Elmer Valentine | Rock-club cofounder, 85

Elmer Valentine, 85, cofounder of the Whiskey a Go Go club where the Doors, Janis Joplin, and other rock legends played, has died.

He died Wednesday at his Los Angeles home, his business partner and friend Lou Adler told the Los Angeles Times. Mr. Valentine had suffered from various ailments over the last four years, Adler said.

While traveling in Europe in 1963, Mr. Valentine visited a Parisian disco where hordes of young mini-skirted women did the go-go and decided to re-create the club in Los Angeles.

Along with three partners, he opened the Sunset Strip rock club in 1964, with scantily clad girls dancing in cages suspended from the ceiling.

Over the decades, the small venue played host to major bands such as the Byrds, the Kinks, the Who, Van Halen, Guns N' Roses and X. - AP