Hal Halverstadt

From a Warner advert in Record World, July 1970

**Hal Rodney Halverstadt** (also known as **"Harve"**) (November 11th 1933 - December 14th 2008) was a writer, editor, and record executive best known for his role as director of merchandising and advertising for Warner Bros. Records in the early 1970s. He was described in a 1972 Warner/Reprise promotional ad as being the man who "makes sure no album gets released".

Halverstadt was also known for his correspondence with (and inadvertent role in naming) The Residents, after he rejected their demo tape *The W\*\*\*\*\* B\*\*\* Album* in 1971. His contact with the group continued sporadically until the mid-1970s, and he contributed a letter to Uncle Willie's book *Uncle Willie's Highly Opinionated Guide To The Residents* in 1993.

In his later years he operated a store in Los Angeles, Gazebo Antiques. He died December 14th 2008 aged 75.

## Biography

   Hal Halverstadt, described as a "cherubic opera fanatic" in his younger years, graduated from Flintridge Preparatory School for Boys in La Canada, California in 1951, and studied theater and drama at Pomona College, writing the book and lyrics for a student musical, "Run For Cover", in 1954.

After college he spent time with the U.S. Army as a reporter and news editor and was stationed in Japan in 1956 and 1957. In 1958 he co-wrote another musical, "Break It Gently", with Carmino Carl Ravosa. By 1960, he worked in New York City as managing editor for Craft Horizons magazine, where he remained until the late 1960s. He married his wife Laurel in New York in November 1960.

Halverstadt began working as an editor and copyrwriter for Warner Bros. Records by the mid-1960s, contributing liner notes to a number of releases on the label until the early 1970s, including *Pata Pata* by Miriam Makemba, *Psycle* by The Happenings, and *Cycles* by Frank Sinatra.

By 1970, Halverstadt had become merchandising director for Warner in Burbank, California. He was instrumental in signing Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band to Reprise Records in the late 1960s, and was also principally involved in a multimedia promotional campaign for Todd Rundgren's *Something/Anything?* in 1972. In 1973, Halverstadt was given the newly-created role of creative director, becoming chiefly responsible for Warner's special merchandising campaigns.

In August 1973 he founded a company, Hal Halverstadt and Associates, Inc., in Los Angeles. Halverstadt lost his job at Warner Bros. in the mid-1970s as part of an "industry-wide purge" and left the music business thereafter. By the early 1990s he was operating a store, Gazebo Antiques, in Los Angeles.

Halverstadt passed away at the age of 75 on December 14th 2008. He was survived by his wife Laurel.

## Association with The Residents

Halverstadt came to the attention of the group who would later become The Residents around 1970, when he was involved in signing Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band to the Warner Bros. subsidiary label Reprise Records. The group thought that if Halverstadt could appreciate Captain Beefheart's complex and sometimes abrasive music, he might also enjoy the experimental recordings that they had been making at home.

Their initial contact with Halverstadt was in the form of a letter with a cut-out public relations "coupon" attached, to be returned to the group (under the name "Loss Leaders") at their San Mateo apartment. Halverstadt returned the coupon, having checked the box reading "we like your style, send tapes and/or demos".

In response to this, the "Loss Leaders" compiled a demo tape entitled *The W\*\*\*\*\* B\*\*\* Album* in 1971 and sent it to Halverstadt in May of that year. He was not overly impressed with the group's earnest efforts (later describing *The W\*\*\*\*\* B\*\*\* Album* as "okay at best"), but graded them "AXPp" - *A for Ariginality, X for Xecution, P for Presentation, and p for potential*.

Halverstadt had *The W\*\*\*\*\* B\*\*\* Album* returned to its anonymous composers, addressed to "Residents, 167½ 17th Avenue, San Mateo, Calif." - which the group quickly adopted as their official nom de plume (initially as "Residents, Uninc."), finding significance in what they considered to be a "bland, colorless name".

