Gabriel Pascal
Encyclopedia
Gabriel Pascal was a Hungarian film producer
and director
.
Born 1894 in Arad, Austria-Hungary
(today Romania
), Pascal was the first film producer to bring the plays of George Bernard Shaw
successfully to the screen. His most famous production was Pygmalion
, for which Pascal himself received an Academy Award nomination as its producer. Pygmalion was later adapted by Lerner and Loewe
into the musical My Fair Lady
. Pascal had tried to convince Shaw to let Pygmalion be turned into a musical, but the outraged Shaw explicitly forbade it, having had a bad experience with the operetta
The Chocolate Soldier
, based on Shaw's Arms and the Man
. Pascal died in 1954, and it was not until 1956 that Pygmalion became My Fair Lady.
. He also claimed that the Gypsies taught him to beg, steal, and do acrobatic tricks. It is unclear what parts of his fabulous account of his childhood are true as there are no formal records of him prior to the age of 17 when he was enlisted in military school
in Holics
, Hungary, by a mysterious Jesuit
priest
. Pascal, who was decidedly unfit for military life, became interested in theater and studied at the Academy of the Hofburgtheater
in Vienna
. Later his interest expanded into the newly burgeoning cinema and he made films in Germany
and Italy
with sporadic success.
Pascal had one son, Peter, conceived in Germany during the delirium of a fever with his landlady's sister Elsie. Unable to care even for himself, Pascal fled to The Netherlands. After WWII
ended, at last on his feet with the success of Pygmalion and Major Barbara, Pascal rushed to Germany to search for his son Peter, but he was listed among the missing Hitler-Jugend
. Elsie had been killed by a bomb.
Pascal had another auspicious encounter when he was young while walking along the shore of the Mediterranean
. An old man, George Bernard Shaw, was swimming naked holding onto a buoy. A conversation ensued and Shaw dared the young Pascal on the shore to take off his clothes and join him in the water. He was impressed when Pascal immediately did so and this began their friendship. Shaw was impressed with Pascal's youthful enthusiasm for art and his bravado and invited him to come visit him one day when he was entirely broke. This chance meeting was to play a major role in Pascal's later career.
Pascal began his producing career making silent movies
in Italy
for German
distribution through UFA Studios
in Berlin
. His directorial debut was Populi Morituri in which he also starred. He later produced comedies in Germany. His most famous was the dark comedy
Unheimliche Geschichten
(Uncanny Stories) in 1932
, directed by Richard Oswald
. The story is a merging of Edgar Allan Poe
's The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether
and The Black Cat
with Robert Louis Stevenson
's The Suicide Club
. It is considered by some to be a forgotten horror classic
of the early talkies.
, Pascal was contacted by Princess Norina Matchabelli (wife of the perfume manufacturer) about a film project based on the teachings of her guru
Shri Meher Baba
. Pascal got very caught up in this project, bringing writers Hy Kraft
and Karl Vollmöller
into helping him work up treatments and even making a trip to India
to discuss the project further with Meher Baba. By the time Pascal arrived in India, however, Meher Baba did not seem in any hurry to complete the film, saying it could wait and inviting Pascal to travel with him in India. Most ordinary men would have been discouraged, but Pascal took energetically to the austere life of an eastern ascetic, even shedding his western garb for eastern clothing. He took a liking to Meher Baba and maintained a correspondence with him for the rest of his life. Meher Baba nicknamed Pascal his "Phoenix" and alternately his "Black Panther."
Pascal remained in close correspondence with his guru Meher Baba right up to the end of his life and met with him for the last time in Scarsdale, New York
in 1952. Even in this final meeting there was talk of films that Pascal had planned to produce for Meher Baba.
hidden in the toilet of the train, then convincing a sea captain to give him a lift to England
.
Somehow he did convince Shaw to give him the rights to his plays, beginning with Pygmalion
(1938), which was an enormous international hit, both critically and financially. Pascal followed up Pygmalion with Major Barbara (1941) which he directed as well as produced. Major Barbara was filmed in London
during the bombing by the Nazis
. During air raids the crew and cast had to dodge into bomb shelters. Pascal never stopped the production and the film was completed on schedule. But Pascal became more and more extravagant, finally losing his credibility with Caesar and Cleopatra (1945) which was the most expensive British movie ever made at that time and a terrible financial and critical flop, although it is highly regarded today. Pascal famously insisted on importing sand from Egypt
to achieve the right cinematic colors for this extravaganza. Shaw had become more difficult to work with also. After the success of Pygmalion, which was shortened in its transition from stage to screen, he increasingly refused to let his plays be cut.
