George gave me a cameo role in THE POWER. After the preview, because of excessive running time, I was excised from the picture--but, no egotist George, he joined me on the cutting room floor and cut his own cameo from the film. Posterity's loss. He had a fey sense of humor, an outstanding example of which I recall when he and I were together in Brazil in 1969 at the invitation of the Government for a worldwide festival of science fiction films. The night of our arrival we strolled side by side along the seaside sidewalk in front of our hotel in Rio de Janeiro and had not proceeded a half block before we were approached by two senoritas of the evening with an X-rated offer. "Do you boys have the time?" they asked. Pointing to his bare wrist, George replied: "I'm sorry ladies, I never wear a watch." This line deserves the fame of Bela Lugosi's "I never drink...wine." Like Alfred Hitchcock, George had a lifelong love affair with one woman, his childhood sweetheart Zsoka who I never heard him refer to as other than "my bride". For Zsoka there are hopefully comforting words from a poem by A. Merritt, an author whose novel "The Ship of Ishtar" Pal found intriguing and might one day have filmed.

Nor grieve, dear heart,
Nor fear the seeming.
There is waking
After dreaming.

Few professional relationships have endured as long as that of Gae Griffith with her boss--"34 wonderful working years in which I was privileged to assist this most creative producer and invaluable friend."

Thru some egregious oversight George Pal never had his prints implanted in the forecourt of the Chinese Theater. No matter, his imprint is there, and in a million theaters and on a billion TV screens throughout the world for all eternity. I confidently believe that when generations yet unborn are inhabiting L-5 satellites, domed cities on the Moon, a terraformed Venus and Mars, they will be enthralled by films and tapes of the Wonderful World of George Pal.
In addition to his star in the sidewalk near Hollywood and Vine, I could not be more pleased to tell you that a star in the heavens, in the constellation of Cepheus, has been named...GEORGE PAL. His celestial address has been recorded in the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory Star Catalog.
One final word. In the history of fantasy films, one character who made an indelible impression was Fredric March in DEATH TAKES A HOLIDAY, wherein he portrayed Death charismatically personified as Prince Sirki. Prince Sirki has since taken innumerable celebrities from us but aficionados of fantasy films feel that the Prince welcomes his permanent guests as homecoming friends. Approximately once a week George and I would talk on the phone and inevitably his parting words would be, "Well, take good care." I entreat Prince Sirki now, that Kindly Guardian of our souls, to welcome a prince among men.

"Please take good care of George."

Waiting to greet George will be The Great Rupert, Houdini, Dr. Lao, Hansel and Gretel, matriarchal Celia Lovsky of THE POWER and Weena of far futurity.