Collection context
Summary
- Title:
- George Pal papers
- Dates:
- 1937-1986
- Extent:
- 20.5 linear feet (41 boxes) and 1.25 linear feet (1 unprocessed flat box)
- Language:
- Materials are in English.
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], George Pal Papers (Collection Number PASC 110). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
Collection consists of material related to career of animator producer director George Pal. Includes correspondence, script materials, photographs, audio recordings, publicity material, clippings, and research and development materials. Contains material representing Pal's produced films, animated shorts, and unproduced projects. Includes materials for several projects including "Doc Savage" (1975), "Puppetoons," "Seven Faces Of Dr. Lao" (1964), "Time Machine" (1960), "War Of The Worlds" (1953), and "The Wonderful World Of The Brothers Grimm" (1962).
- Biographical / historical:
-
Pal was born in Cegled, Hungary, Feb. 1, 1908; graduated from the Budapest Academy of Arts with an architecture degree; began his cinema career in Budapest, then moved to Universum Film Aktien Gesellschaft (UFA) in Berlin where he became head of the animation department; moved to Paris and under the sponsorship of Phillips radio he began work on his first "puppet-toon," "The Ship of Ether"; he opened a studio in Holland (1930s) where he continued working on his "puppet-toon" concept which involved manipulating thousands of different interchangeable wooden heads, arms, legs, and bodies to produce a fluid and lifelike effect when filmed a frame at a time; in 1940, Paramount studio commissioned Pal to make a series of theatrical puppet cartoon short subjects, "The Madcap Models" and "George Pal Puppetoons"; he went on to feature films in 1950 with "The Great Rupert" and "Destination Moon," the first Technicolor science fiction film; the recipient of numerous awards including Academy Awards for Achievement in Special Effects and a special Award for the development of novel methods and techniques in the production of short subjects known as Puppetoons; died 1980.
- Processing information:
-
Collections are processed to a variety of levels depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived user interest and research value, availability of staff and resources, and competing priorities. Library Special Collections provides a standard level of preservation and access for all collections and, when time and resources permit, conducts more intensive processing. These materials have been arranged and described according to national and local standards and best practices.
Processed by UCLA Library Performing Arts Special Collections staff.
We are committed to providing ethical, inclusive, and anti-racist description of the materials we steward, and to remediating existing description of our materials that contains language that may be offensive or cause harm. We invite you to submit feedback about how our collections are described, and how they could be described more accurately, by filling out the form located on our website: Report Potentially Offensive Description in Library Special Collections.
- Arrangement:
-
Arranged in the following series:
- Biographical miscellaneous
- Produced films
- Unproduced projects
- Physical / technical requirements:
-
CONTAINS AUDIO MATERIALS: This collection contains both processed and unprocessed audiov materials. Audio materials are not currently available for access, unless otherwise noted in a Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements note at the series and file levels. All requests to access processed digital materials must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
- Physical location:
- Stored off-site. All requests to access special collections material must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
- Rules or conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Indexed terms
- Subjects:
- Animators -- Archives.
- Names:
- Pal, George -- Archives
About this collection guide
- Date Encoded:
- This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2026-03-03 08:55:59 -0800 .
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
- Terms of access:
-
Property rights to the physical objects belong to UCLA Library Special Collections. All other rights, including copyright, are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], George Pal Papers (Collection Number PASC 110). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
- Location of this collection:
-
A1713 Charles E. Young Research LibraryBox 951575Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575, US
- Contact:
- (310) 825-4988