Pascal did manage to produce one more movie, Androcles and the Lion, in 1952. By this time he was increasingly sick with cancer.
. This was an absurd gesture since Pascal was totally in debt. He died within a short time of this letter in July, 1954, and within two years of his death the musical My Fair Lady, which Pascal had managed to retain an option on by borrowing money from a Baba follower named Margaret Scott, opened on Broadway
. Thus, soon after his death, his estate, which had been worth nothing on his deathbed, grew to an estimated value of $2,000,000 as the movie rights for My Fair Lady (which was filmed in 1964) were also quickly optioned. There was a large court battle in which his widow Valerie (from whom he was not fully divorced at the time of his death) and the mistress fought over his estate. His odd last will and testament on the Hotel stationery was entered as evidence in support of his mistress and the case was well-publicized. Several Meher Baba followers were involved in his life at the end including Harold Rudd who testified at his trial. The result of the trial was an even split of Pascal's royalties from My Fair Lady between the mistress and Pascal's estranged widow, each receiving well over one million dollars in settlement. His widow Valerie attempted to pay back the borrowed option money to Margaret Scott but by the time the settlement came through Mrs. Scott had fallen from a New York apartment window to her death. Valerie therefore paid the money to Margaret's daughter instead.
who made a mark on American and British cinema. Pascal was the only producer ever to have major movie deals with seven separate countries on three continents: Hungary, Italy, Germany, China, India, England, and the USA. He was also the only man to ever convince George Bernard Shaw to adjust his scripts to the new medium of cinema, gaining concessions from Shaw that no other man could. Pascal even invented the famous line for Pygmalion, later appearing in the theatrical and film versions of My Fair Lady, "The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain
" and Shaw, by now publicly referring to Pascal as a "genius," wrote the line into the script. He was one of the most extravagant men of his time, named in 1938 as one of the world's most famous men by Time Magazine
along with Adolf Hitler
and the Pope. He is less known for his deep interest in the spiritual and his boundless enthusiasm for art as a direct and honest route to God. He is even less known for his lifelong devotion to spiritual master Meher Baba. His life is well documented in the beautifully written biography by his wife Valerie, "The Disciple and His Devil," published by McGraw-Hill
in 1970 and republished by iUniverse
in 2004. After Pascal's death, Valerie married the famous publisher and philanthropist George T. Delacorte, Jr. and spent the rest of her life supporting charitable foundations under the name Valerie Delacorte.
George Bernard Shaw once wrote:
Film producer
A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
and director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
.
Born 1894 in Arad, Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
(today Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
), Pascal was the first film producer to bring the plays of George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
successfully to the screen. His most famous production was Pygmalion
Pygmalion (1938 film)
Pygmalion is a 1938 British film based on the George Bernard Shaw play of the same title, and adapted by him for the screen. It stars Leslie Howard and Wendy Hiller....
, for which Pascal himself received an Academy Award nomination as its producer. Pygmalion was later adapted by Lerner and Loewe
Lerner and Loewe
Lerner and Loewe are the duo of lyricist and librettist Alan Jay Lerner and composer Frederick Loewe, known primarily for the music and lyrics of some of Broadway's most successful musical shows, including My Fair Lady, Camelot, and Brigadoon....
into the musical My Fair Lady
My Fair Lady
My Fair Lady is a musical based upon George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion and with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe...
. Pascal had tried to convince Shaw to let Pygmalion be turned into a musical, but the outraged Shaw explicitly forbade it, having had a bad experience with the operetta
Operetta
Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...
The Chocolate Soldier
The Chocolate Soldier
The Chocolate Soldier is an operetta composed in 1908 by Oscar Straus based on George Bernard Shaw's 1894 play, Arms and the Man...
, based on Shaw's Arms and the Man
Arms and the Man
Arms and the Man is a comedy by George Bernard Shaw, whose title comes from the opening words of Virgil's Aeneid in Latin:"Arma virumque cano" ....
. Pascal died in 1954, and it was not until 1956 that Pygmalion became My Fair Lady.
Early life
Pascal coined his own name and his real name remains unknown. Pascal's early life is shrouded in mystery. He claimed to have been an orphan taken from a burning building as a child and raised first by Gypsies before being taken away to an orphanageOrphanage
An orphanage is a residential institution devoted to the care of orphans – children whose parents are deceased or otherwise unable or unwilling to care for them...
