Remember the Go-Go Dance?
On January 15, 1964 former police officer Elmer Valentine opened a rock club at 8901 Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, California and called it Whisky a Go Go after a club he visited in Paris, France the year before. Quickly, its popularity grew as Johnny Rivers and other performers sang to the crowds and a disc jockey spun records between performances from a glass cage suspended above and to the right of the stage. In 1965 Valentine hired Joanie Labine as the first female disc jockey at his club.
During one of Johnny Rivers' sets Joanie began dancing energetically in the cage. Club goers thought she was part of the show and the Go-Go dance was born. Joanie Labine was not through yet though. She began wearing short, fringed skirts and high, white boots as she danced and the official GoGo uniform emerged. The craze swept America as Go-Go dancing appeared in nightclubs and discotheques everywhere. Young men and women packed the clubs to dance and to watch the go-go dancers with their short, fringed skirts and high, white boots.
And now you know the rest of the story.
