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When I was 15,
I had a... vision.

Thought I would be in
the entertainment business.

I didn't know what.

Back then, it was the
beginning of a whole new world.

50,000 people
converged on the civic center

to protest
a Goldwater nomination

at the demonstration
for civil rights.

Shit was different then,
you know?

A lot of rules
were being broken.

Open another,
we'll shut it down!

Whatever prompted you

to develop this topless
bathing suit anyway?

Well, I believe
that it is a definite trend.

Why do you think
it's gonna catch on

in the United States? Aren't we
prudish about such matters?

Well, I think more prudish
than the rest of the world, yes.

We must decide
what sort of people we are

and what sort of a world
we want.

Talented young lady
named Carol Doda.

Oh, you can't reach me.
How about if I do a little lean?

San Francisco
is a happening town.

They wanna see entertainment.

You're given credit
for launching

the topless craze.

Ms. Carol Doda,
the topless queen.

That's right. That's
where it happened, the Condor.

She made an
international name for herself.

- There's nudity in your show.
- Wanna tell you something.

There's nudity,
but it's done tastefully.

Art lovers go and see that.
This is another form of art.

Like a nude painting
or a nude statue.

It has taste.

Was always a class act.

Carol Doda, of course,
was the star of North Beach.

Why was Carol famous?

She was more than
a stripper, a go-go dancer.

There was just
something different about her.

She was brave enough
to do something

no one had done before.

In every way,
it made sense

that people went absolutely
wild when she did this.

But it was nowhere near
the revolutionary places

that she was going to take
American culture.

Broadway Street,
it was fantastic.

Everybody that came
to San Francisco in those days

came to Broadway.

Those clubs
were packed with tourists.

North Beach
was the off-season Vegas.

It was a very active
music scene.

I saw all these
great, great performers

and we'd see these at breakfast
shows at 2:00 in the morning.

You had the Jazz Workshop.

Down the street,
you had Lenny Bruce.

I mean,
it was entertainment row.

10:00 p.m. in San Francisco.

This Baghdad by the Bay

is a swinging place.

The happening clubs

- were Pierre's...
- The Off-Broadway.

- Roaring 20's.
- Purple Onion.

- The Hungry I.
- El Cid.

- Big Al's.
- The Galaxie.

- Then you have Finocchio's.
- Peppermint Tree.

- And the Condor.
- Condor.

- The Condor.
- The Condor.

- The Condor.
- Condor was the place to go.

It was right on the corner
there. It was beautiful.

Everybody was friendly.

♪ Hully gully, pretty papa ♪

* All right ♪

Carol started
at the Condor as a waitress.

I really didn't know
how to serve cocktails,

so it was like this
tremendous pressure

because I had to do good.

I just had to prove myself

as a capable worker.

That somebody
would be proud of me.

So I became one of the best
cocktail waitresses

in San Francisco.

♪ Hully gully, pretty papa... ♪

When I started
working at night

is when I really
got to meet Carol.

And she was just
one of the cocktail waitresses,

but she had the front station,
the busiest station.

I had this habit

of always jumping around
and dancing,

and I would be relating
to the people

like I was entertaining them,
only I was serving them drinks.

They thought I was crazy

and they loved me
and they'd come back.

Carol Doda was friends
with everybody.

Everybody liked her.

She always wore
a white leotard.

The rest of us
wore black leotards.

You know, she stood out.

The Condor was a blast.

And they had good bands.

1964...

Oh yeah!

...and we gonna dance
some more.

George & Teddy were
the big hit for the North Beach.

They sang
all the Motown songs

They were
the first musicians

that brought the crowd
into the Condor.

♪ Mary had a little lamb ♪

♪ Whose fleece
were white as snow ♪

♪ Hey! ♪

♪ And everywhere
that Mary went ♪

♪ Her lamb was sure to go... ♪

George & Teddy,

they were the talk of the town
back then.

- ♪ Baby ♪
- ♪ Crackin' up over you ♪

♪ I said I love you, baby
Love you, girl ♪

♪ Don't you wanna
love me too? ♪

I just would wail
on my horn, you know,

for that style.

And those girls were
really risque for the time.

♪ Crackin' up over you... ♪

George & Teddy
coming out between their legs.

All of a sudden,
you see Teddy going...

- He was a naughty boy.
- Whoa!

Pete Mattioli and Gino
Del Prete owned the Condor.

Pete and Gino.

They were two little,
short Italian kids

but they ran a tough club.

Gino,
he was just a character.

He was a superstar himself.

'cause he involved himself
with all the people.

He was somebody to go see.

Gino was a naughty boy.

And I ain't gonna say
another word.

I used to drive
his father's ravioli truck

I knew Gino a long time.

Gino was wild

and unpredictable.

Pete, he wasn't a saint.

But he was a straight arrow
compared to Gino.

Pete ran it
totally professional.

We had go-go girls

and we had the best-looking
cocktail waitresses in town.

I was always dancing.

And they said, "Oh, Carol,
get up on the stage."

And I'd go between serving
drinks, jump up on the stage.

They had this piano player.
He said, "Get up here,

there's no room on the stage."
So I got up on the piano.

Carol jumped on
the piano and did the Twist

and people used to love that.

And I think that's how she
got the idea, you know?

"This'll be my thing."

- George, do "Bony Moronie"!

♪ Oh, I got a girl named
Bony Moronie ♪

♪ She as skinny
as a stick of macaroni ♪

- Whoa!

The competition
was real tough.

That's why we all tried
to be a little diverse

and have something different.

You had to have a gimmick.

I go into the Condor
early one night

and Gino's at the bar
and we're talking and he says,

"I'm gonna have that piano
come down from the ceiling."

I said,
"The piano weighs a ton."

"No, I got a guy.

He's gonna do the hydraulics.
It's gonna happen."

And I'm thinking,
"Yeah, what's he thinking?"

Well, I had to
cut a hole in the ceiling

and then we had to make a tunnel

from the dressing room
to that hole

where she'd stand on the piano

and press the button
and then come down.

Carol gets on the piano

and everybody's like
holding their breath...

"Is this gonna work?"

You know you gotta
keep up with the times

if you wanna be mine.
So let's do it.

And it came down.
It came down, hit the stage,

and she's doing the Twist and
we're all goin', "Oh my God.

It happened."

* The dance they
were doing was outta sight ♪

This crazy piano
went up and down

like an elevator
in the ceiling.

♪ Then I could do it ♪

- * Aww, shake it up now... ♪

There were so many dance crazes
in the 1960s.

The Frug, the Watusi, the Twist,

the Limbo,

the Swim.

The Galaxie on
Broadway hired a girl named...

Judy Mac.

I was a hat check girl
at the Galaxie.

And the owner asked
to take me to dinner.

And I thought, "Yeah, I'll go.
What do you have in mind?"

He said,
"Well, here's the deal.

We heard about this dance
called the Swim dance.

And we wanna know if you will
run a contest and perform it."

I said, "What's the Swim
dance?"

He said, "I don't know.

Just dance and look like
you're swimming."

And I said, "Oh, okay.

I can do that."

It was publicized
in the newspaper

and people were curious
and came to see it

because Judy Mac pulled her
dress up and did the Swim.

That was kinda risque
back in the '60s.

That became the big rage with
Bobby Freeman's hit record,

who was from San Francisco.

Let me introduce an old friend
of American Bandstand,

Mr. Bobby Freeman!

Come on, everybody!

A-come on in!

Bobby's gonna show you
how to do the Swim!

How did it start
and where?

Well, actually, I started
the Swim two years ago, Dick.

It was a Twist party
that took place

at the Cow Palace.

And the headliner
was Chubby Checker.

Bobby Freeman got on stage
and he was doing his hits.

So then Bobby had a last
encore,

but he ran out of songs.

There was a musician there
that was on keyboard.

It was an 18-year-old guy
named Sly Stone,

and he started playing this
riff on the organ.

So Bobby caught on and he
started doing these gyrations

and he started doing
hand motions forward.

And then all of a sudden,

you know,
the crowd went ecstatic.

So after the show,
Sly Stone says,

"Man, what was you doing
up there?

Like you were swimmin'
or something."

And the Swim was born.

I was given credit
for being the creator

of the Swim dance.

I don't even claim that.

Judy Mac did her own
variations of the Swim,

and that's when it caught on.

"Wait a minute.
Bobby Freeman's the originator.

So what we need to do is make
a song outta this dance."

Tom Donahue collaborated
with Sly Stone

and co-wrote the song
and called it "C'mon and Swim."

And it became a smash.

♪ Do what you wanna
'Cause it's all right ♪

♪ 'Cause Bobby's gonna show you
How to swim tonight ♪

♪ Now, baby, swim ♪

Besides the fact
that it's topless,

what else is unique
about this swimsuit?

There isn't really anything
very unique about it

other than the fact
that it has no top.

The swimsuit is a particularly
interesting garment

when it comes to the history
of women's liberation.

Well, I could go back
to the bikini.

When that first was shown in
Italy, people just almost died.

Oh!

Rudi Gernreich

is surely one
of the most controversial

and also most highly respected
figures in the fashion world.

He is very avant-garde and
a very forward-thinking person

which will influence the world,
in my estimation.

Why did he come up
with this idea?

How did he come up
with this idea?

It's very political.

Fashion is highly political.

And has been
from the dawn of time.

