The Condor and San Francisco’s topless dancing revolution

How Carol Doda changed nightlife forever from the corner of Broadway and Columbus

Jul 13, 2025

I walk past the Condor, at the corner of Columbus and Broadway, every day on the way to work and I’ve never paid much attention to the business, although it is hard to miss with its giant banner promoting “The Original Topless Gentlemen’s Club since 1964” and huge neon sign with the illuminated words “Topless A-Go-Go.” But now that I know it, the story of this club has my full attention.

While a bar has occupied the space since the early 1900s, the real story starts when Gino Del Prete and Pete Mattioli took over in 1958. In the early ‘60s, Broadway was packed with nightclubs and North Beach was known around the world for its nightlife scene. Hot music acts and comics played here all night long.

When Gino and Pete branded the bar on the corner as the Condor, it was a hit. The club was a hotspot for great music and became home to one of the first interracial bands in the area: George and Teddy and the Jokers Three. According to saxophonist Jerry Martini, famous musicians like Sly Stone would come to the Condor to watch the bands play.

Everything for the Condor and Broadway Street unknowingly changed the day they hired a cocktail waitress by the name of Carol Doda in 1963. Around the same time, the club notably hired Davey Rosenberg as the club’s promoter.

Carol was a witty and outgoing waitress with a great presence, who made it her job to entertain the guests of the Condor. She was always dancing, and would often get up on stage with the bands. One night, when there was no room on stage, she jumped on top of the piano to do the twist. Then and there, dancing on the piano became her “thing.” Carol, who had always aspired to be in the spotlight as an entertainer, was starting to shine.

Carol Doda, 1964 (Credit: San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library)

The competition among clubs in North Beach was cutthroat— you had to have something different. So, the Condor owners decided that Carol’s piano should descend from the ceiling and she would come down on it, through a hole in the dressing room floor. It seemed like a crazy idea, but it actually worked.

Meanwhile, in 1964, Rudi Gernreich was designing the “monokini” as the first women’s topless bathing suit. It had tight brief bottoms and two thin straps that came from the waist and acted as a halter top. The breasts were totally exposed.

Gernreigh was an Austrian-American designer, known for his avant-garde ideas. He challenged society’s repression of the human body and the idea that nudity was shameful. When he designed the monokini, it was intended as more of a statement than an actual design for commercial purposes.

Model in a “monokini” in North Beach, 1964 (Credit: SF Public Library)

When the first photo of a model wearing the monokini was published in June 1964 in Women’s Wear Daily, it evoked outrage around the world. But Davey, the Condor’s promoter, saw the design and had an idea. He got his hands on a monokini for the Condor’s top girl and about two weeks later, on June 19, 1964, Carol descended from the ceiling on her piano in a monokini. Completely topless.

That night, Carol became the first modern topless performer in the United States and people went crazy for her. Crowds lined the street, and a new era in San Francisco was born. This was an act for everyone and tourists from around the world came to the Condor to see this uniquely San Francisco show.

Suddenly the dancing acts at the other clubs couldn’t compete. So, everyone on Broadway jumped on the topless train and every club owner asked their dancers to go topless. El Cid had an act called “The Topless Mother of 8” and Tipsy’s was home of the “Topless Band.” Tara was the famous topless act at Big Al’s. There were topless shoeshiners, topless ice cream stands, and topless men’s clothing stores.

Broadway at night, 1960s (Credit: SF Public Library)

This was all happening in the midst of a changing world: the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights Movement, and the beginning of the Feminist Movement had birthed new feelings of defiance. The ‘60s was a time of sexual revolution and Carol, along with the other topless women on Broadway, believed they were at the forefront of liberation.

In 1965, San Francisco decided to crack down on topless establishments in North Beach and conducted raids in which they made 35 arrests. Carol and the women were charged with indecent exposure. Club owners like Gino and Pete, the owners of the Condor, were charged for running a disorderly house.

The case went to trial, but ultimately the defendants were found “not guilty” and so the show went on in a big way on Broadway. San Francisco became the first city in the country to legalize topless dancing and Carol Doda’s fame only grew. She became an international sensation and sex symbol. The Condor had a sign of Carol erected in the front, with red flashing lights in place of her nipples.

The Condor club, 1978 (Credit: SF Public Library)

It is also notable that around this time, large breasts were becoming more fetishized and the practice of silicone injection had made its way overseas from Asia. In Japan after World War II, sex workers started having their breasts injected with industrial grade silicone, leftover from the war efforts, in order to appeal to American servicemen stationed there.

Carol, who naturally had a small figure and something closer to a 34B, bought into the silicone injection craze when it made its way to the United States and famously and quickly expanded to a 44DD. By all accounts, she was committed to “being the best” and this is what she wanted.

On September 3, 1969, Carol took it all off to dance completely nude at the Condor. And soon there was “bottomless” dancing on Broadway. However, it didn’t last long. Much to the chagrin of Davey Rosenberg (who was now a promoter for seven bottomless clubs), a 1972 Supreme Court case ruled that agencies like The California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control had a right to ban nude entertainment in the establishments they licensed. San Francisco law, as it stands today, prohibits fully nude performances in establishments that serve alcohol.

After this, there was a point when Carol left the Condor over a pay dispute with the owners. And for a short time, she headlined at a new club with her namesake on Broadway. She also had brief stints in Las Vegas and LA. But eventually, she made her way back to the Condor.

However, by the mid-to-late ‘70s Broadway was changing. The clientele had shifted and clubs had a hard time paying their live acts. Grungier strip clubs, porn shops, and “nude encounter parlors” took over the street and the area’s reputation turned sleezier. Hard drugs permeated the club scene. Both Gino and Pete were gone, and Don Levine owned the Condor. Carol was there, but overall the club wasn’t the same.

Then, in 1983, the Condor made headlines again for a crazy and mysterious death.

“Jimmy the Beard” who was a well-known manager and bouncer at the club, stayed late one night drinking and doing drugs with a dancer. The story goes that while Jimmy and Theresa Hill were having sex on Carol’s piano, someone accidentally hit the “On” switch, causing the piano to rise, and ultimately crushing Jimmy to death between the piano and the ceiling. The couple was found pinned against the ceiling the next morning and it took authorities hours to free them. Jimmy was declared dead on scene and 23-year-old Theresa was said to have been saved from asphyxiation thanks to the fact that she was skinnier.

Some who knew Jimmy didn’t believe this story and were confident he was murdered and the scene was a set up, since he was known to be involved in trouble. But officially, the death was deemed an accident.

Carol retired from the Condor in 1986. She went on to reinvent herself multiple times: running an adult fantasy phone line, owning a lingerie boutique, and as a singer and (clothed) performer with bands around the city. While Carol said she never suffered health complications from her silicone injections, these injections were known to have had severe health effects on many women of Carol’s time. She died in 2015 at the age of 78.

To this day, the Condor proudly promotes its topless entertainment on the corner of Broadway. There is even a plaque on the side of the building that honors the history made there. It is open every day from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m.

Note: If you are interested in learning more, you have to watch Carol Doda Topless at the Condor. It is an amazing documentary that gives you pictures, videos, and firsthand accounts that bring these characters and these years to life.

Sources:

“Carol Doda Topless at the Condor.” Directed by Marlo McKenzie and Jonathan Parker, Parker Film Company, 2023.

https://www.sf.gov/sites/default/files/2022-11/Item%202b.%20LBR-2019-20-036%20Condor.pdf

https://digitalsf.org/record/61291?ln=en&p=TOPLESS&v=pdf

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monokini

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudi_Gernreich