The Sunset Strip
is the name given to the mile and a half stretch of Sunset Boulevard that passes through West Hollywood, California. It extends from West Hollywood's eastern border with Hollywood at Crescent Heights Boulevard, to its western border with Beverly Hills at Doheny Drive. The Strip is probably the best known portion of Sunset, embracing a premier collection of boutiques, restaurants, rock clubs, and nightclubs that are on the cutting edge of the entertainment industry. It is also known for its trademark array of huge, colorful billboards and has developed a notoriety as a hang out for rock stars, movie stars and entertainers.
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SUNSET STRIP MUSIC FESTIVAL TICKETS
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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 fell under the less-vigilant jurisdiction of the
Sheriff's Department rather than the heavy hand of the
LAPD. It was illegal to
gamble in the city, but legal in the county. This fostered the building of a rather wilder concentration of nightlife than Los Angeles would tolerate, and in the 1920s a number of nightclubs and
casinos moved in along the Strip, which attracted
movie people to this less-restricted area;
alcohol was served in back rooms during
Prohibition.
Glamour and glitz defined the Strip in the 1930s and the 1940s, as its renowned restaurants and clubs became a playground for the rich and famous. There were movie legends and power brokers, and everyone who was anyone danced to stardom at such legendary clubs as
Ciro's, the
Mocambo and the
Trocadero. Some of its expensive nightclubs and restaurants were said to be owned by gangsters like
Mickey Cohen, earning the Strip a place in Raymond Chandler's 1949 Philip Marlowe novel,
The Little Sister
. Other spots on the strip associated with Hollywood include the
Garden of Allah apartments — Hollywood quarters for transplanted writers like
Robert Benchley,
Dorothy Parker, and
F. Scott Fitzgerald — and
Schwab's Drug Store.
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By the early 1960s, the Strip lost favor with the majority of movie people, but its restaurants, bars and clubs continued to serve as an attraction for locals and out-of-town visitors. In the mid-1960s and the 1970s it became a major gathering-place for the
counterculture — and the scene of the
Sunset Strip curfew riots in the summer of 1966, involving police and crowds of
hippies, serving as the inspiration for the
Buffalo Springfield song "
For What It's Worth".
Go-Go dancers performed at such spots as the famous
Whisky a Go Go.
Bands like
Van Halen,
Motley Crue,
Poison,
Ratt,
Quiet Riot,
L.A. Guns,
Whitesnake,
Guns N Roses,
The Doors,
The Byrds,
Love,
The Seeds,
Frank Zappa, and many others played at clubs like the
Whisky a Go Go,
Roxy,
Pandora's Box and the
London Fog.
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As the Strip became a haven for musical artists in the 1960s and 1970s, the
Hyatt West Hollywood, as it is known today, became a hotel of legend. Many musicians lived or stayed at the hotel for the easy access to the live music venues on
Sunset Boulevard. This is how the hotel became known by names such as the "Riot Hyatt" and the "Riot House", thus serving as a redolent location for the
Cameron Crowe film
Almost Famous.
In the early 1970s a popular hangout for
glam rock musicians and
groupies was
Rodney Bingenheimer's English Disco. The Strip continued to be a major focus for
punk rock and
New Wave during the late 1970s, and it 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
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. The
"Riot Hyatt", still continues to be a favorite with bands today, such as
Justin Timberlake,
Breaking Point, and
Timbaland, for its continual easy access to live music venues, including
The Whisky,
Roxy, and
House of Blues.
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.
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.
Today the Strip contains some of the most exclusive condominium complexes on the West Coast. However the most coveted residences are the celebrity-studded hills above the Sunset Strip. Accessible by only a handful of streets and aggressively patrolled by security, this ultra-exclusive neighborhood of multi-million homes above the Sunset Strip provide the ultimate in seclusion, luxury, and staggering views of the entire L.A. basin. The highest concentration of celebrities living in Los Angeles are in this part of the Hollywood Hills, located just above Sunset Boulevard, from Kings Road, to Sunset Plaza Drive, to Doheny Drive. Homes generally range from $3–15 million.
Some celebrities living in the Hollywood Hills above the Sunset Strip include
Cameron Diaz,
Paris Hilton,
Kylie Minogue,
Leo DiCaprio,
Megan Mullaly,
Keanu Reeves,
Robbie Williams,
Byron Allen,
Ryan Phillipe,
Buck Henry,
Dido,
Jose Eber,
Nicky Hilton,
Sandra Bullock,
Jeff Goldblum,
Jewel,
Jimmy Kimmel,
John Frusciante and
Michael Buble.
The
Las Vegas Strip in
Las Vegas, Nevada, was named "the Strip" after the Sunset Strip.
American
singer/songwriter Courtney Love included a song she co-wrote with
Kim Deal and
Brody Dalle on her
2004 album
America's Sweetheart about the Strip ("Sunset Strip").
77 Sunset Strip
, a successful 1958–1964 TV series, was set on the Strip between
La Cienega Boulevard and Alta Loma Road, although the address was fictional as street numbers there run in the 7000-8000s. Less remembered is a second
crime drama,
Dan Raven
, starring
Skip Homeier, which aired on
NBC during calendar year 1960, also set on the Sunset Strip.
Dan Raven
featured several celebrities, including
Bobby Darin,
Marty Ingels, and
Paul Anka, appearing as themselves.
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
was a behind-the-scenes television drama of a late-night comedy sketch show performed at a fictional theater on the Strip.
See also
- Gazzarri's
- Rainbow Bar and Grill
- The Roxy Theatre
- Troubadour
- Whisky a Go Go
- Viper Room
- London Fog
- Hacienda Arms Apartments