. He also claimed that the Gypsies taught him to beg, steal, and do acrobatic tricks. It is unclear what parts of his fabulous account of his childhood are true as there are no formal records of him prior to the age of 17 when he was enlisted in military school
Military academy
A military academy or service academy is an educational institution which prepares candidates for service in the officer corps of the army, the navy, air force or coast guard, which normally provides education in a service environment, the exact definition depending on the country concerned.Three...
in Holics
Holíc
Holíč is a town in western Slovakia.-History:The oldest archaeological findings are from the Neolithic, and there are findings from the Bronze Age, Iron Age and the Roman time. The town was first mentioned in 1205 as Wywar, meaning "New Castle". The Árpád dynasty built a stone castle after Mongol...
, Hungary, by a mysterious Jesuit
Society of Jesus
The Society of Jesus is a Catholic male religious order that follows the teachings of the Catholic Church. The members are called Jesuits, and are also known colloquially as "God's Army" and as "The Company," these being references to founder Ignatius of Loyola's military background and a...
priest
Priesthood (Catholic Church)
The ministerial orders of the Catholic Church include the orders of bishops, deacons and presbyters, which in Latin is sacerdos. The ordained priesthood and common priesthood are different in function and essence....
. Pascal, who was decidedly unfit for military life, became interested in theater and studied at the Academy of the Hofburgtheater
Burgtheater
The Burgtheater , originally known as K.K. Theater an der Burg, then until 1918 as the K.K. Hofburgtheater, is the Austrian National Theatre in Vienna and one of the most important German language theatres in the world.The Burgtheater was created in 1741 and has become known as "die Burg" by the...
in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
. Later his interest expanded into the newly burgeoning cinema and he made films in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
and Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
with sporadic success.
Pascal had one son, Peter, conceived in Germany during the delirium of a fever with his landlady's sister Elsie. Unable to care even for himself, Pascal fled to The Netherlands. After WWII
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
ended, at last on his feet with the success of Pygmalion and Major Barbara, Pascal rushed to Germany to search for his son Peter, but he was listed among the missing Hitler-Jugend
Hitler Youth
The Hitler Youth was a paramilitary organization of the Nazi Party. It existed from 1922 to 1945. The HJ was the second oldest paramilitary Nazi group, founded one year after its adult counterpart, the Sturmabteilung...
. Elsie had been killed by a bomb.
Early career
As a young man, Pascal found a job tending horses in Hungary. Leading the horses through the forest to a stream each day, Pascal developed the habit of riding bareback naked through the Hungarian countryside. One day he accidentally rode stark naked through the outdoor set of a silent movie in production and was "discovered." The film's director asked him to repeat the ride for the cameras and he joined the group. Soon he was making his own movies.Pascal had another auspicious encounter when he was young while walking along the shore of the Mediterranean
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...
. An old man, George Bernard Shaw, was swimming naked holding onto a buoy. A conversation ensued and Shaw dared the young Pascal on the shore to take off his clothes and join him in the water. He was impressed when Pascal immediately did so and this began their friendship. Shaw was impressed with Pascal's youthful enthusiasm for art and his bravado and invited him to come visit him one day when he was entirely broke. This chance meeting was to play a major role in Pascal's later career.
Pascal began his producing career making silent movies
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
for German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
distribution through UFA Studios
Universum Film AG
Universum Film AG, better known as UFA or Ufa, is a film company that was the principal film studio in Germany, home of the German film industry during the Weimar Republic and through World War II, and a major force in world cinema from 1917 to 1945...
in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
. His directorial debut was Populi Morituri in which he also starred. He later produced comedies in Germany. His most famous was the dark comedy
Black comedy
A black comedy, or dark comedy, is a comic work that employs black humor or gallows humor. The definition of black humor is problematic; it has been argued that it corresponds to the earlier concept of gallows humor; and that, as humor has been defined since Freud as a comedic act that anesthetizes...
Unheimliche Geschichten
Unheimliche Geschichten
Unheimliche Geschichten is a 1932 German horror/black comedy film directed by the prolific Austrian film director Richard Oswald, starring Paul Wegener, and produced by Gabriel Pascal....
(Uncanny Stories) in 1932
1932 in film
-Events:*Cary Grant's film career begins*Katharine Hepburn's film career begins*Shirley Temple's film career begins*Disney released Flowers and Trees, the first cartoon in three-strip Technicolor film.*Santa, first sound film made in Mexico released....
