Arch Hall, Jr.

A rock & roll cult hero despite having a discography of one out of print 45, Arch Hall, Jr. is best known to his fans for performances in a handful of memorable low-budget movies in the early '60s, most notably the nervy juvenile delinquency opus The Choppers, the engagingly daft monster flick Eegah!, and most notably Wild Guitar, an admirably hard-boiled look at the sleazy side of the music business. Hall got into the acting business the easy way: his father, Arch Hall, Sr., was himself an actor who made the jump into film production in 1959, when he wrote a script about teenage hot rodders who don't mind resorting to theft to get new parts for their buggies. Hall Sr., who was also producing and directing the project, cast Hall Jr. in the lead of what would become The Choppers, and since Arch (who had been playing guitar since age 11) had gotten the rock & roll bug, his dad gave him the opportunity to perform his song "Konga Joe" in the movie, which was also released as a single on the Signature label (co-owned by Steve Allen), with "Monkey in My Hatband" on the flip. With the exception of a promotional single issued to promote the release of Wild Guitar, that 7" represented the alpha and omega of Arch's recording career, but with his band the Archers, Arch was given the chance to rock out in most of his film appearances, particularly Wild Guitar (directed by fellow cult hero Ray Dennis Steckler). Arch Hall, Jr. & the Archers also earned a potent fan following on the Hollywood club scene, both on their own and as a backing band for soul singer Dobie Gray. Eventually, Hall Jr. dropped out of show business and became an airline pilot, later writing about his experiences in a novel called Apsara Jet under the pen name Nicolas Merriweather (a pseudonym Hall Sr. also used...