When first-wave feminists
were trying to get the vote,

there was also
a dress reform movement

because they were
dressed in corsets

and they could barely breathe.

Rudi Gernreich
isn't just a fashion designer.

He's one of the first members

of the Mattachine Society,

which is one of the first
gay rights groups

in the United States.

Eventually, magazines agreed to
run the photo of the monokini,

but it was a big controversy
from the beginning.

Do you think
it could become popular?

No.

- Why not?
- Lot of bashful women around.

I think men won't have respect
for any girl at all,

whether she's good or bad.

Problem is, I think you'd get
picked up for indecent exposure

as soon as you were
found with one on.

I'm afraid I'd have to tell her
to, uh, cover up.

If she refused, I would have to,
uh, take her into custody.

The monokini, to me,

really unlocks
a whole deeper level

of what Carol Doda was about

and what she achieved.

It seems to me
that the monokini was...

a kind of momentary gimmick.

Okay.

But let's talk about

the monokini as a symbol.

And to do that, you have to
understand what was happening

in 1964 and 1965, 1966.

The Vietnam War.

...this, which is really
heightened in the consciousness,

would take action!

The stirrings
of the feminist movement.

What you see here
is the beginning of a movement

that women are human beings

and we have equal rights.

The civil rights movement

starting to gain momentum.

...to end the long night
of racial injustice...

So this is
an extraordinary moment

in American history

and during this
extraordinary moment,

Carol Doda is handed, by Big
Davey Rosenberg, this monokini.

He says he designed
it only to illustrate a trend,

but buyers began demanding
the topless swimsuit

and now it's reaching
the market.

Davey was the PR man

and anything that would make
the news, Davey would do.

Initially, he brought you
the newspaper and showed you.

And it was on the front page,
above the masthead.

You went, "Oh my gosh."

So Davey says,
"Let's go buy it."

Everybody knew Davey.

He was very active
in promoting Carol.

That was his thing
at the Condor.

He called me up and said, "Come
down here. We have a surprise."

Well, I got down there. They
said they had a new costume.

And I just see this little
bikini thing with two straps.

And...

"I'm not gonna wear that."

We showed it to her

and convinced Carol to wear it.

Carol Doda says,
"I was stupid.

If you told me to do it,
I did it."

She's not stupid at all.

I think, on some level,

she really knew
that it was a weapon.

♪ Stand in a circle ♪

♪ Go round and round... ♪

My dad had a friend
who told him

he needs to come to the Condor

'cause all hell
was gonna break loose.

It was my birthday,
June 19, '64.

His friend comes up and says,
"Hey man,

can't have your son there.
He's underage."

They stuck me
in the dressing room.

I remember seeing Carol there,

and she says,
"What a cute little boy."

I never had
any feelings of,

"Should I do this
or shouldn't I do this?"

Except for the minute
that I was on the piano,

getting ready to come down
out of the ceiling,

topless for the first time.

I said, "Carol, do you really
know what you're doing?"

I said, "Yes, I want to be
in show business

and I don't know any other way

but to start showing
my business."

And the proverbial shit
hit the fan.

I'm in the dressing room

and I'm hearing
whistles and hollering.

Within 20 minutes,
Big Al's, next to the Condor,

people started drifting
out of the club,

"What's happening?
What's happening?"

"The girl out there
taking her top off,"

and the place emptied out.

Everybody ran to see this.

Even the band. We took off too.

♪ Come on, baby ♪

♪ I want you to swim ♪

I'm going, "I wanna go out,"
and the guy's like,

"No, you can't.
You're underage."

I didn't know what was happening
but I was buzzed.

She came down on that piano,

and it was a sensation.

♪ Bobby's gonna do the swim
For you tonight ♪

- ♪ Now, baby, swim... ♪
- The Condor breaks loose

with Carol, okay?

The Condor breaks loose.

She took the top off

and everybody would gasp.

'Cause they never saw topless
in those days.

They were lined up
around the corner.

Like they'd never seen bare
breasts before in their lives.

The shows people were usually
seeing were strip shows

where they would be covered up
with pasties, the nipples.

So the nipples were a big deal,
you know?

The greatest things since
sliced bread, I guess.

It was amazing
how fast the word spread.

Man, three or four deep
on the sidewalks.

I mean, you couldn't even walk
down the sidewalk.

It happened during the
Republican National Convention

- that was at the Cow Palace.

The eyes of
the nation are on San Francisco

as the Republican party
convenes

to nominate
its choice for president.

The Republican
man of the hour

and a smiling
Mrs. Barry Goldwater

meet the people and the press

as they walk the streets
of San Francisco

in the opening days of the
Republican National Convention.

Best publicity
they could have done.

Barry Goldwater's two sons

came into the club. Just like
anybody, they wanted to see it.

Nervous that first night?

Yeah, I was for the first show.

It was different.

♪ It's Pony time! Get up! ♪

♪ Boogety, boogety
Boogety, boogety, shoo... ♪

She's notorious,
she's celebrated.

She and the Condor club
sort of usher in

this era of topless dancing.

It becomes "a thing"
because of Carol Doda

and her monokini.

After Carol
started the topless,

nobody wanted
to see Swim dancing.

When I had the belly dancers

with a half-empty room,

and the Condor had a line
all the way around the corner

up to my place,

I said, "That's it.

The belly dancers can go."

There was nightclub life

and there was the sexualization
of women's bodies.

These things converged in a way
I think was really exciting.

And sort of made it acceptable,
in a way, for respectable men,

um, to go watch go-go dancing

and to go see topless women.

Owner asked if I'd go topless.

He paid me enough
and I went topless.

I was the second girl to go
topless in North Beach

after Carol Doda.

One of my dancer friends said,

"Yes, everybody's
dancing topless.

If you want a gig,
you have to dance topless."

I couldn't go topless.

I mean, my parents
lived across the Bay

and that would have been a...

a mistake.

Was it tough finding
a topless dancer

when topless first started
in North Beach?

Yes, it was tough.
Now it's, you know...

It's like deer,
they're in season.

Then everything went topless.

- Anything you can think of.
You had Tipsy's,

which was home of the topless
band, the Ladybirds.

♪ Well, oh-oh-over and over ♪

♪ I'll be a fool for you ♪

El Cid had
Gaye Spiegelman

who was the mother of eight.

She had abs like a 19-year-old.

They had a topless
clam chowder place.

Topless men's clothing store.

Of course, it was the
saleswoman who was topless.

They had topless
shoe shine.

Can you just picture the...

Working... working the rag.

When they opened up
the topless shoe shine stand,

I said, "That's gonna bust
the fuckin' street."

We ended up gettin' busted.

Then in April 1965,

the city made an effort
to shut the clubs down

with a series of raids
reminiscent

of the Prohibition era
of the 1920s.

We're going to arrest
all the girls

with their bosoms exposed

for indecent exposure.

We're gonna take the girls down
dressed like they are,

so they can bring their street
clothes down with them.

Because we're gonna have to
take their costumes, you see?

What about girls
not in costume?

Uh, those can remain.

Just those that are topless.

* Well, I woke up
this morning ♪

Bring your
regular street clothes.

♪ You were on my mind ♪

♪ And you were on my mind... ♪

Captain, you've had
a pretty busy night and day.

- Uh, is this going to continue?
- Yes, it will continue.

We'll make arrests where there
are any violations of the law.

Do you feel this is
a violation of the law?

Otherwise,
we wouldn't be doing it.

We're making legal arrests,
in our opinion.

I'm not worried because I feel
I haven't done anything wrong.

I've done my job.

And, uh, I feel that, uh,
I have no reason to be scared.

You don't think
you've broken any law?

No, I don't think so at all.

If you are out on bail by
the 4:30 show, will you be back?

Yes, sir.

- In costume?
- Yes, sir.

All the other topless
girls took it so lightly.

They thought it was a big joke.

Everybody enjoyed it,

and they just thought
it was a big farce.

But to me,
I took it very tragically.

I have never been in jail
before in my life

and I'm not used
to that sort of thing.

And in my eyes,
I think I'm a very nice person,

and for something like that
to happen, it was just, uh...

incredible to me.
I couldn't believe it.

Gino, what time
was your Condor raided?

About 10:00, 10:30.

Did you have any warning at all?

Seeing a man there with
a camera. That was about it.

Was it a policeman, or...

No, it was just a reporter.

And, uh...

He said, uh, "I guess there's
gonna be a raid."

And what did you do?

I didn't do nothin'.
I didn't believe it.

In our cell
was just Gino, Carol, and me.

They just fingerprinted us
and then let us go.

What did the police
charge you with?

I don't know.

Do you agree that the topless
should be banned in North Beach?

Uh, no, I don't.

I think a person, if, uh,
if they want to see it,

- they have a right to see it.
- I don't go for it.

I mean, I think the girls
could keep themselves covered.

If it's a bare-chested man, fine.

Broadway, as it now is

with the various types
of entertainment

that have moved in here,

I would say it's somewhat
of a cesspool.

You're speaking specifically
of the topless, are you not?

Well, yes. What else?

People are overdoing it
when they say,

"Isn't that terrible
what's happening on Broadway?"

It is not terrible.
It's wonderful.

♪ Come, let's stroll ♪

♪ Stroll across the floor ♪

We've got the cleanest,
nicest area

up here in this North Beach
in the whole United States.