The group sent a second demo tape, *B.S.*, to Halverstadt in December 1971, accompanied with disturbing cover art modelled after the cover of the then-recent Warner release *Randy Newman Live*. Halverstadt returned the tape, explaining that *B.S.* "did not (repeat, did not) set Burbank on its ear", but encouraging them to continue sending him their material, noting that "there are enough heavy breathers here in Burbank to make it worth the postage".

Halverstadt congratulated Residents, Uninc. warmly in a letter following the group's move to their Sycamore Street studio and founding of Ralph Records in 1972, also sending them a selection of Warner releases from the prior two months.

He engaged in further written correspondence with Hardy Fox and The Residents for some time afterwards, becoming particularly interested in the pictures they were sending of their troubled feature film production *Vileness Fats*, but fell out of contact with them around the time he lost his job with Warner Bros. in the mid-1970s.

The Residents alluded jokingly to their correspondence with Halverstadt in the liner notes for their debut album *Meet The Residents* in 1974, claiming that they had negotiated with him to release their early work on Warner Bros. Records, only for him to withdraw his offer due to a slump in record sales.

Halverstadt kept the *Vileness Fats* photos in his office during his remaining time with Warner, and one photo of actress Marge Howard remained in his possession until at least the early 1990s. He eventually saw *Whatever Happened To Vileness Fats?* when he came across it in a video store in the 1980s and recognized the photo of Howard on the cover.

Around 1992, Halverstadt wrote a letter (under the alias "Harve") to former UWEB fan club president Uncle Willie, who was compiling *Uncle Willie's Highly Opinionated Guide To The Residents*. Halverstadt closes the letter by telling Willie that "there better not be any of your weirdo fans showing up at my shop".

The Residents had one final near-encounter with Halverstadt around the turn of the century, when on one New Year's Eve a Resident found himself sitting in a hot tub next to a man who claimed to be a friend of Halverstadt. The Residents apparently reached out to Halverstadt after this in an attempt to reconnect but never received a response, and would never hear from him again.

## Correspondence

* Response to *The W\*\*\*\*\* B\*\*\* Album* (1971)
* Response to *B.S.* (1971)
* Letter regarding Ralph Records (1972)
* Letter to Uncle Willie (1992)

## See also

* Warner Bros. Records
* The Delta Nudes
* Residents, Uninc.
* *The W\*\*\*\*\* B\*\*\* Album*
* *B.S.*
* Hardy Fox

## External links and references

* Hal Halverstadt at Discogs
* "Before the Beginning" at RZWeb

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Catalog of Copyright Entries: Third Series on Google Books
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 "In Memorium", PrepTalk, winter 2009-2010, pg 31
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Billboard Magazine, 29th April 1972, via Google Books
4. ↑ Record World magazine advert, July 1970
5. ↑ "Student-Produced Play Offered At Claremont", The Los Angeles Times, December 5th 1954
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Written correspondence between Craft Horizons editors and contributor, 1960-1967
7. ↑ "Executive Turntable", Billboard Magazine, April 7th 1973
8. ↑ "Hal Halverstadt and Associates, Inc." at OpenCorporates
9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 Uncle Willie's Highly Opinionated Guide To The Residents
10. ↑ RandyLand Episode 1
11. ↑ Jim Knipfel and Brian Poole et al., *Faceless Forever - A Residents Encyclopaedia*, 2022, pg. 119

