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I tend not venture to glamorous tit joints, so it’s not likely that any of the strippers I’ve seen are anything worthy of world renowned. DesTina from Charles Town, West Virginia is not deserving of international acclaim.
In fact, I never knew that a single exotic dancer ever became famous solely for stripping until today, when I found out that: 1. There was a world famous stripper who plied her wares in San Francisco and 2. She died today at the age of 78.
Her name was Carol Doda and she started stripping in 1964 at the Condor Club in North Beach. She became so famous that the club eventually used her body for their sign.
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From SF Gate:
For many years, Ms. Doda was a major attraction for people who wanted a taste of the ribald side of town and who followed Ms. Doda’s neon figure — a huge rendering of her on a sign, with flashing lights representing her nipples — into the Condor nightclub on Broadway.
After a fanfare to build anticipation, the spotlight would hit a white baby grand piano slowly descending from the ceiling. Atop that piano was the statuesque Ms. Doda, in her mono-kini, proudly displaying her enhancements. She would dance and swivel her way through a few numbers before the piano ascended back to the ceiling, with Ms. Doda never leaving her perch.
You know the sexual revolution of the 60s? Many credit Doda with kickstarting it.
“She launched the topless craze that swept San Francisco and the nation in the 1960s,” said Ernie Beyl, a historian and author who recently published the book “Sketches from a North Beach Journal,” with a chapter titled “Carol Doda and her Swimsuit.”
She started topless dancing at the Condor Club in 1964, her breasts having been enhanced with silicone injections. Strip clubs are fixtures today, but it’s hard to overestimate the social earthquake Ms. Doda triggered 51 years ago.
It was a sensation — the first topless dancing act of widespread note in America. So many customers packed the club that Ms. Doda spent $1,500 to boost her bust size from 34B to 44DD through silicone injection, which was then a new technique. It was painful, she said, but the results were very popular. Ms. Doda said she never suffered health complications.
At the height of her fame, Ms. Doda’s breasts were dubbed “the New Twin Peaks of San Francisco.”
Up top. Someone had to bring stripping into the (somewhat) mainstream acceptance that it is has today, and all Bros should say a word of thanks to Ms. Doda. If it were not for her, your bachelor parties might be very different.