, directed by Richard Oswald
Richard Oswald
Richard Oswald was an Austrian director, producer, and screenwriter.Richard Oswald, born in Vienna as Richard W. Ornstein, began his career as an actor on the Viennese stage. He made his film directorial debut at age 34 with Das Eiserne Kreuz...
. The story is a merging of Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...
's The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether
The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether
"The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether" is a comedic short story written by American author Edgar Allan Poe.-Plot summary:The story follows an unnamed narrator who visits a mental institution in southern France known for a revolutionary new method of treating mental illnesses called the...
and The Black Cat
The Black Cat (short story)
"The Black Cat" is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe. It was first published in the August 19, 1843, edition of The Saturday Evening Post. It is a study of the psychology of guilt, often paired in analysis with Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart"...
with Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist and travel writer. His best-known books include Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde....
's The Suicide Club
The Suicide Club (Stevenson)
The Suicide Club is a collection of three 19th century detective fiction short stories by Robert Louis Stevenson that combine to form a single narrative...
. It is considered by some to be a forgotten horror classic
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
of the early talkies.
Meher Baba
In 1934, during a trip to HollywoodHollywood, Los Angeles, California
Hollywood is a famous district in Los Angeles, California, United States situated west-northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Due to its fame and cultural identity as the historical center of movie studios and movie stars, the word Hollywood is often used as a metonym of American cinema...
, Pascal was contacted by Princess Norina Matchabelli (wife of the perfume manufacturer) about a film project based on the teachings of her guru
Guru
A guru is one who is regarded as having great knowledge, wisdom, and authority in a certain area, and who uses it to guide others . Other forms of manifestation of this principle can include parents, school teachers, non-human objects and even one's own intellectual discipline, if the...
Shri Meher Baba
Meher Baba
Meher Baba , , born Merwan Sheriar Irani, was an Indian mystic and spiritual master who declared publicly in 1954 that he was the Avatar of the age....
. Pascal got very caught up in this project, bringing writers Hy Kraft
Hy Kraft
Hyman Solomon Kraft , aka Hy Kraft or H.S. Kraft, was an American screenwriter, playwright, and theatrical producer....
and Karl Vollmöller
Karl Vollmöller
Karl Gustav Vollmöller, usually written Vollmoeller was a German playwright and screenwriter.He is most famous for two works, the screenplay for the celebrated 1930 German film Der Blaue Engel , which made a star of Marlene Dietrich, and the elaborate religious spectacle-pantomime Das Mirakel ,...
into helping him work up treatments and even making a trip to India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
to discuss the project further with Meher Baba. By the time Pascal arrived in India, however, Meher Baba did not seem in any hurry to complete the film, saying it could wait and inviting Pascal to travel with him in India. Most ordinary men would have been discouraged, but Pascal took energetically to the austere life of an eastern ascetic, even shedding his western garb for eastern clothing. He took a liking to Meher Baba and maintained a correspondence with him for the rest of his life. Meher Baba nicknamed Pascal his "Phoenix" and alternately his "Black Panther."
Pascal remained in close correspondence with his guru Meher Baba right up to the end of his life and met with him for the last time in Scarsdale, New York
Scarsdale, New York
Scarsdale is a coterminous town and village in Westchester County, New York, United States, in the northern suburbs of New York City. The Town of Scarsdale is coextensive with the Village of Scarsdale, but the community has opted to operate solely with a village government, one of several villages...
in 1952. Even in this final meeting there was talk of films that Pascal had planned to produce for Meher Baba.
Late career
In time, however, Pascal's desire to make his mark on cinema returned and Pascal took a ship back to America penniless but undaunted. He landed in San Francisco where he spent some time deciding what to do next. Then it struck him to approach George Bernard Shaw (the most famous living playwright in the English speaking world at the time), whom Pascal had met auspiciously many years earlier. During that earlier meeting Shaw, who had been impressed with the young Pascal's passion for art and cinema, had told him to pay him a visit when he was entirely penniless. Pascal was now exactly that. He then sought out Shaw, first by going to New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
hidden in the toilet of the train, then convincing a sea captain to give him a lift to England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
Somehow he did convince Shaw to give him the rights to his plays, beginning with Pygmalion
Pygmalion (1938 film)
Pygmalion is a 1938 British film based on the George Bernard Shaw play of the same title, and adapted by him for the screen. It stars Leslie Howard and Wendy Hiller....
