Studio Whisky on the Sunset Strip (1/11/07)

Sunset Boulevard runs 22 miles from the heart of Hollywood to the Pacific Ocean. But there's one mile-and-a-half stretch of this thoroughfare that draws tourists from around the world, and few of them are searching for a sublime sunset. Most people hit the Sunset Strip in hopes of catching some showbiz glamour. Even though the Strip has been populated at one time or another by such landmarks as Schwab's Drugstore, the Garden of Allah, Tower Records, Dudley Do-Right's Emporium, the Comedy Store, the Chateau Marmont, and a forest of billboards, the heart of the Boulevard may be the Whisky a Go-Go, which opened on January 11, 1964. The Whisky was the first American incarnation of the French revolution called the discotheque and featured young hipsters, go-go girls, and a house band known as The Doors. Rival clubs such as the Roxy and the Rainbow soon sprang up, weathering such musical revolutions as the British Invasion, punk, and metal. Genres come and go, but the sun has not yet set on the Whisky.