“I want to be famous” — Jane Hall says farewell to her father’s mentor

It did not take Jane long to plunge right back into juggling school and her social life once she returned to Manhattan at the end of September 1933. At the newly coeducational Day Art School at Cooper Union (no longer called the Woman’s Art School), Jane signed up for Ornamental Modeling, Advanced Composition, Perspective, Advanced Design…

Dick Wick Hall – “A man who made the whole world laugh”

To learn more about Jane’s father, Arizona’s favorite humorist in the 1920s, scroll through to earlier posts. Check out the Such Mad Fun Gallery. And see The Laughing Desert: Dick Wick Hall’s Salome Sun. Available on Amazon, this replica of the syndicated 1925-1926 news sheet is packed with stories, poems, humor, hometown philosophy, and engaging illustrations that…

It All Started in Salome in 1925

On summer days, Salome, Arizona, was so hot, dry, and shade free in the midday sun that its sand hills seemed to be populated only by greasewood and saguaro. In 1925, the would-be town, which had a population of less than two dozen people, sat in a valley framed on its northern edge by the Harcuvar and…

The Laughing Desert

The Laughing Desert, a book about Jane Hall’s father, humorist Dick Wick Hall, and his nationally syndicated newspaper feature that made the town of Salome, Arizona, famous in the 1920s, came out just in time for the 2012 celebration of Dick Wick Hall Day. This year the festivities take  place on October 5. The book includes a complete replica…