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Henry Halstead led a band at the St. Francis Hotel (335 Powell Street) in San Francisco from 1922 to 1925. His band also appeared nightly on KGO radio broadcasts that spread the name of his orchestra up and down the West Coast.
The Halstead Orchestra was one of the first jazz or dance bands to make a sound movie short in 1927. The Warner Brothers’ Vitaphone film was called ‘Carnival Nights In Paris’.  After he left the bandleader business Halstead bought an airfield, a restaurant and dance hall in Big Bear, California. He lived there for a few years and then moved to San Francisco where he booked talent at the St. Francis Hotel for a couple of years. After that he moved to Los Angeles, California and booked talent for a couple of more years there. Halstead then he moved to Phoenix, Arizona where once again he booked talent for a few years and then got into real estate. Thanks to Hank Halstead Jr. for his help with the information on this page. |
| Title | Recording Date | Recording Location | Company |
| Ain’t That Too Bad (Chick Endor / Eddie Ward) |
5-16-1927 | Los Angeles, California | Victor 20691-B |
| Bull Frog Serenade (Charles F. Caldwell) |
6-19-1924 | Oakland, California | Victor 19511-A |
| Bygones (Kerr / Abrahamson / Warner) |
9-12-1924 | Oakland, California | Victor 19552 |
| China Girl (Halstead / Warner / Singer) |
9-12-1924 | Oakland, California | Victor 19579 |
| Dream Of Love And You (Transcribed from Liszt’s “Liebestraum” by Glenhall Taylor) |
5-12-1926 | Los Angeles, California | Victor 20062-B |
| Frantic | 6-20-1924 | Oakland, California | Victor 19513 |
| Give Me Today | 5-12-1926 | Los Angeles, California | Victor 20061-A |
| I Don’t Know Why (Frank Galvin / Jack Coakley) |
9-12-1924 | Oakland, California | Victor 19482-A |
| If I Were King from the Musical Comedy “Patsy” (Ingleton / Grey / Kornblum) |
5-12-1926 | Los Angeles, California | Victor 20062-A |
| Moonlight And Roses (Neil Moret / Ben Black) |
2-6-1925 | Oakland, California | Victor 19579-B |
| My Idea Of Heaven (Is To Be In Love With You) |
5-16-1927 | Los Angeles, California | Victor 20689 |
| On The Way To Monterey (Neil Moret / Ben Black) |
1-23-1925 | Oakland, California | Victor 19579-A |
| One Moment More With You Vocal Refrain by Buster Dees (Ray Egan / Dick Whiting / Neil Moret) |
4-8-1929 | Hollywood, California | Victor 22000-B |
| Pal Of My Lonesome Hours | 5-16-1927 | Los Angeles, California | Victor 20688 |
| Panama (Tyers) |
6-20-1924 | Oakland, California | Victor 19514 |
| Playmates (Billy Hill) |
2-6-1925 | Oakland, California | Victor 19575-B |
| Rosy Cheeks (Simmons / Whiting) |
5-16-1927 | Los Angeles, California | Victor 20691-A |
| Sweet Little You (Irving M. Bilbo) |
8-30-1924 | Oakland, California | Victor 19406 |
| Tear Drops (Lou Davis / Arnold Johnson) |
3-28-1929 | Hollywood, California | Victor 22000-A |
| Tessie (Stop Teasing Me) (Brooke Johns / Ray Perkins) |
8-30-1924 | Oakland, California | Victor 19474-A |
| That’s My Girl (Joe McKiernan / Henry D. Kerr) |
6-20-1924 | Oakland, California | Victor 19482-B |
| The Roses Brought Me You | 5-12-1926 | Los Angeles, California | Victor 20061-B |
| Artist | Instrument |
| Hal Chanslor | Piano |
| Buster Dees | Vocal |
| Ross Dugat | Trombone |
| Marion Fonville | Vocal |
| Henry Halstead | Violin, Leader |
| Phil Harris | Drums |
| Craig Leitch | Vocal |
| Zebe Mann | Banjo, Guitar |
| Abe Maule | Clarinet, Tenor Saxophone, Violin |
| Chuck Moll | Clarinet, Alto Saxophone, Bass Saxophone |
| Red Nichols | Trumpet |
| Ernie Reed | Clarinet, Alto Saxophone, Bass Saxophone |
| The Rounders | Vocal |
| Ted Schilling | Trumpet |
| Title | Director | Year |
| Carnival Nights In Paris | Vitaphone | 1927 |
Redhotjazz.com was a pioneering website during the "Information wants to be Free" era of the 1990s. In that spirit we are recovering the lost data from the now defunct site and sharing it with you.
Most of the music in the archive is in the form of MP3s hosted on Archive.org or the French servers of Jazz-on-line.com where this music is all in the public domain.
Files unavailable from those sources we host ourselves. They were made from original 78 RPM records in the hands of private collectors in the 1990s who contributed to the original redhotjazz.com. They were hosted as .ra files originally and we have converted them into the more modern MP3 format. They are of inferior quality to what is available commercially and are intended for reference purposes only. In some cases a Real Audio (.ra) file from Archive.org will download. Don't be scared! Those files will play in many music programs, but not Windows Media Player.