**Major works**
*Rusty Coathangers for the Doctor* (1970) · *The Ballad of Stuffed Trigger* (1970) · *The W\*\*\*\*\* B\*\*\* Album* (1971) · *B.S.* (1971) · *Santa Dog* (1972)
**Other recordings**
"I Hear Ya Got Religion" / "Moonman" (1969) · *1-10 (With A Touch of 11)* (1972)
**Compilation albums**
*ERA B474* (2012) · *The Delta Nudes' Greatest Hiss* (2013) · *The Residents Present The Delta Nudes* (2016) · *A Nickle If Your Dick's This Big* (2019) · *Warning: Uninc.* (2022)
**Live shows**
The Boarding House, October 18th 1971 · Philip's Wedding, October 31st 1971 · Chris' Party, February 12th 1972
**Collaborators**
Randy Rose · Charles Bobuck · Hardy Fox · Homer Flynn · Palmer Eiland · Roger "Bunny" Hartley · Jay Clem · John Kennedy · Roland Sheehan · Bob Tangney · Jim Whitaker · N. Senada · Philip "Snakefinger" Lithman · Peggy Honeydew (Margaret Swaton) · The Singing Lawn Chairs (Pamela Zeibak)
**Related articles**
San Mateo apartment · **Hal Halverstadt** · Porno Graphics · Sycamore St. studio · Ralph Records · The Residents · *Vileness Fats* · *Meet The Residents* · *The Third Reich 'n Roll* · "Satisfaction" · "Aphids In The Hall" · The Cryptic Corporation · *WB:RMX*‎‎‏‏‎

**Side A**
"Strawberry Fields Forever" · "The Mad Sawmill of Copenhagen, Germany" · "Baby Skeletons and Dogs" ("Oh Mummy, Oh Daddy, Can't You See That It's True") · "Going to Arcata Blues" · "Black Velvet Original" · "Jimi Hendrix Dildo" · "In the Still of the Night" · "Maggie's Farm" · "Snot and Feces Live at the Grunt Festival" · "Sweet Meat"
**Side B**
"Oh Yeah Uhh Bop Shoo Bop" · "Ohm is Where the Art Is" · "Concerto in R Flat Minor" · "Gagagapiggaeioupe" · "Sold American" · "Love Theme from a Major Motion Picture" · "Prelude for Accordion, Sousaphone and French Horn" · "Oh God You're a Pie in the Sky" · "Short Circuit Comes to Town" · "Marching Toward AEIOU Blues" · "In the Still of the Night Again / Rumba" · "Oh Mummy, Oh Daddy, Can't You See That It's True Again" · "Art the White Elephant" · "Psychedelic and Orgasmic Finale"
**Personnel**
Ensenada and Spontaneous Cumbustion · Jim Whitaker · Bob Tangney
**Related works**
*WB:RMX* · *ERA B474* · *The Delta Nudes' Greatest Hiss* · *A Nickle If Your Dick's This Big*
**Related articles**
The Delta Nudes · San Mateo apartment · **Hal Halverstadt** · Residents, Uninc. · Punographics Ltd. · Warner Bros. Records · The Beatles · Bob Dylan · Richard Nixon · Oh Mummy! Oh Daddy! show

**Side A**
"We Stole This Riff" · "Holelottadick" · "B.S." · "Deepsea Diver Song" · "King Kong" · "Cantaten to der Dyin Prunen"
**Side B**
"Somethin' Devilish" · "The Fourth Crucifixion" · "Hallowed Be Thy Wean" ("Pink Lemonade" · "Sandman" · "Eat Me Mother" · "Bumble Bee" · "Eloise" · "Somethin' Devilish" · "Kamakazi Lady" · "D For Doorknob" · "The Three Most Important Things In The Whole Wide World")
**Personnel**
Residents, Uninc. · Philip "Snakefinger" Lithman · N. Senada · Peggy Honeydew (Margaret Smyk)
**Related works**
The Boarding House performance ("Intro Tape '71") · "A Live Radio Broadcast" · Philip's Wedding · Chris' Party · *ERA B474* · *The Delta Nudes' Greatest Hiss* · *A Nickle If Your Dick's This Big*
**Related articles**
*The W\*\*\*\*\* B\*\*\* Album* · San Mateo apartment · **Hal Halverstadt** · Porno Graphics · Tim Buckley · Led Zeppelin · Frank Zappa · Randy Newman · *Vileness Fats*‏‏‎