(1938), which was an enormous international hit, both critically and financially. Pascal followed up Pygmalion with Major Barbara (1941) which he directed as well as produced. Major Barbara was filmed in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
during the bombing by the Nazis
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
. During air raids the crew and cast had to dodge into bomb shelters. Pascal never stopped the production and the film was completed on schedule. But Pascal became more and more extravagant, finally losing his credibility with Caesar and Cleopatra (1945) which was the most expensive British movie ever made at that time and a terrible financial and critical flop, although it is highly regarded today. Pascal famously insisted on importing sand from Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
to achieve the right cinematic colors for this extravaganza. Shaw had become more difficult to work with also. After the success of Pygmalion, which was shortened in its transition from stage to screen, he increasingly refused to let his plays be cut.
Pascal did manage to produce one more movie, Androcles and the Lion, in 1952. By this time he was increasingly sick with cancer.
The famous estate trial
In spring of 1954, in New York City, just before his passing Pascal had planned a trip to India to see Meher Baba one last time. He was having an affair and divorcing his wife at the time. One day he impulsively wrote on a piece of hotel stationery to his mistress, "If I die on my trip to India I leave my entire estate to you." He signed and dated it before two witnesses, a cook and a maid in the hotel who did not speak English but only ChineseChinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
. This was an absurd gesture since Pascal was totally in debt. He died within a short time of this letter in July, 1954, and within two years of his death the musical My Fair Lady, which Pascal had managed to retain an option on by borrowing money from a Baba follower named Margaret Scott, opened on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
. Thus, soon after his death, his estate, which had been worth nothing on his deathbed, grew to an estimated value of $2,000,000 as the movie rights for My Fair Lady (which was filmed in 1964) were also quickly optioned. There was a large court battle in which his widow Valerie (from whom he was not fully divorced at the time of his death) and the mistress fought over his estate. His odd last will and testament on the Hotel stationery was entered as evidence in support of his mistress and the case was well-publicized. Several Meher Baba followers were involved in his life at the end including Harold Rudd who testified at his trial. The result of the trial was an even split of Pascal's royalties from My Fair Lady between the mistress and Pascal's estranged widow, each receiving well over one million dollars in settlement. His widow Valerie attempted to pay back the borrowed option money to Margaret Scott but by the time the settlement came through Mrs. Scott had fallen from a New York apartment window to her death. Valerie therefore paid the money to Margaret's daughter instead.
Legacy
Pascal is best remembered as one of the Hungarian producers of the likes of Alexander KordaAlexander Korda
Sir Alexander Korda was a Hungarian-born British producer and film director. He was a leading figure in the British film industry, the founder of London Films and the owner of British Lion Films, a film distributing company.-Life and career:The elder brother of filmmakers Zoltán Korda and Vincent...
who made a mark on American and British cinema. Pascal was the only producer ever to have major movie deals with seven separate countries on three continents: Hungary, Italy, Germany, China, India, England, and the USA. He was also the only man to ever convince George Bernard Shaw to adjust his scripts to the new medium of cinema, gaining concessions from Shaw that no other man could. Pascal even invented the famous line for Pygmalion, later appearing in the theatrical and film versions of My Fair Lady, "The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain
The Rain in Spain
"The Rain in Spain" is a song from the musical My Fair Lady, with music by Frederick Loewe and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner. The song was published in 1956....
" and Shaw, by now publicly referring to Pascal as a "genius," wrote the line into the script. He was one of the most extravagant men of his time, named in 1938 as one of the world's most famous men by Time Magazine
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
along with Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
and the Pope. He is less known for his deep interest in the spiritual and his boundless enthusiasm for art as a direct and honest route to God. He is even less known for his lifelong devotion to spiritual master Meher Baba. His life is well documented in the beautifully written biography by his wife Valerie, "The Disciple and His Devil," published by McGraw-Hill
McGraw-Hill
The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., is a publicly traded corporation headquartered in Rockefeller Center in New York City. Its primary areas of business are financial, education, publishing, broadcasting, and business services...
in 1970 and republished by iUniverse
IUniverse
iUniverse, founded in October 1999, is a self-publishing company, co-located with AuthorHouse in Bloomington, Indiana. Publishers Weekly notes iUniverse has partnerships with The Writers' Club and the Writer's Digest .-History:iUniverse initially focused on business-to-consumer print-on-demand...
in 2004. After Pascal's death, Valerie married the famous publisher and philanthropist George T. Delacorte, Jr. and spent the rest of her life supporting charitable foundations under the name Valerie Delacorte.
