Carol Doda (1937-2015) has been recognized as the first “legal” topless dancer in the United States. Using archival footage including press interviews we trace the history of Carol Doda and perhaps of more interest the evolution of American attitudes towards sexuality and the feminist movement. The film also delves into (although not expressly) the American obsession with celebrity status and a relentless drive to obtain and maintain it.
Carol Doda burst onto the scene in 1964 with her topless dancing in the North Beach area of San Francisco where she descended from a white Baldwin piano lowered from the ceiling onto the stage at the Condor. It was novel and fresh drawing huge crowds to the Condor. Topless dancing spread and when that saturated the market it was bottomless dancing, interracial dancing, topless dancing with animals, topless co-eds etc. etc. Any offshoot of nude and semi-nude dancing that would keep patrons flowing in. As with any trend it began to fade with more emphasis on the explicit than on the artistic.
Carl Doda rode the waves with various merchandising and artistic endeavours without much success. Her numerous silicone breast augmentation treatments attempting to add a marketing twist to her topless dancing was successful but arguably leakage of silicone may have killed her.
A common story of a popular entertainer fading as age and changing public taste rendered a vibrant cultural structure shaker into a “nostalgia act”. Perhaps of more interest is the role of topless dancing interacting, both positively and negatively, with feminism and the social tone of the United States particularly in the mid to late sixties.
Even if the concept of topless dancing does not interest you perhaps its evolution within changing societal norms and the fantastic archival footage may magically return you to the 1960s.
The film will be released theatrically in Canada on 5April2024.
Co-directed by Marlo McKenzie and Jonathan Parker.
RKS 2024 Film Rating 89/100.
Set the Bar 