Arch Hall, Sr.

Archibald Williams Hall (December 21, 1908 – April 28, 1978), known as Arch was an American actor and filmmaker, best known for making a series of B-movies made in the early 1960s starring his son, Arch Hall Jr. Hall used various names throughout his career including Nicholas Merriwether, William Waters, and Archie Hall. Early life and career Hall was born in St. Louis, Missouri and grew up in South Dakota as a genuine cowboy. Hall 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 United States Army Air Forces. Hall's experience in the Air Force 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 transport gliders. Hall then worked as a stuntman in Hollywood in the 1930s, a job which expanded into small acting roles in various films, usually Westerns. Hall formed his own movie studio, Fairway Productions, in Burbank, California. In the early 1960s, Fairway Productions made a series of B-films targeted towards the drive-in market, and were later hailed as some of the worst films ever made. They starred himself, his son Arch Jr., and his wife Addalyn, who would appear as a background extra or character actor. The sound was handled by Arch Jr. and his friend from high school, Alan O'Day, who later rose to notoriety as a writer of hit pop songs in the 1970s.