Long before its apartments were painted socialist red, even before its mayor sprayed his hair electric blue, West Hollywood was a colorful little rooster of a town. Defying expansion-minded Los Angeles, it remained an unincorporated no-man's-land, surrounded by the city but not a part of it, legally or spiritually.
From the days of Prohibition, West Hollywood's famous Sunset Strip lay beyond the grasp of the Los Angeles police department, and it sheltered illicit casinos and speakeasy bars, patronized by gangsters and movie stars. During the '60s West Hollywood attracted hippies, druggies and rock-music clubs such as the Troubador and Whisky a...
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