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William Reinhardt

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William Reinhardt (also referred to as Bill Reinhardt) is an American film and video director and sound mixer. In the 1970s he was a radio disc jockey and program director with KBOO-FM in Portland, Oregon.

Reinhardt met The Residents in 1973, befriending the group and promoting them heavily in Portland following the release of their debut EP Santa Dog. His 1977 broadcast of The W***** B*** Album and B.S. was the first known release of these tapes to the public. Reinhardt fell out of contact with the group around 1989, after they learned he had sold his personal copies of their early demos to a fan.[1]

Reinhardt has been known for his lively engagement with Residents fan culture, having posted many previously unseen photographs and relics to the unofficial Residents and Ralph Records Facebook groups. His tendency to post revealing artifacts has occasionally caused him to come into public conflict with current associates of The Residents.[2][3][4]

Reinhardt is now retired with a small radio station in Porterville, California.[5] He has been working on an autobiographical book about his time with The Residents since 2018.

History with The Residents[]

In 1970 William Reinhardt became program director of KBOO-FM in Portland, Oregon. Under his directorship KBOO became known for outré programming, including readings of William Burroughs' novel Naked Lunch and live sex hosted by a Portland State University professor.

Reinhardt gave the still-unincorporated Residents their first known airplay in 1973 when he played their debut EP Santa Dog on his program The Radio Lab, receiving "some interest in knowing more about Residents, Uninc." as well as "a lot of resistance and criticism".

He visited the group at their Sycamore Street studio in July 1973, meeting and befriending Hardy Fox. Reinhardt shared with the group the feedback he had received after airing Santa Dog, and Fox supplied Reinhardt with copies of the group's demo tapes Rusty Coathangers for the Doctor, The Ballad of Stuffed Trigger, The W***** B*** Album and B.S. and played him rough mixes of the group's yet-to-be-released album Meet The Residents.

During this first visit, Reinhardt accidentally damaged one of the lamp posts on the bridge set from their film project Vileness Fats, but repaired it with the assistance of one of the group's female friends before anyone noticed. Around this time Reinhardt saw the film Andy Warhol's Frankenstein in 3D with Fox, Jay Clem and Homer Flynn after having taken LSD. The group were left "somewhat traumatized" by the graphic violence in the film.[6]

Schwump-reinhardt

Barry "Schwump" Schwam recording with Reinhardt for KBOO-FM, 1972

Reinhardt visited Fox and The Residents again in summer 1974, this time bringing with him his brother Paul, Paul's wife, and two female acquaintances from France.[7] During this visit, the visitors helped The Residents to construct the Nite Club set for Vileness Fats.[8]

Fox and Reinhardt maintained a correspondence during this time, through which they sent each other numerous tapes (including a 7" tape reel compiled from The Residents' record collection, simply titled "Residents Records").[9]

Reinhardt also introduced The Residents to KBOO disc jockey Barry "Schwump" Schwam, whose "Frog Opera" fascinated the group. In 1976, Schwump became the first act other than The Residents to be released on the group's record label Ralph Records.

In 1976 Reinhardt produced a short film based on an idea first suggested by The Residents (who were by then struggling to complete Vileness Fats, which they would soon abandon and shelve altogether), in friendly competition with the group, and inspired by their shared love of surrealism. Titled Matching Face & Nightie (Haunted Spirits of Raster), the short was a winner in the NW Film and Video Festival in Portland in that year.[10][11]

Reinhardt played The W***** B*** Album and B.S. in their entirety on KBOO in 1977, as part of a Residents-themed radio festival. This broadcast is likely the origin of most bootleg copies of these two tapes which circulated among collectors and on the internet until their official releases in 2018 and 2019.

On a visit to the group's Grove Street studio in summer 1977, following the foundation of their management and publicity company The Cryptic Corporation, Reinhardt noted a more "formal, business-like" atmosphere in the larger office space, and that The Residents had become noticeably more reluctant to discuss their activities.

In 1978, Reinhardt received 16mm film copies of The Residents' short films (including The Third Reich 'n Roll and Hello Skinny) from Hardy Fox, and showed them at the now defunct La Bamba Club in Portland shortly thereafter.[12] On October 14th of that year, Reinhardt visited the Cryptic headquarters and watched that night's episode of Saturday Night Live with the group; the episode featured an appearance from Devo performing their version of The Rolling Stones' "Satisfaction". Members of Cryptic, who had recently reissued The Residents' 1976 version of the song, felt envious.[13]

In 1989, Reinhardt was suffering financial difficulties which led him to sell his personal copies of the group's four demo reels to an unidentified Residents fan. This ultimately caused a permanent break in The Residents' relationship with Reinhardt, who later noted that he had "never recovered the trust (they) once shared after that regretful mistake".[1]

After The Residents[]

In 1993 Reinhardt contributed recollections of his time spent with The Residents to the biographical book Meet The Residents: America's Most Eccentric Band! by Ian Shirley (later amended and reprinted in 2016 as Never Known Questions: Five Decades of The Residents), and later in the 1990s he also contributed to the now defunct semi-official website RZWeb, created by fan tzoq.

