Carol Doda And The Topless Dancing Craze

Carol Doda electrified San Francisco, beginning in the summer of 1964, when she descended from the roof of the Condor Club doing her trademark Swim dance. She also knew the watusi and others so that her topless performances had variety. Doda was the first topless dancer to be publicized widely in the United States. She began a wave of topless and then bottomless performers that rapidly grew in numbers in America. The sensation was not without its detractors. In San Francisco the Salvation Army protested by marching up and down Broadway, holding placards and denouncing women baring their bosoms.