![]() ![]() ![]() (The book, signed by all four members of the Doors remains prominently displayed at the club.) The Whisky would often have 2 or 3 acts a night, marquee names as well as the popular local bands. It was here in 1966 that the Doors had their very first residency, taking there name from a book by Aldous Huxley titled "Doors to Persception". Located on the strip between the streets Clark and Hilldale, the Whisky played an important role for Southern California based bands like The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, The Doors, The Mothers of Invention, and Love with Arthur Lee. Baker, autobiography of Johnny Riversīetween Clark and Hilldale- "here they always play my songs"- Arthur Lee His regular followers included Steve McQueen, Ann Margret, Sandra Dee, George Peppard, Rita Hayworth, George Hamilton, Tuesday Weld, Johnny Carson, Shelley Fabares, Richard Chamberlain, Laurence Harvey, Troy Donahue, Lana Turner and Gina Lollabrigida." - Glenn A. ![]() The "beautiful people" came flooding down from the hills to dance to his infectious boogie beat. 'Johnny Rivers at the Whisky Au Go Go' turned Hollywood upside down. He had become the new age Chubby Checker, and America was dancing. "After opening night it was obvious that he would not be returning to record production for a long time. Elmer Valentine, the owner of the new club and a former Chicago policemen, made the Whisky A Go Go an immediate success with the signing of rising star, Johnny Rivers, to a lucrative residency. The audience bought into the act and the rest is history. As the story goes, a mini-skirted DJ who had been spinning records in between sets from a suspended cage near the stage, started dancing to the live music. The Whisky, as it is affectionately known, is said to be the first real American discotheque and gave birth to the concept of Go Go dancers in cages. The Whisky A Go Go first opened its doors on Januat the site of an old bank building that had been recently remodeled into a nightclub called the Party. The hippie movement had injected new life and diversity into the town and young people flocked to the West Hollywood clubs like the Troubadour, Rainbow, and the Whisky A Go Go. In the mid-1960s, West Hollywood and the Sunset Strip were ground zero for the musical teen youth culture, with scores of great clubs, music shops, recording studios, boutiques, hipster hangouts, radio stations, and record stores. Yes, West Hollywood, or WeHo as the residents call it, is a party town! Although it's residential population is just shy of 40,000, its weekend and night time population swells to nearly three times this number. county, it thrived on the less restrictive edicts of the county and by the 1920's, nightclubs, bars and casinos abounded on the infamous Sunset Strip. For many years an unincorporated town in the heart of L.A. Nestled between the glitz and glamour of Hollywood and the stately manors of Beverly Hills, West Hollywood has long had the reputation of being a wide open town with few rules and fewer still inhibitions. ![]()
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