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. Halstead's band went on to play extended residencies at hotels and clubs in Los Angeles, Seattle and Santa Monica up until early 1944 when he disbanded the orchestra because he was losing so many of his musicians to the war effort. 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.