RicksPics

RicksPics club

Posted: 03 Jun 2021


Taken: 22 Jul 1978

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San Francisco's notorious North Beach district, grabbed through the car window, 1978.

San Francisco's notorious North Beach district, grabbed through the car window, 1978.
Submitted for the "Cities" theme in the Vintage Photos Theme Park. In the mid-1960s through the '80s, the Condor Club was the most famous of the strip clubs in San Francisco and home to the city's most famous exotic dancer, Carol Doda. Miss Doda gained national fame when she initiated a fully bare-breasted act at the Condor in 1964, which proved highly popular with the delegates to the Republican National Nominating Convention, meeting at the nearby Cow Palace that summer. According to her New York Times obituary, Miss Doda's popularity spurred a national surge in totally topless performance and caused the nearly total destruction of the "Pasties" industry in the United States. Some quick-thinking manufacturers, seeing the rise in popular interest in pirate culture, were able to fend off disaster by converting to the manufacture of decorative eye patches. Of course, they still had to face the inevitable 50% decline in units sold. Here is a link to Miss Doda's obituary, which contains some interesting background that I was unable to squeeze into this small space. www.nytimes.com/2015/11/12/arts/dance/carol-doda-pioneer-of-topless-entertainment-dies-at-78.html

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Comments
 Deborah Lundbech
Deborah Lundbech club
Couldn't access the link, but enjoyed the history you shared.
We certainly never know how any particular industry will be affected by seemingly random events!
These stories always bring to mind Kurt Vonnegut's writing and the bizarre arcs of relationships and events he used in his fiction.
3 years ago.
RicksPics club has replied to Deborah Lundbech club
Sorry you couldn't connect to the obit. Ms. Doda was an interesting woman. She recognized that her fame and resulting success arose from the publicity attached to Republican convention delegates flocking to see her bare breasts. She was clever enough to continue to evolve her act and keep it engaging for nearly two decades.
3 years ago.

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