Sunset Strip!
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Sunset Strip History
As the Strip lies outside of the Los Angeles city limits and was an unincorporated area under the jurisdiction of the County of Los Angeles, the area was under the less vigilant jurisdiction of the Sheriff's Department rather than the heavy hand of the LAPD. Sunset Strip was illegal to gamble in the city but legal in the county. This fostered the building of a rather wilder center of nightlife than Los Angeles would tolerate and in the 1920s a lot of nightclubs and casinos went in along the Strip, which attracted movie people to this less restricted area, with alcohol served in back rooms during Prohibition.Sunset Strip glamour and glits
Glamour and glitz defined the Strip in the 1930s and the 1940s, with its renowned restaurants and clubs, which became a playground for the rich and famous. There were movie legends and power brokers, and everyone who was anyone danced into stardom at such legendary clubs as Ciro's, the Mocambo and the Trocadero. And some of its expensive nightclubs and restaurants were said to be owned by gangsters like Mickey Cohen. Other spots on the strip associated with Hollywood include the Garden of Allah apartments and Schwab's Drugstore.Sunset Strip lost favor
By the early 1960s, the Strip lost favor with the majority of movie people. But its restaurants, bars and clubs, continued to be an attraction for locals and out-of-town tourists. In the mid-1960s and the 1970s, Sunset Strip became a major center for the counterculture as Go-Go dancers did their thing at such spots as the Whisky a Go Go. Bands like Metallica, Van Halen, M'tley Cr'e, Guns N' Roses, The Doors, The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield (whose song For What It's Worth was about a police riot in the summer of 1966 against hippies), Love, The Seeds, Frank Zappa, Martha and the Vandellas and many others played at clubs like the Roxy, Pandora's Box and the London Fog.Sunset Strip and music
The Strip continued to be a major focus for punk rock and New Wave during the late 1970s, and Sunset Strip became the center of the colorful glam metal scene throughout the 1980s. The 1979 Donna Summer song 'Sunset People' from the album Bad Girls, was about the nightlife on Sunset Boulevard. With the increase in rents in the area during the 1980s, however, and the decline of the glam metal scene in the early 1990s, the Sunset Strip ceased to be a major area for up and coming rock bands without industry sponsorship. The adoption of "pay to play" tactics, in which bands were charged a fee to play at clubs like the Roxy, the Whisky and Gazzari's (now the Key Club) also diminished the appeal to rock bands other than as an industry showcase. The music industry dominates clubs on the Strip such as those mentioned above, and only major acts perform at the House of Blues. Thus, during the 1990s, the center of more alternative music activity in Los Angeles shifted further east to areas like Silverlake, Los Feliz and Echo Park.In November 1984, voters in West Hollywood passed a proposal on the ballot to incorporate and the area became an independent city. Increasingly, the western end of the Strip is occupied by office buildings, mostly catering to the entertainment industry, and expensive hotels. This area seems to have become an adjunct of Beverly Hills only with more nightlife activity, much of Sunset Strip upscale.
Sunset Strip at night
In the evening, the Strip is a vibrant slash of neon, a virtual traffic jam of young cruisers on weekends and a mecca for people-watchers and celebrity wannabes.However, in the 21st Century the rate of new club openings on the Strip has declined due to traffic congestion while Hollywood Boulevard with less parking restrictions and easy access to the Hollywood Freeway has seen an increase in new openings.
Sunset Strip Celebrities
Many celebrities can still be seen on the Strip, especially on its western end, and quite a few live in the area, particularly the nearby Hollywood Hills and Laurel Canyon.In October of 1993 actor River Phoenix overdosed on a lethal combination of heroin, alcohol, cocaine, and GHB at Johnny Depp's Viper Room on the corner of Sunset and Larrabee. Depp is no longer an owner of the Viper Room.
Sunset Strip today
Today the Strip contains some of the most exclusive condominium complexes on the West Coast with "name" buildings such as Shorham Towers, Sierra Towers, and on the exclusive cul de sac Alta Loma Road, the popular buildings known as The Empire West and The Park Wellington. These four buildings are ofter referred to in the media as the "Sunset Strip Condos" that are the security guarded homes of the Hollywood elite.Alta Loma Road is also home to the low-key hotel celebrity haunt "The Sunset Marquis" with its famous 45-person Whisky Bar and a recording studio that has been the home to many hits including songs by U2. Alta Loma Road was one of the main locations for the film Perfect but Sunset Strip was also the home a tragedy. In the 1970s, Sunset Strip was the street on which Sal Mineo lived and died.
Also, Sunset Strip is a little-known fact that the Las Vegas Strip in Las Vegas, Nevada, was named "the Strip" after the Sunset Strip.
77 Sunset Strip, a successful 1958-1964 TV series, was set on the Strip between La Cienega Boulevard and Alta Loma Road.