And the more people
who congregate here

on Friday and Saturday nights,

there's no crime,
no problems, no nothing.

What they're complaining about,
I don't know.

Because everything
that's gone on here

has gone on in other cities.

But with a little
overtone of, uh,

behind-the-barn sort of a
business. We don't do that here.

Carol, how are you holding up
under all this?

- I'm holding up.

Are you anxious to get back
to work in your normal costume?

Yes, I certainly am.

I intend to give
the police department

and office of the mayor
an education.

And before the last echoes of
last night's explosion is over,

why, I think that, uh, they will

be a little more
in their proper places.

♪ Now, turn around, baby ♪

♪ Let's stroll once more ♪

If the prosecution
couldn't prove

what the consensus
of opinion was

throughout the city and county
of San Francisco,

then they had failed
to prove a case.

- ♪ Whoa! ♪

What was your reaction to it?

Well, I'm glad it's all over
and I hope this satisfies the...

people who put it up
for a test case,

as the courts have decided.

San Francisco was the first city
in the nation

where topless entertainment
became legal.

Ms. Doda may go back to her
piano where she belongs.

Get outta this courtroom.

What are your plans, Ms. Doda?

- Do you intend to...
- Go back to the piano

where I belong.

How much do you think
it would have cost

to buy this kind of publicity
for the Condor?

I don't think we have
enough money to buy it.

It did good for North Beach.

I mean, "These girls are so bad
they got arrested.

Let's go see 'em."

♪ People talkin'
Tryin' to break us up ♪

♪ Why don't they let us be? ♪

♪ Bricks and stones
May break my bones ♪

♪ But talk don't bother me... ♪

Lenny Bruce used
to get busted all the time.

Every time he went on the stage
and faced the street west,

he got busted.

San Francisco,
I got arrested for, uh...

They said it was vernacular

for a favorite homosexual
practice, a ten-letter word.

It's weird how they manifested
that word as homosexual.

'Cause I don't.
That relates to any...

contemporary chick I know
or would know

or would love or would marry.

He knew
he was gonna get busted

but he did it anyway.

He was somebody
who skirted around obscenity

as a way to make people
think harder

about how our ideas about what
was obscene and what was decent

intersected with our racism,

intersected with our sexism,

intersected with our
anti-Semitism.

Lenny Bruce was
basically saying,

"I can't do this anymore"

as Carol Doda was winding up

and coming into her power.

There was something different
about Carol Doda.

Yes.

Quite a bit different.

Is it all right
if I join you up here?

Certainly.
The more, the merrier.

Uh, this isn't
your usual costume, is it?

Oh, well, I don't think so.
Do you?

Well, I've never seen your act.

- You're missing something.

Um, what is it actually?

I mean, I know
it's a beautiful gown.

But, um, what's the occasion?

It's for the inaugural ball
in Sacramento.

- You're going to the ball?
- Oh yes.

Like any really
ambitious performer

with a subversive agenda,

that wasn't enough for her.

She wanted to do more

and she wanted to be more.

If you've got
a bunch of girls topless,

what's gonna make them come
and see you instead of her?

It is fascinating the degree
to which size is so important

to the meaning of breasts.

Dave Rosenberg
was competitive with Carol.

He wanted to make sure
nobody was gonna top her.

He's actually the one
who convinced Carol.

You know, "You wanna be a star?

We gotta get you pumped up."

We have this assumption
in American society today

that breasts have always been
erotic objects.

But if you look
at these sex symbols

of the early 20th century,

you'll find they were famous
for their legs.

It's only after the war

that you have the rise,
so to speak,

of the big bosom as something
that's very fetishized.

Because prior to World War II,

the majority of women would
breastfeed their children.

And post-war,
there's a shift to formula.

When a baby isn't
hanging off a breast,

there's a greater opportunity
to sexualize it.

Why was
Marilyn Monroe so popular?

Why was Jayne Mansfield
so popular?

Why was Jane Russell
so popular?

Men want boobs.

* Betty Lou
Got a new pair of shoes ♪

♪ Betty Lou
Got a new pair of shoes ♪

♪ Betty Lou
Got a new pair of shoes ♪

♪ Betty Lou
Got a new pair of shoes ♪

I came to work one day.
My boss said,

"Oh, there's this doctor
that's giving these injections

that enlarge the breasts."

He says,
"You should look into that."

And I thought to myself,
right then and there,

"He's trying
to tell me something."

She always had
a cute little figure.

There... I mean...

her breasts were fine.
They were...

She's small.

- She was sort of flat-chested.
- She was flat-chested.

We told her she had
two fried eggs for breasts.

And so she embarked
on this course

which was, at the time,
quite experimental.

It was quite
a thing when she first did it

'cause we never heard
about this,

you know, augmenting...
you know, breast augmentation.

Carol Doda and I
were getting silicone

at the same doctor
at the same time.

Dr. Vincent Spano.

He was the famous silicone
doctor in San Francisco.

You've taken
these silicone, uh...

Was wondering when
we were gonna get to that.

Uh, yes, I have.

Did you have
any fear about these shots?

No, I didn't at that time.

You took them from a doctor?

Of course.

Couldn't have taken them
from a veterinarian.

It was scary
when I first went in

and he came at me
with this long needle.

I was like...

It depends on how bad
you want something.

You want something bad enough,

you're willing to pay
the price for it.

She'd be in one room
and he'd be doing her

and then he'd come in
and do me.

We could hear each other
and he'd say, "Carol,

I cannot give you
any more silicone.

Your breasts
are going to explode.

They're little.
They can't hold it."

"No, come on, doctor.
Just one more."

'Cause she wanted to be bigger
than everybody else.

The doctor's trying
to kick us out,

saying, "Look, you two girls,
you're big enough.

You don't need
any more silicone."

I made the comment
to Davey and Gino.

They knew what was going on.
I didn't.

And I says,
"She's gettin' bigger,"

and they all say, "Oh, you're
just imagining things."

Week after week, they
were getting bigger and bigger.

And there was a point
when they were just right,

and then...

eventually, they got huge.

If I was going to do this,

I was gonna do it in a big way.

She got 44 injections
of silicone into her breasts,

bumping her up from a B cup

to a 44DD.

I went up to the dressing room

and she was all black and blue
from the shots.

So she puts pancake makeup on.

And I asked her, I says,
"Carol, what are you doing?

Do you know where that's going
in your body?"

She says, "Pete, it's my body.
Mind your own business."

I says, "Okay," and I left.

I'm sure she thought it was safe
and it was an opportunity

to be something special.

But she was special
just being herself.

I didn't want her
to do it at all.

I said, "Carol, you can't be
doing this. It's your health."

She kind of didn't care.

She was more interested
in entertaining.

And of course, Rosenberg was
pushing her to do this.

She had nobody else.
She had nobody.

She just had the public
to entertain.

She was that lonely of a
person.

Your family say
anything? Were they worried?

No. You see, I, um...

I've been on my own
for quite a while

and, uh, my family
never has a say-so

in matters pertaining to me.

A self-made woman.

Yes, you could say that.
Really.

That's exactly how it is.

She wasn't open
about her past at all.

She never talked about
her family.

I never saw her
family ever come into the club.

I worked 19 years on the street,
but most of it at the Condor.

Where you from, Carol?

I'm from around here,
Northern California.

As W.C. Fields once
said about Mae West,

"I can see what's good.
Tell me the rest."

Well, I don't know what
Mae West answered, but, uh...

there's not too much to tell
in that department.

All right.

She did have
a rough childhood.

Mother and father, they split
up when she was just a child,

about three or four years old.

I'm not too sure who raised her
after. I guess her mother.

I was in a Catholic school.

I was too young to be there
but they accepted me

because of the broken, you know,
marriage and everything.

So I was about four years old

and I lived at
this Catholic school.

I know she didn't feel

she had a good relationship
with her mom.

Her mom was an alcoholic.

Her mother
was tough on her.

Really tough.

She said beat her up and...

that's why she left home
at an early age.

She was very straightlaced.

At that time, she didn't drink,
she didn't do drugs.

She was very guarded.

It was hard to get to know her.

She wasn't real friendly

with many of the girls
on the street.

But she and I kind of
identified with each other.

She'd do my hair, my makeup.
She was very talented.

And she and I were like
the only two there all the time.

When she was on stage

and she was being filmed
and doing publicity,

she was happy.

The rest of the time,
she was a loner and very sad.

You see Herb Caen's
item on you in Ramparts?

- Somebody gave it to me.
- I heard about it.

Told me about it at the garage
that I park.

Have any comment on it?

No, he makes good copy.

- He makes good copy...
- That's all.

...and tasteless
jokes, I would say.

Herb Caen
was a very famous journalist

in San Francisco.

If you got
in Herb Caen's column,

you really did something.

Everybody wanted
to be in his column.

Dave Rosenberg,
he had a lot of juice.

He could get you in newspapers, columns.

Davey and Herb
were really tight.

He always got something
in Herb Caen's column.

Whenever Herb Caen needed pot,
he used get a hold of Davey

and Davey'd get a hold of me

and we'd get him a little pot.

Can I read a line or two of it?

If you wish.
- [Feinstein] All right.

"When Carol Doda
first began taking silicone...

I reported the migratory
tendencies of the stuff,

concluding with this
dolorous observation

by a respected medic:

'Miss Doda may yet wind up

with the two largest kneecaps
in the world.'"