George Bernard Shaw once wrote:
Gabriel Pascal is one of those extraordinary men who turn up occasionally – say once in a century – and may be called godsends in the arts to which they are devoted. Pascal is doing for films what Diaghileff did for the Russian Ballet. . . He shocks me by his utter indifference to cost; but the result justifies him; and Hollywood, which always values a director in proportion to the money he throws away, is now at his feet: for he throws it away like water. The man is a genius: That is all I have to say about him.
Trivia
- Pascal was born in the same year as his guru, Meher BabaMeher BabaMeher Baba , , born Merwan Sheriar Irani, was an Indian mystic and spiritual master who declared publicly in 1954 that he was the Avatar of the age....
, in 1894. - Thirty years before Richard AttenboroughRichard AttenboroughRichard Samuel Attenborough, Baron Attenborough , CBE is a British actor, director, producer and entrepreneur. As director and producer he won two Academy Awards for the 1982 film Gandhi...
produced and directed the movie GandhiGandhi (film)Gandhi is a 1982 biographical film based on the life of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, who led the nonviolent resistance movement against British colonial rule in India during the first half of the 20th century. The film was directed by Richard Attenborough and stars Ben Kingsley as Gandhi. They both...
, Gabriel Pascal had a written agreement with the prime minister of India Jawaharlal NehruJawaharlal NehruJawaharlal Nehru , often referred to with the epithet of Panditji, was an Indian statesman who became the first Prime Minister of independent India and became noted for his “neutralist” policies in foreign affairs. He was also one of the principal leaders of India’s independence movement in the...
to produce a movie of Gandhi's life. He did not live long enough to produce the film. - Near the end of his life, Gabriel Pascal told his wife Valerie (Hídvéghy Valéria) that he would leave her millions. As absurd as it sounded at the time (he was in debt), his words came true.
- Margaret Scott, a disciple of Meher Baba's, paid Pascal's enormous debt to his mistress, paid his $7000.00 option payment on My Fair Lady, and paid his hospital bills on his death bed. It is not known if she fell or jumped from a New York apartment building to her death after his. Her daughter was fully reimbursed from the estate.
- Gabriel Pascal swore off drinking alcohol at an early age. However, he smoked cigars prodigiously, provoking admonishment from George Bernard Shaw that he would ruin his voice.
- Gabriel Pascal, who had been called a "genius" by George Bernard Shaw, was one of the few people Meher Baba also referred to as a genius, a short list which included Friedrich NietzscheFriedrich NietzscheFriedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a 19th-century German philosopher, poet, composer and classical philologist...
and the Dutch filmmaker Louis van GasterenLouis van GasterenLouis Alphonse van Gasteren is a Dutch director and documentary filmmaker. He is the son of the actor Louis van Gasteren Sr. and the concert-singer Elise Menagé Challa.- Biography :...
. - Harold Rudd, the Meher Baba follower who testified at Pascal's highly publicized estate trial, had a son, Raphael Rudd, who later went on to collaborate with Baba follower Pete TownshendPete TownshendPeter Dennis Blandford "Pete" Townshend is an English rock guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and author, known principally as the guitarist and songwriter for the rock group The Who, as well as for his own solo career...
on The Oceanic ConcertsThe Oceanic ConcertsThe Oceanic Concerts is a collaboration album with Pete Townshend and Raphael Rudd that was first publicly released in 2001.Townshend sings a selection of Who standards as Raphael Rudd accompanies him on harp. Raphael Rudd, a harpist and pianist, had been a member of the band Renaissance between...
album in 2001. Raphael died in an auto accident in 2002. - When Gabriel Pascal died, Meher Baba cabled his followers in New York from India that Pascal had come to him and included Pascal in his list of deceased followers and had the list read out to him in 1968, the year before he died.
- Momentarily reviving from a coma, Pascal's last words were, "I see."
Further reading
- Donald P. Costello. The Serpent's Eye, Shaw and the Cinema. University of Notre Dame Press, 1965.
- Marjorie Deans. Meeting at the Sphinx—Gabriel Pascal's Production of Bernard Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra. London: MacDonald & Co, 1946.
- Bhau Kalchuri. Lord Meher: The Biography of the Avatar of the Age, Meher Baba. Manifestation, 1986.
- Valerie Pascal. The Disciple and His Devil. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1970. Reprinted by iUniverse in 2004. ISBN 0-595-33772-4
- Bernard Shaw and Gabriel Pascal. Bernard Shaw and Gabriel Pascal (Selected Correspondence of Bernard Shaw). Bernard F. Dukore (Editor). Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1996. ISBN 0-8020-3002-5