Whisky a Go Go

The Whisky a Go Go (informally nicknamed The Whisky) is a historic nightclub in West Hollywood, California, United States. It is located at 8901 Sunset Boulevard on the Sunset Strip, corner North Clark Street, opposite North San Vicente Boulevard, northwest corner. The club played a central role in the Los Angeles music scene from the 1960s through the 1990s.

In 1958, the first Whisky a Go Go in the United States opened in Chicago, Illinois, on the corner of Rush and Chestnut streets. It has been called the first real American discothèque. A franchise was opened in 1966 on M Street in the Georgetown section of Washington, D.C., by restaurateur Jacques Vivien. It owes its name to the first discothèque, the Whisky à Gogo, (à gogo, meaning, in French, "in abundance", "galore"), established in Paris in 1947 by Paul Pacini (d. 2017), which itself took the name from the movie Whisky Galore! based on the British novel Whisky Galore which was released in France as Whisky a Gogo. The Sunset Strip Whisky was founded by Elmer Valentine, Phil Tanzini, Shelly Davis, and attorney Theodore Flier and opened on January 16, 1964. In 1966, Valentine, Lou Adler, and others founded The Roxy Theatre. In 1972, Valentine, Adler, Mario Maglieri and others started the Rainbow Bar & Grill on the Sunset Strip. Lou Adler bought into the Whisky in the late 1970s. 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.