Arch Hall Sr.

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Archibald Williams Hall aka Arch Hall Sr. (1908-1978) was an American actor, writer, and film producer, best known for making a series of B-movies in the early 1960s which starred his son, Arch Hall Jr..

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[edit] Biography

He was born December 21, 1908 in St. Louis, Missouri, and grew up in South Dakota, a genuine cowboy. He spoke the Sioux language and had a Sioux name, "Waa-toe-gala Oak-Shilla" (translation: Wild Boy).

Hall graduated from the University of South Dakota, wrote for radio, interviewing elderly native-Americans on KOTA, and was a pilot in the Army Air Force. He worked as a stuntman in Hollywood in the 1930s, a job which expanded into small acting roles in various films, usually Westerns.

He married Addalyn Faye Pollitt (born June 5, 1906 in Decorah, Iowa. She worked with him in the radio days, as a staff writer. During World War II, she was a Navy Inspector at Lockheed Aircraft. They had one child, Arch Hall Jr., born in 1943.

Hall Sr. formed his own movie studio, Fairway Productions, in Burbank, California. In the 1960s it made a series of B-films targeted towards the drive-in market, that were later hailed as some of the worst films ever made. They starred himself, his son Arch Jr., his wife would appear as an extra or character actor, and the sound was handled by Arch Jr. and his friend from high school, Alan O'Day (who later wrote #1 pop songs in the 1970s).

Hall died of a heart attack on April 28, 1978 in Los Angeles, and was buried with honors in a Sioux funeral in Philip, South Dakota. The service was presided over by the current Chief, Frank Foolscrow. His life and times are extensively discussed in the 51-page interview with Arch Hall Jr. that appears in the 2005 book "Earth vs. the Sci-Fi Filmmakers" by Tom Weaver (North Carolina: McFarland & Co.).

[edit] Stage names

  • Nicholas Merriwether (also Meriwether, Merriweather)
  • William Waters (also Watters)
  • Archie Hall

[edit] Cultural impact

Hall's life was satirized in The Last Time I Saw Archie, a 1961 film by Bill Bowers which starred Jack Webb, Robert Mitchum, and France Nuyen. The film was loosely based on Hall's experience in the Army after being declared to be too old to fly fighters, but too inexperienced to fly bombers, leaving his only option to fly troop gliders.

[edit] Selected works

[edit] References

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