Well, I could, uh,
readily believe that statement

if I was not, uh,
up to date on it.

All these doctors have
all these different theories.

You see, it's a very
controversial subject.

Mm-hm. You don't
mind? You're a good sport?

I think they have to
make their column interesting

so if they need me
to make it interesting,

I must be pretty important.

She's fabulous.
She's complicated.

We didn't need another
Betty Friedan

to tell us about
"the problem without a name."

Carol Doda shot up her breasts

and she showed us that there
was a problem without a name.

The problem was ridiculous
double standards about women

and objectification.

You could say, "Oh, look at
her,

submitting to the male gaze,

being a Barbie doll on
steroids." Yeah, no kidding.

It was almost like Carol Doda
was saying,

"My body is the art

and the performance
is going to go on."

* Come on
All you surfers, grab a girl ♪

"And if my route
to success

is the male gaze
and objectification,

I'm gonna fuck it up.

I'm gonna go all the way."

♪ Come on, baby ♪

♪ Woo-woo ♪

- ♪ Come on, baby ♪
- ♪ Woo-woo ♪

The key thing is that women
are the object of male gazes

and the male gaze is dominant
and it is a form of power.

So women grow up
learning to perceive themselves

through the male gaze

and men don't.

People would say,

"Oh, that's such a demeaning
thing you're doing."

Well...

"If I'm not doing it,
somebody else,

and look at all the money
I'm making.

What's the big deal?"

It was great. Here I am,
a woman. "Give me your money."

On the one hand,
Carol Doda took the male gaze

and twisted it
to her own benefit,

and she did well by that.

But I think what
she couldn't have anticipated

is the legacy that she would
leave on women to come

who then felt that they needed
to live up to this male gaze

which had been sort of enhanced
and exaggerated

by the presence
of these large breasts.

It's a very particular lens
through which to see beauty

and through which
to see sexuality

that's ultimately
been very limiting

and has led to some serious
body dysmorphia,

uh, in women to follow.

There's no question
in my mind that

the unequal division between

the female dancer
and the male viewer

and the transaction
of the money involved...

Topless clubs are a reflection
of a patriarchal society.

But that doesn't mean there
aren't individual women

who may very well find a very
strong sense of empowerment

for themselves
in those environments.

My fantasy
was to be a stripper.

It's just kind of exciting

and here,
you got all the lights

and people are watching you
like you're really important.

And just kind of a good feeling.

I don't know if every girl
has that fantasy.

Maybe not. But I did.

I've always been a free spirit,
I think.

So I moved into San Francisco

in a hotel above the Trieste
coffee shop there.

I was just calling up
every place

and eventually
somebody would need a stripper.

'Cause if I would have
auditioned,

they would have never hired me.

I had legs,
but I'm kind of flat-chested.

But I still wanted to do it.

I would wait until
they were desperate,

when they really
needed somebody.

And before they saw me, right?

They were desperate.

And then I would do
one set at one place

and then they'd get rid of me.

So I'd call up another place,
like the Condor,

and I'd go, "Need a stripper?

My name's Sharon. I danced
at the El Cid last night."

If I said I was Mary Ann,
they'd go,

"Oh, no. Don't want you."

I was Sharon one night,
Judy the next.

I think I danced at every club.

But just once.

You know,
they were selling boobs.

And here they have this girl
up there with no boobs.

Boo. They didn't want
to see that.

The word "exploitation"

is really important to look at
and pick apart.

It's usually used in two ways.

One, feminists who believe

that it's not possible for
a woman to be a sex worker

or an adult performer

without being inherently,
fundamentally exploited

by the patriarchy,
by the male gaze.

Then there's a counter argument
to that which is,

these women are leveraging it
and making money.

Exploit... Of course
we were all exploited.

We were in our little leotards
and serving cocktails

and Carol's up there
being topless.

I mean, in a way,
you could call it exploitation.

But... that's how
we look at it now.

I think in those days
it was just a job.

I don't think
she felt exploited.

I think she loved what she did.

She wanted to be a dancer,

she wanted to be on stage,
and she was.

How do you feel now
being a sex symbol?

You didn't feel that you were
prostituting yourself

by going topless?

No, because you could prostitute
yourself with your brain,

with anything,
any part of your body.

Uh, your breasts
are just another part.

I really wanna know what you
think of the Broadway scene

and sex today.

Do you think
this is a good step forward?

Has this sort of cleaned up

a lot of the puritanical
hang-ups that we had?

Do you see it as healthy?

So many people in America today

do not have

the, uh, imagination for sex.

To have sex, you have to have
something in your mind first.

You have to have something
in your imagination.

I give them a fantasy,
which people need.

The lovely Carol Doda
on stage here tonight!

Carol was a seductive stripper.

Like a star.

You know? Had an attitude.

You don't wanna go up there
and be meek.

Gotta show 'em what you got.

She was funny.

She had a very comedic
sense of humor.

She was really good
at getting to audiences.

♪ She don't know nothin' ♪

♪ Thinks there's nothin'
she don't know ♪

♪ She thinks she's
where it's at ♪

♪ In that one spot
she never left ♪

♪ She spends all of her time ♪

♪ Tryin' to prove it
to herself now ♪

♪ Well ♪

♪ I don't want no woman
wrapped up in cellophane... ♪

Wasn't just a performance.

It was an interaction
with the crowd.

It's an escape
for a little while.

'Cause everybody has problems.

If I can alleviate them
of their problems

for a few moments,

that's the greatest gift
in the world

that I can give to somebody.

She reminded me of Mae West.

Well, it's better to be
looked over than overlooked.

Oh, just that
they measure up right.

What would be the proper
measurements for a topless girl?

Well, I don't know.

I mean, myself,
I never know my own.

I expand with... the weather.

I understand you
were just honored nationally.

Yeah, hidden assets.
Business Person of the Year.

But I think they made a
mistake.

It should have been Business
Persons of the Year.

I didn't get the award.

But they did.
You know?

- So I just went along with them

to Boston to accept this award.

Carol, what makes
you go? Is it-- You know,

they say that money or power
or prestige are the three big--

Oh, I know that.

- I... No, it's, uh, insecurity.
- What is it for you?

- Is it really?
- Vitamins and insecurity.

But...

That's marvelous.

Carol, where do you see
yourself in 20, 30 years?

- For what?
- The whole life of--

I see myself as an entertainer

in many different fields
of entertainment.

I feel I would be stagnant

if I was just one thing
all the time.

One day, I decided
to go to the Garden of Eden

and there was a sign, "Batman."

And I was like, "Oh, wow,
this is gonna be cool."

That's when I met Jimi.

Jimi and Tara
were the main act.

Went home one night
and I was watching television

and I saw this woman doing
a voodoo dance with snakes.

I said, "I can do that."

I was terrified of snakes.

She go into the pet store
and want a boa constrictor.

I just kept
getting bigger and bigger

and I ended up with
a seven-foot anaconda

which was as big around
as my leg.

One morning, I'm getting
up and all of a sudden,

"Jimi, Jimi! Come and help me!"

She's got this thing
started around her

and got this snake by the neck

and it's got its mouth open...

This woman was brave.

I had 120 pounds
of snakes on me at one time.

Then I decided
I needed a monkey.

Oh, please.

My monkey's name
was Miss Troubles

and she'd have
a little costume on.

If I had a sequined outfit,
she'd have one.

She would just sit on my arm

and play with my boob,
and people loved her.

And put a diaper on it
to keep it from messing.

But that was her baby.

We billed her as the
world's only topless monkey.

And then I decided I wanted
to do a fire act.

She saw a guy
in the streets doing the fire.

She said,
"Teach me how to do that."

She'd shoot out fire
from her mouth.

Said, "Girl, what's up
with you?"

"Are you from heaven
or hell? What is this?"

Fire, snake, a monkey.

But she drew crowds
by the thousands.

They came in,
night after night.

♪ Wah, wah-a-watusi ♪

♪ Come on and take a chance ♪

♪ And get-a
with this dance... ♪

North Beach
put millions of dollars

in the coffers of the city.

If you have a sales convention,
I'll guarantee you sales guys,

they wanna go to San Francisco.
"We wanna see this topless."

And synonymous with the word
"topless" was Carol.

You've made a pretty good name
for this place in North Beach.

You ever plan on touring
with your act or anything?

Oh, I plan on...

spreading myself out.

Been receiving
a lot of mail from Vietnam.

- That's right.
- How'd they get your picture?

Well, uh, somehow, my picture

got into Stars and Stripes .

You answer all of them?

Oh yes,
I have writer's cramp.

I talked with her

about some of her
16,000 letters

from overseas.

This one says, "Dear Miss Doda.

Let me just say that I enjoyed
your act so much.

I would like to remember you
when I'm overseas.

Would you be so kind as to
send me a picture of yourself?

It would help me so much.
Thank you. Love, Mike."

Does any of this mail contain
proposals, of marriage that is?

Uh, no. I'm not the type
they want to marry.

I'm just the type
they want to look at.

They say every war generates

the kind of pinup girl
it deserves.

I mention this meaning
no disrespect to Miss Doda

or to the war in Vietnam.

She had national
and international renown.

She blew
San Francisco wide open.

Internationally.

People from around the world
would come

to see Carol Doda.

Carol was the star.

Busloads of people drove up.

It was huge.

The cars, people going
up and down the street.