In late 2018 Reinhardt posted a rough draft of a chapter from an upcoming autobiographical book to a number of Residents Facebook fan groups. The draft details his time with The Residents, focusing mostly on their initial meetings and his visits to the Sycamore Street and Grove Street studios.

In March 2019, Reinhardt shared a handwritten, Ralph-related letter from Hardy Fox dating from the mid-1970s to The Residents unofficial Facebook group. In May he revealed the existence of "Residents Records", a personal mixtape created by Fox in 1974 featuring a selection of novelty music from the Sycamore Street jukebox. Around this time, Reinhardt sent his collection of correspondence to Andreas Mathews, operator of the Eyeball Museum in Bremerhaven, Germany, where it is now kept.[14]

Reinhardt re-posted the rough draft chapter from his upcoming book to The Residents Facebook group in August 2020, noting that he had been hoping to write more and publish it with the assistance of Mathews, but that the COVID-19 pandemic had caused the book to become a "struggle to complete".[14]

Reinhardt's posts have often been publicly criticized by The Residents' collaborator (from 1998 onwards) Nolan Cook,[2][3][4] who has openly questioned the veracity of Reinhardt's anecdotes[2] and claimed that Reinhardt's posting of personal artifacts and correspondence is tantamount to "posting someone's private thoughts".[3] Reinhardt has responded that he is simply "telling it like it was" and has "no reason to embellish (or) fantasize".[15]

See also[]

External links and references[]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Damn, I had the original R-R tape, a special gift from Hardy for airplay on my KBOO radio show. Well, years later in '89 I was desperate for cash and sold it. Our close relationship was fractured when they found out! I never recovered the trust we once shared after that regretful mistake!" - William Reinhardt, The Residents Facebook group, April 4th 2019
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "None of that happened. Nice story." - Nolan Cook, The Residents Facebook group, January 3rd 2019
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "Hm, posting someone's private thoughts." - Nolan Cook, The Residents Facebook group, March 15th 2019
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "How many times are you going to tell this story?" - Nolan Cook, The Residents Facebook group, August 14th 2020
  5. ↑ "I left (Patchogue, New York) and never looked back. After the USAF I moved to Portland and found a cultural Mecca, got into radio, became Program Director at KBOO-fm, promoted the Residents, did sound for movies, now retired with a small radio station in the old country." - William Reinhardt, The Residents Facebook group, October 22nd 2018
  6. ↑ "We dropped acid one night and went to a movie... 'Andy Wharhol's Frankenstein' in 3D. The graphic violence was disturbing to all of us (Homer, H and J). We walked back to Sycamore in a somber mood, not the fun movie we expected. Being super stoned, we were all somewhat traumatized by the film!" - William Reinhardt, The Residents Facebook group, January 3rd 2019
  7. ↑ "2nd summer visit to the Sycamore St. home/studio. Also, my brother Paul, his wife and 2 girlfriends from France. (shenanigans and brew, ha ha and we played on the 'Vileness Fats' set)." William Reinhardt, post to The Residents unofficial Facebook group, May 29th 2022
  8. ↑ Post by William Reinhardt in The Residents unofficial Facebook group, August 25th 2019
  9. ↑ Post by William Reinhardt in The Residents unofficial Facebook group, May 23rd 2019
  10. ↑ "I was recently reminded of this film I made in friendly competition with Hardy during the time he was struggling with 'Vileness Fats'. Many have not seen this, influenced by The Residents in our quest to share love of surrealism during our friendship. (Winner in the NW Film Festival, 1976)" - William Reinhardt, post in The Residents unofficial Facebook group, May 10th 2019
  11. ↑ Matching Face & Nightie (Haunted Spirits of Raster) on YouTube
  12. ↑ "I had the movies and showed them at LaBamba in Portland when they were first given to me by Hardy in 78." William Reinhardt, The Residents Facebook fan group, December 1st 2021
  13. ↑ Never Known Questions (Ian Shirley)
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 "I was trying to get more written and combine it with all the photos and correspondence I had from the Residents. Andreas Mathews has offered to help with a book now that he has all the letters in the museum. Then, covid hit us and its been a struggle to complete." - William Reinhardt, The Residents Facebook group, August 15th 2020
  15. ↑ "I'm just telling it like it was. I have no reason to embellish of fantasize. No one else had the unique access to their creativity and livelihood as much as i did!" - William Reinhardt, The Residents Facebook group, August 14th 2020
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