Hal Pearl

Hal's concerts included his popular "sing-along" allowing audience participation with the lyrics being shown on the main screen.

He wrote his signature piece Let Come What May and released several records including Memories of the Aragon With Hal Pearl at The Mighty Wurlitzer and Singing Canaries.

He started playing the piano at age five, repeating music he heard from the silent film accompanists in the Nickelodeons located along Chicago's North Avenue.

His father, a dentist who recognized Hal's childhood talent, paid for classical piano lessons and supported him in his music.

Hal later was trained by the famed theater organist Jesse Crawford on the massive Wurlitzer pipe organ at the Chicago Theatre.

Producer Robert Seipp researched each film he presented with a pipe organ score provided by Hal; the on-screen host of the show was Don Ferris.

Hal Pearl gave a sold-out organ concert at the reopening of the Chicago Theatre on Sunday afternoon, September 7, 1986.

Gregory Pearl, a family member, overheard comments in the lobby at the concert where people said, "The kid can play the organ, but the old man (Hal) can make it sing."

Despite being sick, he still put on an organ concert and accompanied the Rudolph Valentino silent movie Blood and Sand (1922) at Chicago's Patio Theater a year prior to his passing.

Hal at the Aragon Ballroom with Fans
Hal Pearl at Chicago Theatre's "Mighty Wurlitzer"