That was the place to go.

And you see the lights and
you're like, "Yes, Broadway!"

When we first started
on Broadway,

you had the cream of the crop:

movie stars, politicians,
professional athletes.

Lew Alcindor came in and I come
with my tray and I see this.

I'm like...

He came in
with his mom to the Condor.

Oh, he was so famous
all over the world.

The piano brought him in.

There was this
one little table

that was sort of roped off.

Sat about eight people.

He'd always call, "Pete,
could I have that table?"

I'd say, "You got it, Walter."

And that's the way it is,
Monday, September 2, 1963.

When Andy Warhol
was in town,

he would always ask Carol
to be part of his entourage.

I was very impressed by that.

I'm like, "Oh, you get to go
out with Andy Warhol."

And she was like, "Oh, Pamela,
you wouldn't like him."

I said, "What do you mean?"

"Because he never talks."

Aren't you gonna
say one word, Andy?

" He just wants
to record us.

So you wouldn't like him,
Pamela,

because he's very boring."

Carol told me
the almost unknown fling

that she had for a while

with Frank Sinatra.

He would send his private plane

down to pick her up
in San Francisco

from Cal Neva casino and resort

where he was one of the owners.

She'd be walked through

to what's called
the Celebrity Room

when there was no one
in the main bar.

Basically, it was your typical
trap door with a rug over it.

A handler would lead her down
into tunnels

that went
in different directions.

It was set up so that gangsters

that were not allowed
to be around gambling

could get in and out.

And so Frank used it

to bring his girls
in and out of there.

She would be taken
to Frank's personal chalet

down by the lake.

She really had an affinity
for Frank.

She thought he was one of the
greatest men she'd ever met.

She really dug Frank Sinatra.

He was like an idol to her.

♪ 'Cause you make me feel
so young... ♪

One thing
that she got a kick out of

was that Frank pictured himself

as being a really,
really macho man's man.

And he had this bald spot
which nobody knows about

because he always covered it
up.

He would actually have her
come in before he did a show

and give her some boot spray

to spray paint the bald spot
on his head

before he headed out
onto stage.

When she told that story,
she just chuckled like crazy.

At the western end
of the continent,

rising majestically
above the Pacific,

is a city constantly alive,

full of anticipation,

exciting and beautiful:
San Francisco.

Where no matter who you are
or where you come from

or what you like to do,

something exciting and
wonderful and different

happens to you
in San Francisco.

Have you seen
any of these shows?

- Yeah. They're really funny.
- Did you like it?

They were funny.

The funniest part
was watching people.

The women turn away.

They talk about recipes
and things

while their husbands
are looking up.

Did you know
that we have shows here

where people make love
live on the stage?

- Uh, no, I didn't.
- Have you been to any of these?

Not yet. We were just on our way

to walk around
a couple of these places

- to see what it was like.
- What do you expect to see?

Nudity.

It wasn't that
Bay Area residents were prudes.

By this time,
they were quite blase

about the topless dance clubs
in North Beach.

But when one club offered
as an attraction

an interracial love dance,
that was too much.

Gay 60's
was the name of the club

and they came to me
and they asked me

if I would do an interracial
love dance.

And I said yes.

The interracial
couple was busted.

Is it true you engaged

in a sex act during the act?

What do you call a sex act?

They arrested me. So what?
I still did it.

I wanted to do the topless,
I did the topless.

"You're not supposed to go
with a Black man." I did.

You don't like it? I'm sorry.

It's my life.

I want to do it.
I'm gonna do it.

- ♪ Come on, everybody ♪

♪ Come and get some soul ♪

♪ Do the jerk ♪

♪ Do the jerk... ♪

My mother had a breakdown

when I married Jimi. Oh my God.

My dad, who is Mexican,
disowned me.

And in San Francisco,
when we first met,

we couldn't drive
down the street.

The cop would pull us over.

Bam-bam. Knock on the door.

About three policemen
at the door.

They saw Judy in the bed and,
boy, they didn't like that.

I was arrested
for vagrancy.

Vagrancy was a law that
if you didn't have a job,

you were a vagrant.

And they could arrest you.

They took her,
put her in jail.

It was a racist thing.

I stayed in a week or so.

- It was horrible.
- My heart was bleeding,

just thinking of her being
locked up in jail for nothing.

The bondsman says, "Jimi, don't
come into the court with her

because the judge will throw
the books at her for sure."

So she went...
she went in.

And the judge
gave her a lashing.

And says, "You get outta town.

As long as that nigger's here,

you don't come back
into Santa Cruz."

Now, the judge is saying this.
Publicly.

All of the clubs
were prejudiced

and didn't let
Black girls dance.

Not until the late '80s.

But not many.

* Well,
I guess I'll start walking... ♪

It was white and Black
when I was growing up.

If you liked Black music
and you were white,

then there were all kind of
names they'd be calling you.

George & Teddy were the first
popular interracial band

in the area.

♪ Hoppin' and poppin'
all night long ♪

They were great entertainers.

We had a great band.

And it could never rise above...

The highest gig was
the old Caesar's Palace.

And a thousand bucks a week.

Man, that's like
20 grand a week now. You know?

I turned it down and made
ten dollars a night with Sly.

I was the only funky white boy
around in San Francisco.

That's why Sly hired me.

Sly and the Family Stone

was the first interracial
pop group,

men and women
and different races,

that made it.

♪ Don't call me nigger,
whitey ♪

♪ Don't call me whitey,
nigger ♪

Those first road tours,

when we was driving
all over the country,

we got run outta towns.

We got chased out by police.

I was a white man
with long hair and a beard

in the Black band of people

that dressed weird,
looked weird,

and Sly also had
a white girlfriend.

That's a death sentence.

Now if we can get you
to spell "Love" one time...

...who are the kind of
unlikely igniters

of civil rights

and feminists and gay rights.

And I think Carol Doda
was one of them.

She changed our thinkings

about something as personal
and basic as nudity.

She was such a symbol
of progressiveness there

and what it was to be
a subversive San Franciscan.

Her work basically said,

"Showing my body is a form
of fundamental, basic freedom."

It was right in the thick
of the women's movement

and these women genuinely felt

that they were pioneers.

That, "Goddammit,
this is my body

and if I want to show my
breasts to the world,

I'm gonna do it." Boom.

In the new environment
of the future,

people will accept their bodies.

Clothes will be utilitarian,

organic, and minimal.

There will be no more
squeamishness about nudity.

The body itself
will be beautiful.

It was easy to get
jobs dancing on Broadway.

I mean, basically all you
had to do was be young

and willing
to take off your top.

I moved to San Francisco
in 1967.

I met a couple of gals
who were dancing

in North Beach,
on Broadway Street.

They were young girls, my age.
We were in our early twenties.

And they were working
their way through college.

And one night, one of the girls
called me up and said, "Marsha,

one of our dancers didn't show.
Can you get over here?"

And I said, "Oh my God,
are you kidding? I'm very shy!"

"Oh, come on," they said,
"It's easy. It's no big deal.

Nobody's gonna bother you.

It's fun because
we get to dance."

So I did it.
I can't believe I did it.

For me, and the little other
hippie girls doing it,

it was a very innocent thing.

♪ Follow your
own beaten path... ♪

Summer of Love.

I had my share of fun.
And I tried all the drugs.

Everybody was
having sex with everybody.

So much fun.

We were all learning
different techniques

that we never
would have talked about before.

It was all taboo

until the '60s.

That was a free time.

That was a hippie time.
Free love. Dope.

It was all going around
in a circle and we all loved it.

Summer of Love?

You can say thank you to Carol
Doda, and you're welcome.

'Cause she helped loosen up
our ideas about sexuality.

She was somebody that liberated
other women's minds.

Because the first time
I ever saw her,

there was a picture of her,

and I saw that as a child

when I was, you know,
maybe 13 or something.

And I don't know, it just made
an impression in my mind.

And it was like,
"Wow. How free."

Would you consider yourself

a pioneer in feminism?

I don't know if I
consider myself a pioneer.

You been attacked by feminists?

Oh yes, they did
picket outside of the club

when I was working there.

I said, "I guess I was one of
the original bra burners.

So what are we talking about?"

That's great.

Beauty pageants gotta go!

The women's
liberation movement

organized several groups

to protest
the Miss America pageant

as a symbol of society's
exploitation

of women as sex objects.

In 1968,
some feminists gathered

outside the Miss America
pageant

in Atlantic City

and constructed
a Freedom Trash Can

into which
they would throw bras.

* Everybody's doing
a brand-new dance now ♪

♪ Come on, baby,
do the Locomotion ♪

♪ I know you'll get to like it
if you give it a chance now ♪

That trash can
was never actually put on fire.

The boardwalk in Atlantic City
is made out of wood

and the fire department
wouldn't let them.

So the bra burning's
a media myth

but it is definitely the case
that bras

were perceived
as shackles of patriarchy.

It was just one of those
freedoms we wanted to take.

It was an act of defiance.

We didn't have to wear a bra
if we didn't want to.

♪ Well, I think you've
got the knack ♪

♪ Whoa-whoa,
now that you can do it ♪

♪ Let's make a chain now... ♪

We took
birth control the same way

and said we're gonna
have that too

and the right to talk
about sex.

So we had gained it
'cause we took it.

We were taking that freedom.

