True West Magazine
His real name was DeForest Hall, but he took the middle name Wick for town of Wickenburg, Arizona and “Dick” because he needed a first name to rhyme with his middle name.
In 1904 he, with the help of Charles W. Pratt established a community in a valley Dick Wick called Happy Valley. It was here where Mrs. Pratt aka Salome, decided to walk barefoot in the hot desert sand and proceeded to “dance.”
He opened a gas station on a forlorn spot he named Salome on the Los Angeles to Phoenix highway in the 1920s. He called his establishment the “Laughing Gas Station.” Advertising “free hot air” he was an instant hit with travelers inspiring even the most cynical Californian to grin.