Corky Hale

Corky Hale (born July 3, 1936) has been a working jazz musician for more than 50 years. As both a leader and an in-demand session player, she has traveled across the United States and throughout Europe, playing harp, piano and flute, and singing, as well. In addition to her musical resume, Hale as been a music and theater producer, an actress, an activist, a restaurateur and even the owner of a once-famous Los Angeles clothing store for women.

Childhood

Born Merrilyn Hecht, Corky was raised in the small town of Freeport, Illinois, where she been playing piano at the age of three. At seven, she was enrolled in classical piano studies at the Chicago Conservatory. It was here that she also became interested in the harp, and a life in music was born. In addition to her classical studies, she learned to love and play show tunes and standards, and soon embraced the jazz sounds of Stan Kenton.

At age 16, Corky's parents enrolled her in Stephens College, a school for young ladies, for her last year of high school. After graduation, Corky announced to her parents that she was moving to Hollywood to be a musician, whereupon her father immediately sent her to nearby University of Wisconsin. But it was too late; she’d been bitten by the "show biz bug," and after one year, she announced that now she was definitely going to Hollywood. A compromise was reached: Her parents would drive her to Los Angeles and enroll her at UCLA, where she would live in the sorority house. However, life as a student lasted only a few weeks. Through a friend, she began playing harp on the Freddie Martin Show. Her career had began.

Career

From the 1950s through today, Corky has amassed a long list of performance and recording credentials, including sessions, TV shows and concerts with Liberace, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Steisand, Elkie Brooks, Tony Bennett, Billie Holiday, Harry James, Peggy Lee, James Brown, George Michael and Björk, to name a few.

She has also produced a number of musicians, not to mention a number of movies and plays, including Lullaby of Broadway, a personal profile of the lyricist Al Dubin.

Personal

In the late 1960s, Corky was called to play a session being produced by the legendary songwriting team of Leiber & Stoller. Almost immediately, Corky Hale and Mike Stoller fell in love and, since 1970, have been happily married.

Off stage

Corky has been active outside of the performing arena:

• At the University of Wisconsin, Corky was one of the first, and certainly one of the few white students to join the NAACP.
• She was a birth control teacher at Planned Parenthood in New York, and is presently on the National Advisory Board of NARAL.
• She is an American Film Institute associate.
• She works for charities such as the Los Angeles Free Clinic, where she produced and headlined a show co-starring Rod McKuen.
• She is founder of Angel Harvest, an organization which redistributes unused foods from restaurants, hotels, and events, to the hungry and needy people of greater Los Angeles.