- ♪ Please say something sweet ♪

♪ Please say something sweet ♪

She seemed
to be like a sailor.

She had a lot of boyfriends.

She did not have
good luck with men.

She probably didn't trust
any man she'd ever been with,

thinking that they were
all there just for one thing.

Her fame.

Fame brings problems.

"When a man asks me out,"
she complains,

"I never know if he's
interested in me... or them."

I think that with
all the glitter and everything,

I think she was
basically lonely.

I can't even find
a steady boyfriend right now.

Because I think most men
have preconceived notions

and they can't handle
what I'm doing.

She used
to call me up all the time

and want advice on men.

Only young guys.

She wanted nothing to do
with anybody over 30.

She did rather like younger men.

Because I don't think
she wanted anybody

to tell her what to do

or to have a man

controlling her life at all.

Very free-spirited.

I started working in...
when I was underage, at 19.

I was checking IDs and became
a doorman at my uncle's club.

When I got inside and was
bartending, she'd come in

and say,
"Hi, Phil. How are ya?"

And she just
took a liking to me

and then we got kinda close.

"What are you doing tonight?"
"Oh, nothing." She's asking me.

I looked up to her
'cause she was famous.

You know, I was in awe.

What kid gets to do
this kinda thing?

When we started seeing each
other, I was about 19 or 20.

One of the first things she
said, "I want you to feel 'em."

I thought if I squeezed
hard enough,

I might leave a thumbprint. Felt
like modeling clay. Was heavy.

It didn't feel natural.

If I touched too hard,
she didn't like that.

Not at all, 'cause it hurt.

But she did it for her career
and she had the career

and the fame from it.

It's time for
the hottest talk show in town.

Single in the City,

starring two of San Francisco's
most famous landmarks,

Miss Carol Doda.

Hi! This is Carol Doda,

and welcome to
Single in the City.

I don't know.
Where do you go to meet people?

I find it very hard for me
to go sit at a bar

and try to meet somebody.

You know, I get very...
embarrassed.

I feel like, "What the hell
am I doing here by myself?"

"Why am I not sitting
with Mr. Wonderful?"

Then I look around,
I don't see Mr. Wonderful.

Start thinking something's
wrong with you, right?

Gotta love yourself.

It is a great city
for self-development.

Yeah, but I'm
overdeveloped as it is.

If I get any more developed,

I won't be able
to stand up and walk.

I do remember it just
being a long-standing joke

that she's never
gonna find anybody.

"I'm gonna be single
for the rest of my life."

I think a relationship
with one person

can get better and better
and better and better.

Because that's what I want.
That's my ultimate goal.

- You've never been married?
- No. Mm-mm.

Have you been engaged?

Have you any close,
personal loves in your life?

Oh, well,
I've had a lot of those.

She just wanted
somebody to love.

That's really
all she ever wanted,

was to be loved.

A lot of people wondered
about Carol being married.

There was rumors.

Nobody ever said anything.

Carol was married young.

I did not know the gentleman
that she married,

but I do know,
the stories I've heard,

it was not a good relationship.
It was abusive for her.

When that relationship ended,

she moved on to the city.

♪ Washed by the waves
to a sandy shore ♪

♪ Now she won't be happy ♪

♪ Anymore ♪

♪ Anymore ♪

In the cult
of the body beautiful,

California leads the way again.

What can top topless?
Bottomless, of course.

In 1969, she takes it all off

and she's the first
bottomless dancer of note.

She went nude.
I never went all the way nude.

♪ You can climb a mountain ♪

♪ You can swim the sea ♪

♪ You can jump into the fire ♪

♪ But you'll never be free... ♪

Bottomless was controversial

because it took away some of
the innocence of just topless.

But people wanted to see it.
You had to compete.

They went bottomless

and then San Francisco said,
"Can't do that."

"Gotta do shaved with merkins."

Which is, as my uncle calls it,
a beaver toupee.

This furry little G-string thing

and it looked like... you know,
like it was pubic hairs.

You may be looking
at the focal point

of one of the pressing legal
questions of our age.

What was at issue here
was a 1970 board rule

prohibiting any sexual acts,

whether real or simulated,

the displaying
of the genital area,

body contact between
nude performers,

and nude performers

who were less than six feet
from the audience.

As far as "naked,"
"nude," and "bottomless,"

we are gonna fight those words
both outside and inside.

We are not going to cover up
or put G-strings

on our bottomless entertainers.

So your entertainers
are dancing nude tonight

in violation of this ruling?

- Yes, we are.
- What happens next?

And surrounded
by a bevy of performers,

including Carol Doda,

Belli expressed
shock and dismay.

Now you tell me
if it's fair in America

that the theater can do that,

legitimate and on
the silver screen,

and my gals can't do that
out in the North Beach.

I think that's the damnedest
kind of discrimination

I've ever heard of.

Now I defy anyone to go up and
see Hair or Curious

and say that there
is such a thing left

as obscenity or pornography.

We're not allowed
to show everything.

But like he said, these movies
and these plays are.

And it's funny,
after five years,

that they're getting
this moral kick again.

I don't understand.

Look, we've got nudity here.

You can't all of a sudden say,
"We haven't got it."

You know, like the mayor's
office or Dianne Feinstein

or the supervisor. They're
trying to ignore this street.

The Chamber of Commerce
ignores us

with all the convention bureaus
that come in here.

They ignore us,
when it was our publicity

that has set San Francisco up
as a major tourist town.

I have been publicized
throughout the years as nude

and if they can't
see any of this,

they're gonna be very unhappy

and they're not gonna
want to come to San Francisco.

The star witness,

eminently qualified
in her field,

San Francisco's Carol Doda
came to testify

in Sacramento's famous
topless/bottomless trial

on behalf of the defense

to demonstrate for a ten-man,
two-woman jury

her version of prevailing
community moral standards

in nightclub entertainment.

Your show perhaps illustrates
standards in San Francisco.

How do you think that applies
to Sacramento?

Well, they're only
80 miles apart.

It couldn't be
that much different.

Today, the Supreme
Court of the United States

may have dealt them
a mortal blow.

In a 6-3 decision,
the court ruled

that under the 21st Amendment,

which repealed Prohibition,

the California Alcoholic
Beverage Control Board

has the right to regulate
the type of entertainment

offered by any establishment

which is licensed
to sell drinks.

It would seem then

that if you want to watch
naked lady wrestlers,

seductive nude stewardesses,
or college coeds,

or whatever your pleasure
in the future,

then you're gonna have to do it

while either eating candy bars
and popcorn

or drinking milk, orange juice,
or soda pop.

And so, bottomless was dead.

The stigma attached
to erotic work

is a problem
for women's liberation

and equality.

Collective empowerment
comes through

changes in policy,
changes in laws,

general changes in the culture.

And those things are hard-won
and take a long time.

Carol Doda
was a fighter

and she didn't want hypocrisy

about whether women
were being exploited

in bottomless clubs,
topless clubs,

to mask the equally deep issue
of worker exploitation.

♪ I hate to say it
but I told you so ♪

♪ Don't mind my
preaching to you ♪

♪ I said, don't trust him, baby
Now you know ♪

♪ You don't learn everything
There is to know at school... ♪

She sometimes would do
12 performances a day.

You work here at the Condor.

Steady.
Seven days a week.

For each show you...

Dress, undress.

You know, there's no diversion.

Her other disputes
with the Condor

were literally about money.

And that was about being an
actual person, not a symbol,

and being a woman,
and the wage gap.

At a certain point,

she had a year-to-year contract

and she wasn't happy about it.

Would always
naturally ask for more money

and we'd have to negotiate.

And we paid her
pretty fairly well.

You know?
But she was never happy

because they figured
the club owners

were making all the money.

Well, we own the club, you know?

I think at one point she wanted
to buy in to the Condor

when she got really successful.

But I don't know what happened
with that.

Naturally, we turned her down.

We aren't gonna give her
any percentage of the place.

We own the place.

When she had left the Condor,

Voss started managing her and
Voss owned the Off-Broadway.

Him and Gino got together

because Gino wasn't part
of the Condor anymore.

They opened
a club down the street

called Carol Doda's.

That's what they
called it so they could make

as much money as they could
off her name and image.

We weren't worried

because we just hired
other go-go girls

and we still made money.

Maybe not as much,
but we still made money.

And today, a press preview

of a talented young lady
named Carol Doda.

Her new revue seems
to fly in the face

of the current trends

for pornography and skin.

A revue that presents
lavish costumes,

a Las Vegas-type choreography,

and even political satire.

Carol says
she thinks it'll work.

They're gonna go and see
these little movie houses

but then they'll say,
"Okay, we saw it. What's next?"

Now they're ready
for entertainment.

Do you sort of
long for those simple,

straightforward days?

You mean the topless days,
going up and down on a piano?

Those simple, straightforward
days are exactly that.

Simple and straightforward.

You cannot stay at the same...

On anything. I don't care
what you're doing,

politics, religion, anything,

you cannot stay
on the same level.

You always have to graduate.

They rigged a pretty nice
little show for her,

but it didn't work.

It was only there
for less than a year.

It went broke.

She was nothing
without the Condor.

And we knew that.
She didn't know that.

Would you go back
to the Condor?

They still have your name
up there in lights.

No, I'm not
planning on it.

The queen of topless,
Carol Doda,

decided to
put her clothes back on

and make her debut as
a dramatic actress and singer.

