On May 19, 2026, the final curtain came down for a ninety-one-year-old showman, songwriter and family man leaving a Jackie Gleeson-sized void to all who had the privilege of knowing Frank Pisani. 

Frank was born to a barber and a seamstress in “The Patch” on Chicago’s Near Northwest Side.  He taught in the Chicago Public School System, but as he put it, “There wasn’t enough applause in it for me, so I opted for a life of show business!” 

His big break came in the mid-1950s while he was working as an usher at WGN-TV for “Bandstand Matinee,” the #1 show for teens at the time. Frank would settle the audience down before the show by singing the current hits. One day, the audience convinced the show’s host, Jim Lounsbury, to let Frank sing live on television. He caught the eye of the show’s producer, who paved the way for Frank’s first record, “Crybaby” as the lead singer of the 1955 doo-wop group, “The Highlights” under the stage name of Frank Devon. 

He continued to tour with the band, touring with the Dick Clark caravan and performed on the ever-popular television program, “The Arthur Godfrey Show.”  He was on his way to what would become a seventy-plus-year love affair with applause from appreciative audiences. 

Frank was drafted into the Army Signal Corps, but that couldn’t keep him off the stage. He performed for officers and the troops stateside, and thanks to an accommodating Commanding Officer, he was able to sneak away to perform at the Seattle World’s Fair. Starring in “Johnny Angel and the Girls of the Galaxy,” Frank was having the time of his life. The actual “Girls of the Galaxy were 

Frank Pisani made a career of singing and performing comedy primarily by way of impersonation and impression.  The “Golden Age” of entertainers between 1945 and 1975 is where the foundation of his subject matter originated.  He had a knack for it, and has he put it, “I didn’t have enough of a musical repertoire to have a whole show, so I added impersonations and folks loved them!” 

If there was a single star that could define Frank’s latter-day career, the legendary Jimmy Durante would serve as the subject.  A tilted wrinkled fedora, a rubber fake nose and a stiff-legged stance would magically transform Frank into a living Durante.   

By the end of his performance of “Inka Dinka Do” and the statement that, “Everybody wants to get into da act,” Frank would bring Durante during the black-and-white television era of the 1960s completely back to life.  The Durante signature, “Goodnight Mrs. Calabash, wherever you are!” became a familiar send off for him as well.  Frank even recorded an entire album as Jimmy Durante on the Pocket Song label. 

Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Tony Bennett were also key parts of Frank’s act.  So much so that he earned a cameo role as Tony Bennett in the 1984 film “Hard to Hold” starring Rick Springfield. 

Frank was drafted into the Army Signal Corps, but that couldn’t keep him off the stage. He performed for officers and the troops stateside, and thanks to an accommodating Commanding Officer, he was able to sneak away to perform at the Seattle World’s Fair. Starring in “Johnny Angel and the Girls of the Galaxy,” Frank was having the time of his life. The actual “Girls of the Galaxy were actually strippers, and my dressing room was their washroom!” he recalled in a previous interview. 

Frank also fondly recalled the years he spent on stage with The Solid Gold Dancers, and the multiple roles he played in “The Pack is Back,” a wildly successful revue in the late 1990s at Piper’s Alley. In 2004, he was the closing act at the fabled Martinique in the south suburbs. Of all the roles he has undertaken, that of husband and father were Frank’s most cherished. Offered Vegas in the early ’80s; he opted to stay in the Midwest to raise his family. 

Frank retired to Florida seventeen years ago. Regular golf and card games kept him going, yet he still wrote songs and sang to his fans on social media.  One day he got up from dinner, sat in his chair in front of the television, and drifted off to join his heroes he would impersonate in Heaven. 

Frank Pisani lived to entertain and loved to make people laugh. His legacy will be one of warmth and laughter.  “Good night Mr. Pisani, wherever you are.”