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 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 St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

Missouri Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...

and grew up in

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux Native American tribes, who comprise a large porti ...

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 The University of South Dakota (USD) is a public research university in Vermillion, South Dakota. Established by the Dakota Territory legislature in 1862, 27 years before the establishment of the state of South Dakota, USD is the flagship uni ...

, wrote for radio, interviewing elderly Native Americans on KOTA, and was a pilot in the

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

. Hall's experience in the

Air Force An air force – in the broadest sense – is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an ...

was satirized in ''

The Last Time I Saw Archie ''The Last Time I Saw Archie'' is a 1961 comedy film set in the waning days of World War II. Robert Mitchum stars as Arch Hall Sr., a lazy, scheming American in the Civilian Pilot Training Program, an aviation school for pilots too old to fly ai ...

'', a 1961 film by Bill Bowers which starred Jack Webb,

Robert Mitchum Robert Charles Durman Mitchum (August 6, 1917 – July 1, 1997) was an American actor. He rose to prominence with an Academy Award nomination for the Best Supporting Actor for ''The Story of G.I. Joe'' (1945), followed by his starring in ...

, 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 The Western is a genre set in the American frontier and commonly associated with folk tales of the Western United States, particularly the Southwestern United States, as well as Northern Mexico and Western Canada. It is commonly referred ...

. 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 A drive-in is a facility (such as a restaurant or movie theater) where one can drive in with an automobile for service. At a drive-in restaurant, for example, customers park their vehicles and are usually served by staff who walk or rollerskat ...

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.

Personal life

Hall married Addalyn Faye Pollitt (born June 5, 1906) who worked with Hall as a staff writer in Hall's radio days. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, Addalyn was a Navy Inspector at Lockheed Aircraft. They had one child, Arch Hall Jr., born in 1943.

Death

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 Philip is a town in and the county seat of rural Haakon County, South Dakota, United States. The population was 759 at the 2020 census. History Philip was laid out in 1907 when the Chicago and North Western Railway was extended to that point. ...

. The service was presided over by the Lakota Sioux spiritual leader

Frank Fools Crow Frank Fools Crow (circa 1890 – 1989) was an Oglala Lakota civic and religious leader. 'Grandfather', or 'Grandpa Frank' as he was often called, was a nephew of Black Elk who worked to preserve Lakota traditions, including the Sun Dance and y ...

. Hall's 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, which was published by McFarland & Co. in North Carolina.

Filmography

Sources

''Earth vs. the Sci-Fi Filmmakers'', a book by Tom Weaver, published by McFarland & Co. in North Carolina.

References

Arch Hall Sr. biography & filmography

Behind the Scenes: It Stars With a Cowboy

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hall, Arch Sr. 1908 births 1978 deaths American male film actors Film producers from California Film directors from Missouri American male screenwriters Male actors from St. Louis Male actors from Los Angeles United States Army Air Forces officers University of South Dakota alumni Male Western (genre) film actors United States Army Air Forces pilots of World War II 20th-century American male actors 20th-century American businesspeople Screenwriters from Missouri Screenwriters from California 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American screenwriters