♪ So the Bible said ♪

♪ And it still is news ♪

The critics,
everybody's who's seen it,

know that we have an excellent
show. Marvelous show.

It's Carol's dramatic debut

and she surprises
everybody in it.

But the newspaper strikes,
uh, may kill us.

When almost nobody
came to see her show,

Miss Doda blamed
the newspaper strike.

She went to Los Angeles.

Los Angeles had a ton
of burlesque shows,

so strippers were
all over the place.

And then she went to Vegas,
and, oh, Vegas.

Vegas wasn't her thing.

There was too many beautiful,
tall, talented,

gorgeous women in Vegas.

So she was just another girl.

Then she'd come back and then
we'd give her her job back.

I love you!

Hi, darlin'.
How ya doin', darlin'?

Showtime! Break it up!

Are you happy with it?

And what have been
the side effects of it?

Oh, um...

Yes, I'm happy with it.

I mean, it would be awful to be
unhappy with it at this point.

- What was the other question?
I'm just...

Have you ever
had any complications?

Oh, complications.

Uh, not real complications.
The only thing is...

is that silicone
does harden a little bit.

Women first started
getting injections of silicone

in their breasts

probably right after
World War II,

where there were big vats
of industrial-grade silicone

hanging out on
the Yokohama Harbor in Japan.

And Japanese prostitutes
started injecting the stuff

into their breasts

as a way to attract male
service members

from the United States.

They actually exported
that practice

to other parts of the world,
including the United States.

Well, I'll tell you. I'm from
Japan and I'm half Japanese.

From here to here.

Made in Japan.

Does it collapse at all?

Nope, still there.

They have not collapsed

and you haven't
had to have more injections?

They don't look collapsed to me.

No, I haven't.

So I didn't know
silicone collapsed.

I thought the inflatables do.
Don't they?

They don't?

Yes, they can.

You could see
what was happening.

She had to keep getting
the injections

just to keep looking normal, balanced.

You had it to do all over,
would you...

Well, I don't see why...

You can't cry over
spilt silicone.

Hm. Okay.

What kinds of problems
have you seen?

We have had women with
marked skin discoloration,

anywhere from bright red
to actually black

with some of the oil exuding
through their skin.

We've had... Most of the women
have lumps,

many of which are very,
very painful.

Their breasts become
hard and rock-like.

And, uh, cancer detection
is impossible

on an early basis.

Carol could've
never made it without silicone.

I wouldn't have been a big act
if I hadn't had silicone.

That was my life.
That was my money.

I wanted it, so I was willing
to take the chance.

I figured, "What the heck?

If they go bad,
just cut 'em off."

You can live without your boobs.

But luckily, I didn't have
any trouble with them.

Until I had a child

and I wanted to nurse my child.

So the milk came in

and we had to put a sheet
around me to hold my breasts,

they were so huge.

And the milk in my breast

cut the circulation off

and my breast turned black
and I got gangrene.

I had to have five surgeries
to take it out.

I have no breasts.

To be 30 years old and used
to being a sex symbol

and lose your breast?

I coulda died if I hadn't have
discovered it.

The FDA banned the practice

because industrial-grade
silicone

was creating all sorts of health
problems in women.

By the mid 1970s,
silicone implants,

which was basically
taking the silicone

and encasing it in sort of
a baggy, a silicone baggy.

And at that point,
the implant business

really took over
from the injections.

A lot of women started to
report health problems

associated with their implants.

And they actually joined

the largest class-action
lawsuit ever

against a consumer product,

and that was against Dow Corning

and manufacturers
of breast implants.

It became the largest
class-action settlement

in history at that time.

And Dow Corning actually
was driven into bankruptcy.

Carol was asking herself,

"Why am I going through this?"

"I need to get more for
sacrificing myself for this."

Show business
is very, very hard.

Not only topless,

but say at the level
of Lena Horne.

She told me that you need
a cast iron belly

and being a woman,
she doesn't like...

You need a cast iron
heart to go along with it.

She did mention to me
several times that,

"Yeah, this thing... I wonder
if I made the right choice."

They always say people
in show business are crazy

or they're... they are freaky
or they're...

they do everything.

Well, I'm pretty basic
and very simple.

If...

I'm probably the only one I know
that, uh...

is all-American girl
likes all-American guy,

and probably the one next door.

How about a home and a family?

Did you ever think of
settling down someday

and raising children?

No. I, uh...

I really am not... a mother.

I know what I am.
I know I'm an entertainer.

I think... I wouldn't
bet my life on it,

I think that she had a kid.

She had a child, I heard.

One... One or two.

She had two children.
A son and daughter.

I'll be damned.

Never talked about that, ever.

That was like a secret.

I don't know who the father was.
I don't know...

I don't know if she was married.

You know, we never really talked
about our personal lives

in North Beach.

We talked about
our professional lives.

Your act and your hair
and your makeup

and people on the street.

I never talked about my kids.
Nobody knew I had kids.

I never knew Carol had kids.
She never mentioned...

Ever mentioned it.

Well, Carol's divorce
was not a good divorce.

I believe she lost custody
of her children.

And that's part of what shaped

her protective layers
and walls that she built up.

Somebody said I should, uh,
write a book about

Broadway or my life.

I said, "My God, I don't want
to start crying," you know?

- Forget it.
- Is Broadway sad?

No, I'm talking about my life.

Everybody asks me, "Where is
Broadway going?" every year.

I've had people say,
"Oh my God,

it isn't like it used to be."

But one second away
is not like it used to be.

And if you live like that,

then you will be living
in the past.

And I just don't... You know,
I don't relate like that.

Is it a boulevard
of broken dreams?

You think people
who work on Broadway

have fairly normal lives?

Like if they were a stockbroker
working on Montgomery?

No way, Jose.

Every place had
a barker out there going,

"Naked! Naked! Naked!
See the naked girls!

Two-drink minimum."

The hottest show on Broadway,
right here!

"Man-woman sex act
right on stage!"

Come on, take a peek.
No cover charge.

I might get a heart attack,
I'm afraid.

Come on. No, you won't.

You'll get a hard-on.
Check it out.

I was a barker.

Didn't know how to do it.
I just watched my uncle.

"Two teachers, a housewife,
and secretary

in our amateur topless contest!"

Young ladies here for more than
one million dollars.

That's a lot of money, man.

You gotta have a perfect body.

Supernatural sex for sale!

Who bit that apple?

Nothing but Eve, that's what.
Come in.

Excuse me, gentlemen.
Right here it is...

Step right up.

When you've got
a five-piece band

and a topless dancer,
and go-go girls,

that's a lot of people
you gotta pay.

You gotta be charging big bucks
for drinks.

You gotta have full houses
every night.

When I left, I said,

"This isn't gonna last long."

The crowd began to diminish.

So the action was dead.

First thing they did

was fire the live
entertainment.

They went from band
to canned music.

All the clubs would do that
because it was a money thing.

Back in the 1960s,
as many as 15 topless clubs

blossomed here
on the Broadway strip.

But in recent years, business,

and a few other things,
have sagged.

When it was on the downslide,
the customers were different.

Before, it was couples.

And it just ended up
with these guys in overcoats.

We didn't know it at the time.
We're living through it.

We couldn't see it
for what it was worth.

It was big before,
but it was not big now,

and it's gonna get worse.

They started getting girls

that weren't too good.

They'd just come in
off the street.

Didn't have gimmicks.

Didn't have pretty costumes.

♪ Needy song
on Sleazy Street... ♪

It got out
of the artistic

and got into the sleazy part,
you know?

Right about the time
the porn biz came in

and the dancers realized
they could make $2,000 more

crossing the line
than they can dancing.

They had a hard time getting
young, attractive women,

so they were coming up
from the Tenderloin.

These looked like hard chicks.

Much more readily tell you
to fuck off.

Hard drugs started
to come on the scene.

Mostly speed and downers.

It got dark because of that.

Nude encounter parlour,
they were called.

We put up little partitions
to make private rooms.

And the girl would even
tell the guy,

"Yeah, you can take
your clothes off if you want.

Do anything you want.

But no touching."

I think we charged at that time
$50 an hour.

You wanna go to the back room,
it's $150 an hour.

So guys thought if they go
to the back room,

they were gonna get sex now.

All that happened
in the back room

is she'd bring another girl
in with her

so two girls would be in.

We were, you know, conning 'em.

They were rippin'
people off and all that.

We didn't do any of that.

Tenderloin was known for that.

They ended up starting to buy up
all the clubs.

We wanted
to get on Broadway

because that's where the
tourists were, the business.

It was hard to lure 'em
down the street.

The reputation
of the Tenderloin, very rough.

All those guys packed iron.

We got Big Al's,

and Big Al's we turned into
a nude encounter parlour.

I did work
at Big Al's one night.

And I was just
really young and naïve.

I didn't really know
what was going on.

I didn't know what
that box of Kleenex was for.

Then we got across the street,

the Garden of Eden,
which was big at that time.

We turned that into
a nude encounter parlour.

Anybody that was legitimate

didn't wanna go up
against those guys,

so they'd sell out.

After a while, I got out

because I thought they were
gonna blow me away

if I didn't.

They ended up ruining the
street is what they did.

Don Levine, he owned
the club after Mattioli.

He was very difficult
to deal with.

Carol worked for hardly
anything at all.

