The Condor Club: World's First Topless Bar
It's Friday. Time for a history lesson.
It's not everyday you get to write about the place where topless dancing was born. That's right. Now, you might have
thought that women dancing in public with their breasts exposed is as old as, well, at least as old as pasties, but the
fact is that one little bar in San Francisco (of course it HAD to be San Francisco) is the reputed spot on which a
woman dancer first removed her top and bared her glowing white mammaries to an admiring throng of drunken males.
The place is the Condor Club, located in North Beach. It was here that a Condor
waitress named Carol Doda leapt atop a white baby grand piano and wagged her pendulous, um, gazongas, for all to
admire. There was music of course, followed immediately by the sound of dozens of male tongues hitting the floor. And
it gets better.
Doda, apparently unsatisfied with the gravitational properties of her breasts (which were carefully studied by various
scientists from nearby Berkeley laboratories who came to the Condor strictly for professional reasons), subsequently
underwent breast enlargement surgery to increase her bust size from 34 to 44 inches, an impressive achievement to say
the least.
Wait, there's even more titillating stories to tell about the Condor. In 1983, one night after closing, one of the
dancers and one of the bouncers at the club did the horizontal mambo on top of the piano, which apparently had some
kind of hydraulic system beneath it allowing it to be raised or lowered. The piano was "accidentally" raised to the
ceiling, crushing the bouncer to death and leaving Hill pinned there beneath him until a janitor found them the next
morning. Now if that isn't a story to tell the grandkids, I don't know what is.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Dec 18th 2005 @ 5:08PM
jmchez said...
So, slutty Carol had breast enlargement surgery? Then it couldn't have been pre-1950s, could it? You mean that there were no other earlier instances of topless chorus girls or strippers? No Josephine Bakers? Cm'on! When did this dancing allegedly first happen?
Reply
Dec 18th 2005 @ 5:08PM
Carlo said...
http://www.corriere.it/Media/Foto/2004/10_Ottobre/08/CONDOR.jpg
a little little Condor andino, the biggest bird of the world....
Reply
Dec 18th 2005 @ 5:08PM
Jim Cooper said...
The band that was playing at the Condor club the night Carol Dota first danced was"The Marketts."
Who had a hit record entitled,"Out Of Limits."
I know because I was there. I played Guitar for the group and the leader of the Marketts was a gentleman --Mike Rubini, who became a very busy songwriter and piano and harpsicord musician.
Mike is one of the best musicians I have ever heard...
Reply
Dec 18th 2005 @ 5:08PM
Jim Cooper said...
The band that was playing the night Carol Dota first danced at the Condor Club was..."The Marketts." The Marketts had a hit record at that time entitled .."Out of Limits."
I played Guitar for the group and the group was headed by Mike Rubini..who became a quite famous songwriter and much sought after piano and harpsicord musician.
It was great fun and left me with many wonderful memories.
Reply
Dec 18th 2005 @ 5:08PM
Debbie Harrington said...
My Mom and Dad worked at the Condor Club in the 60's and I visited severel times during the day. It always seemed like a "family" to me. I have a picture of "George & Teddy" with the Beatles in London. Does anyone remember them? My folk's are Lea and Del, remember them? I also remember Tony & Susie, and Susie's daughter Shawn. Great times. I saw Carol come down out of the ceiling once. I snuck in when I was 18 and pregnant with other family from out of town. Very impressive. Great history memories I'd forgotten about.
Reply
Nov 16th 2007 @ 1:24PM
Valerie said...
Anyone who knows how to get in touch with Diane from the above comment please let her know that I am trying to make contact with her...Teddy was my dad and I would love to have a copy of that photo. We have lost the one that we had... would love to talk to her...
Thanks,
Valerie
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