It was nearly 1 a.m. Saturday, but Jong Won Kim and his three buddies were far from done partying when they jumped aboard the Holly Trolley, Hollywood's improbable mass transit system for club hoppers that debuted this weekend.
Hearing the saxophone solo of Mel Waiters' "Hole in the Wall" blast over the trolley's speakers, the 24-year-old Portland, Ore., native clenched his fists and said: "This rocks!"
Inspired by an undetermined number of whiskey and cola drinks, Kim and his friends debated taking a food break or immediately hitting another nightclub as the trolley (really a bus made to look like an old street car) glided past the flashing neon and velvet rope lines of the new Hollywood Boulevard.
"Coming from Oregon, Hollywood had a reputation for being ghetto," said Kim, who moved to L.A. a year ago. "It actually has a different persona. I love it."
The Holly Trolley is just the latest sign of Hollywood Boulevard's transformation into a nightclub district that rivals -- and by some measures surpasses -- the famed Sunset Strip a few miles to the west.
It's been an unlikely comeback. A decade ago the once-bustling boulevard was still largely a symbol of urban blight in Los Angeles. There were jewels like the Pantages and El Capitan theaters, but subway construction had crumbled parts of the Hollywood Walk of Fame and a crime wave was keeping many away -- save out-of-town tourists -- especially at night.
But what started as a few small clubs luring young urban adventurers has burgeoned into a strip of about 50 nightclubs and bars stretching from Vine Street to La Brea Avenue that throb with dance music. Some are the size of warehouses and pack in hundreds at a time; others are ultra-exclusive, with customers willing to pay $1,100 for a bottle of fine vodka and a reserved booth to sit in.
Come sundown on weekends, patrons -- mostly twentysomethings, some from far-flung suburbs looking for a night in the big city -- converge on the strip.
Hollywood's new nightlife is also marking the return of regular celebrity sightings along the boulevard for the first time in a generation -- especially young stars whose late-night travails end up on the pages of US and People magazines.
"If you said five years ago that Paris Hilton was going to get into a car accident in Hollywood, no one would have believed you, because Paris Hilton wouldn't have been in Hollywood," said City Councilman Eric Garcetti, referring to a recent incident that made tabloid headlines.