She got like, I think in
those days, $45 a show.

She had to get all dressed up,

spend hours up there.

Carol wasn't
a very good businesswoman

but she was a wonderful person.

She should have made a whole
lot more money than she did.

Here I was, spending
a lot of money on costuming,

my wigs, my this, my that.

And I felt like I was holding
the world on my shoulders.

And then,
the owner at that time

was letting the club
go down the drain.

When you let someplace
deteriorate,

people are gonna notice that.

But he wanted
to take it out on me.

He just wanted me to work
on the weekends.

So he wanted to take advantage
of my name,

wanted me to take
a tremendous salary cut.

Was very demeaning

after I'd worked
so many years and so hard.

Very few women

have been entrepreneurial
enough

to really make a long-term
successful business

out of their chest.

It tends to be
a fleeting commodity.

One can imagine
great anxiety around...

her primary asset.

It's going out of fashion.

It's aging.
It's literal deflation.

What is perennial out of fashion
is the old boob.

- How old are you now?
- [Doda] How old am I now?

- Well...
- Are... You don't say?

Well, uh, I do say
or I don't say

but what difference
does it make?

It now seems absurd
to think of a woman

in her thirties, forties,
as aging.

But she knew society had said
she had an expiration date.

I drew up a contract
with Levine and gave it to him.

Said, "These are the conditions
we want,"

and I got him to sign
the agreement.

Otherwise, he never would
pay her anything.

And Don Levine is the one that
brought Jimmy the Beard in

as the protector.

Because there was other people
that wanted to muscle in

on some of the clubs
on Broadway.

Jimmy the Beard.

He was the manager
of the Condor.

Tough guy, but he didn't act
like a tough guy.

Was not a bully.

But I knew he's not somebody
that you'd wanna mess with.

If there was a fight,
and there were occasionally,

never more than three or four
punches thrown

because Jimmy was the best.

If there was any hot action,
he was on it.

I mean, he was gruff

and it was just,
whatever he said went.

But everybody liked him

'cause he had one
of those personalities.

And his wife, Ginger,
was my friend.

Ginger was a dancer
and a waitress.

They end up moving to Vegas,

and Jimmy got in a fight
with the son

of one of the big Mafia guys
in Vegas.

He beats
the hell out of the guy.

Think he put the guy
in the hospital.

Anyway, when this happened,

the word got out that
they're gonna kill him.

He came to me,
told me what happened.

I says, "Oh, Jesus, Jimmy."

"You're gonna have to have eyes
behind your head."

He says, "For how long?"

I says, "Forever."

-"They're gonna get you."
- Bizarre.

Perhaps the most overused word
on television newscasts.

But how else to describe
the death of Jimmy the Beard?

The lights may be on,

but the Condor club
is sealed tight.

Homicide investigates
the bizarre death of this man,

James "the Beard" Ferrozzo.

He came in really
drunk and was with a girl.

They were drinking
Green Chartreuse,

I remember that clearly.

It's pretty strong stuff.

He said, "Phil, you can
go home now."

I knew what that meant.
They wanted to party.

Ginger called me up.

She said, "Jimmy didn't
come home last night."

I said, "Weren't you worried
when he didn't come home?"

She said, "Well, that wasn't
the first night

he didn't come home all night."

I found the guy,
and I lost a good friend.

- What happened, do you know?
- Crushed to d-- He's crushed.

Found at 10:00
this morning on top of a piano

suspended in the air.

He was fully clothed.

Next to him, naked,
was 23-year-old Theresa Hill.

I heard the girl's voice.

So I went through
the dressing room

and through the tunnel where
Carol Doda goes to do her show

and saw that the girl was alive.

And I reached down
and felt Jimmy.

And... Well, I knew he was dead.

The survivor,
incoherent when found.

She says she remembers nothing
of what happened.

They had been
partying all night.

There he is

with his head right in her bush.

And laying on the bar are these
lines of blow, cocaine.

I said, "I better
get rid of this stuff

before the heat comes."

So I didn't blow it
off the bar.

I stuffed it up my nose.

The whole place
is turned upside down.

Chairs upside down.

A fight went on in there.

When homicide
inspectors finally came out,

they weren't sure.

It appears to be a homicide,
but that's all we know now.

Maybe. Maybe not.

But everybody
who knew anything about it

knows that piano
moves up slowly.

And though it's controlled
from a separate panel,

it can also be stopped with
a switch on the piano itself.

If you know
where the switch is.

What I believe
is they killed him.

I think it was a setup.

Yeah, I think
they killed him first.

But Art has another theory.

I think it was
a total accident.

He had on cowboy boots.

His toe hit the up button

and he was too goofed-up
to know that it was moving.

He woulda loved
that story though.

Jimmy would've loved it.

It's a great story, right?

The piano goes up and his foot
just happens to hit the switch

that's way over there,
by the way.

Maybe they just
threw her up there

and they threw him on her

and they sent the piano up.

And they told the girl,
"We're not gonna kill you.

Now you get outta town.

Don't ever come
back here again."

But that's how Jimmy the Beard,
why he got killed.

Since that bizarre
accident last week,

Carol Doda's been off work.

Tonight, she returns,
and the piano still sits there.

When I was using it,
it was like part of me.

But now, I mean, the things
that happened on it

are certainly not a part of me.

And I really can't relate
to it anymore.

When Carol retired
from the Condor,

she had to reinvent herself.

In the '80s, it still was hard
for women to survive.

She was really scared
to support herself,

so she was struggling
to figure out how.

She was not going to
accept her expiration date.

She was going to deny it,
work with it,

work around it, blow it up.

The best thing
in my life right now

is my rock and roll show,

and it's called Carol Doda
and Her Lucky Stiffs.

And I have my
adult fantasy line.

Yeah. You've got it.

976-D-O-D-A.

You're such a...
handsome guy.

She was kind of
a jack of all trades

at trying to find ways
to bring in income.

Carol Doda is marketing

her own line
of skin moisturizers,

and she also exercises
every day.

Who is Carol Doda?

Know what I am? A court jester.

Makes people laugh, entertains
people. That's all I am.

Is there a serious side
to Carol Doda?

I've seen my serious side.
Forget it.

Why not laugh, huh?
Why not laugh at yourself?

Carol Doda,
how are you?

I'm fine. How are you?

- So whatcha doin' nowadays?
- I got a boutique.

Champagne and lace
lingerie boutique.

In this little side
street off of Union Street...

She had this really nice
boutique salon.

With custom-sized bras
and lingerie.

I have nice dresses like this.
You like this dress?

- Yeah.
- She hasn't changed much.

- Look.

She went through

so many bra sizes
in her career,

she could look at somebody
and know their bra size.

She was a master.

A lot of people that
were her customers,

they weren't really customers.

They were people that wanted
to come and see her.

The legendary Carol Doda.

* Just in time ♪

I think my father was
a little star-struck initially.

They met for the first time
at Gino & Carlo's

which is a very famous
watering hole in North Beach.

My father, he loved her for her

and not for "Carol Doda"
the image,

the marquee, the superstar.

He was her boyfriend
for a lot of years.

He really took care of her.

Carol and my dad, Jay,

were together
for about ten years.

That was
the longest relationship

Carol had ever had.

She just adored him.

She described him
as the love of her life.

Her best friend.

"Just in Time" song, I think
it had a deep meaning

between my father and Carol.

Whenever she'd hit the stage,

she'd sing "Just in Time"
and point at him

and look at him the whole time.

♪ You found me just in time ♪

♪ And changed
my lonely life... ♪

He saved her
and she saved him

in many regards as well.

When Jay passed away,
it hit her really hard.

Her health
was deteriorating

in different ways.

The doctors said that
the effects of the silicone

had caused a disease
called Goodpasture syndrome.

It attacks your kidneys
and your lungs.

She was very ill,

and she insists
on going to the Tupelo.

She was adamant.
"People are counting on me.

I gave 'em my word."

She lived to be on stage.

That was her whole
raison d'etre.

So we ended up relenting
and we took her to the Tupelo.

And Carol pulls out this sack
of makeup out of her purse

and starts drawing eyebrows

and drawing the eyeliner
around her eyes

and transforms herself
into Carol.

She's the icon of North Beach

and has been for many years.
Miss Carol Doda.

I remember
her walking very slowly

because her breathing
was labored.

She would put her hand
on the keyboard

and feel the music

because she couldn't hear.

And she broke out in "All of Me"

like she's done
a million times.

♪ All of me ♪

♪ Why not take all of me ♪

♪ Can't you see I'm no good
without you ♪

♪ Take my lips ♪

♪ I'll never use them ♪

♪ Take my arms ♪

♪ I won't use them ♪

♪ Your goodbye ♪

♪ Left me with eyes that cry ♪

♪ How can I go on without ♪

♪ You took that part ♪

♪ That once was my heart ♪

♪ So why not
Why not take all of me ♪

Okay, boys.

♪ Why not ♪

♪ I said, why not ♪

♪ Why not, baby ♪

♪ Why not take all of me ♪

♪ Oh, yeah ♪

Your frustrations
have to come out some way.

So mine come out
in my drawings.

I believe in entertainment.

And I believe in love.

Why, all of a sudden,

is everybody becoming
so puritanical?

Are they afraid of the body?

Are they afraid that people
don't have minds of their own?

I think I'll just go on
doing my act.

I think we've
covered everything.