Visiting family in the past, and reading kids' books

I visited family in England recently and brought back an English VCR. Our old "multi-region" VCR died in our flood and isn't made any more. Second hand versions are "available," but with reviews that say the machine overheats and only runs for about a year, so buying that way did not seem good. So... an English VCR, that reads English tapes (PAL as opposed to NTSC), but would they play on an American TV?

First, of course, I had to connect the player to the TV. No SCART plug of course. I could...