Trivia

He was one of Ray Harryhausen's early employers and mentors.

Pal and his crew (Galaxy Films and, at Paramount, the Cauliflower Ear Gang) worked special-effects miracles at a time when there were no computers to help and very little precedent on which to go. Martian military hardware, time travel, and spaceship launch systems were designed from scratch. These were high-risk ventures that required considerable imagination (genius, really), ingenuity, determination, tenacity, and courage.

The estate of H.G. Wells was so impressed with La Guerre des mondes (1953) that they offered Pal an option on any of Wells's science fiction stories. Pal choose La Machine à explorer le temps (1960).

Was mentioned in the song "Science Fiction Double Feature" on the Rocky Horror Picture Show" soundtrack in the line "And When worlds collide, Said George Pal to his bride, I'm gonna give you some Terrible Thrills".

Despite being born to theater parents, Pal was said to have despised the stage.

All of his movies feature a cameo appearance from Woody Woodpecker somewhere because he and Walter Lantz were close friends. Andy Panda, another Lantz character, appears in Doc Savage arrive! (1975), which also features a cameo by Grace Stafford, the voice of Woody.

He has produced three films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: Tulips Shall Grow (1942), John Henry and the Inky-Poo (1946) and La Guerre des mondes (1953). He has also directed two films that are in the registry: Tulips Shall Grow and John Henry and the Inky-Poo.

Is co-author (with Joe Morheim) of a novel, Time Machine II, a sequel to the H.G. Wells classic.

Unfinished or unmade film projects to which George Pal committed his personal time, money, and energy include "After Worlds Collide" (Paramount, 1955) - a sequel to Le choc des mondes (1951) - unmade due to the poor returns of La Conquête de l'espace (1955); "Logan's Run" (MGM, 1968) - unmade due to poor returns of La guerre des cerveaux (1968), eventually made by Saul David as L'Âge de cristal (1976); "When The Sleeper Wakes" (MGM, 1972), based on the science-fiction novel by H.G. Wells - unmade due to Woody Allen's parody version then in production, Woody et les robots (1973); "Doc Savage II" (Warner Bros., 1976) - unmade due to poor returns of Doc Savage arrive! (1975); "The Time Traveler" (MGM, 1977-1978) aka "Time Machine II," a sequel to his movie of H.G. Wells's La Machine à explorer le temps (1960) - unmade due to MGM rejecting three scripts submitted by George Pal and Nicholas Meyer's film C'était demain (1979) in production; "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" (MGM-Cinerama, 1979) - a sequel to MGM's Le Magicien d'Oz (1939) - unmade due to MGM not committing to a new deal with Cinerama Corp. to make this as a multi-million-dollar Cinerama film (in Super Panavision 70mm) and no script approval; "The Voyage of the Berg" (IPA-Filmways, 1979-1980) - in production several months, unfinished due to George Pal's death in May 1980; and "The Disappearance" (WB, 1980) - in pre-production planning in early 1980.

Once designed art subtitles for silent films in the 1920s to keep food on the table.