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NY Times

Legendary Topless Dancer Dies — She Helped Get the Sexual Revolution Started

Nov 12, 2015  •  Post A Comment

A former go-go dancer who became a key player in the sexual revolution of the 1960s has died. The New York Times reports that Carol Doda died Monday in San Francisco.

Doda reportedly died from complications related to kidney failure at the St. Luke’s campus of California Pacific Medical Center. She was 78.

Doda is widely considered to be one of the figures most responsible for jump-starting the sexual revolution. Her scandalous impromptu topless dance at a San Francisco club on June 19, 1964, when Doda was a 26-year-old go-go dancer, is cited as a turning point.

To put the dance in perspective, “consider that it was followed less than a month later in that same city by the Republican National Convention that nominated the conservative Barry Goldwater,” The Times notes. “Delegates flocked from the Cow Palace convention hall to the Condor Club in the North Beach neighborhood to see her act. As word spread, toplessness became a sensation in clubs and bars across the country.”

The Times adds: “Ms. Doda, a platinum blonde, gained particular attention for injecting her breasts with enough silicone to expand her bra size to 44DD from 34B.”

The Times quotes San Francisco newspaper columnist Herb Caen writing about Doda back in the 1960s that she was “the Susan B. Anthony of this particular liberating movement.”

“The Condor was raided, but she was found not guilty of indecency according to community standards,” The Times reports. “She continued to bare her breasts nightly, eventually earning the equivalent of about $4,000 a week today.”

Doda continued dancing topless into the 1980s, and continued performing with her clothes on well into the 21st century.

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