![]() The Whisky played an important role in many musical careers, especially for bands based in Southern California. ![]() Arguably, the rock and roll scene in Los Angeles was born when the Whisky started operation because of its status as an historic music landmark, the venue was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006. In addition, The Miracles recorded the song " Going to a Go-Go" in 1966 (which was covered in 1982 by The Rolling Stones), and Whisky a Go Go franchises sprang up all over the country. Rivers rode the Whisky-born go-go craze to national fame with records recorded partly Live at the Whisky. Valentine quickly hired two more female dancers, one of whom, Joanna Labean, designed the official go-go-girl costume of fringed dress and white boots. A contest was held for the female DJ job but when the young winner called Valentine on the night of the opening and tearfully said her mother forbade her from doing it, Valentine recruited the club's cigarette girl, Patty Brockhurst. But because there was not enough room on the floor for a DJ booth, he had a glass-walled booth mounted high above the floor. Elmer Valentine, in a 2006 Vanity Fair article, recalled arranging to have a female DJ play records between Rivers' sets so patrons could continue dancing. The Whisky a Go Go was one of the places that popularized go-go dancing. Note the alpha-numeric phone number and French style Īlthough the club was billed as a discothèque, suggesting that it offered only recorded music, the Whisky a Go Go opened with a live band led by Johnny Rivers and DJ Rhonda Lane, spinning records between sets from a suspended cage at the right of the stage.Įarly Whisky matchbox. Valentine sold his interest in the Whisky a Go Go in the 1990s but retained an ownership in the Rainbow Bar & Grill and the Roxy Theatre until his death in December 2008. Lou Adler bought into the Whisky in the late 1970s. In 1966, Valentine, Adler and others founded The Roxy Theatre. ![]() In 1972, Valentine, Lou Adler, Mario Maglieri and others started the Rainbow Bar & Grill on the Sunset Strip. The Sunset Strip Whisky was founded by Elmer Valentine, Phil Tanzini, Shelly Davis, and attorney Theodore Flier and opened on January 16, 1964. It owes its name to the first discothèque, the Whisky à Go-Go, established in Paris in 1947 by Paul Pacine. A franchise was opened in 1966 on M Street in the Georgetown section of Washington, D.C., by restaurateur Jacques Vivien. It has been called the first real American discothèque. In 1958, the first Whisky a Go-Go in North America opened in Chicago, Illinois, on the corner of Rush and Chestnut streets.
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