This documentary is set in San Francisco in 1964 when Carol Doda became the first dancer to go topless. In the process, she became a tourist attraction second only to the Golden Gate Bridge.
It is difficult to quantify the significance of the decision at the center of “Carol Doda Topless at the Condor,” which functions as a profile of the eponymous dancer and explains her act of cultural defiance. The appeal of writers/directors Marlo McKenzie and Jonathan Parker’s film is itself deceptively significant, and throughout this documentary, we can feel the significance stretching the fabric of a movie that is, aesthetically and creatively speaking, rather unassuming. The filmmakers are not reinventing or even reinvigorating the form here. They have realized what a fascinating story there is to tell about Carol Doda, her act of defiance, and the immense snowball effect of that defiance, which ushered in an era of liberation for women in entertainment.
That act was simply to become a topless dancer in 1964, already a significant year in American history for a lot of other, more important reasons related to the Vietnam War, the aftermath of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, and the imminent Presidential election in November, and the ongoing Civil Rights movement, which was highlighted by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s receiving of the Nobel Peace Prize. For Doda, though, all this newly gained liberty was being fought alongside the Sexual Revolution, which was already seeing gains in the form of access to birth control and an increased cultural understanding of the value of women beyond traditional wife/mother roles. Doda saw the act of providing adult entertainment as empowering, even in the face of a high-profile arrest.
McKenzie and Parker see this story as an opportunity to place Doda’s act of defiance within a specific pop-cultural context, and that moves it above and apart from the typical profile documentary that, on the surface, this film appears to be. Yes, we get the usual biographical details of the movie’s subject, such as how she began her career at the Condor Club in San Francisco as simply a go-go dancer, performing the trendy movements of the day, sometimes atop pianos being lowered hydraulically into the stage space and at other times simply on the stage itself. Eventually, a publicist would convince her to wear a “monokini” or a topless swimsuit, which she eventually incorporated into her act to great success.
More importantly, though, the film acknowledges the controversy that surrounded her decision to go topless, as well as how much the controversy delighted her – to the degree, in fact, that she ultimately made a shift toward bottomless dancing, which is what led to that arrest, not only of her but of the nightclub owners, too. A portrait of Doda eventually develops, which lets us into her headspace before some of the controversy spins out of control. Doda progresses toward getting breast enlargements via silicone injections, and eventually, the magic of the moment dies as the trend becomes old-hat. In her later years, Doda would become something of a curio, picking up odd jobs that took her away from the stage.
The movie engages us in all these happenings, utilizing archival footage and talking-head interviews with a particular eye toward clever editing tricks. “Carol Doda Topless at the Condor” may not reinvent the wheel in this regard, but it does entertain, having found a fascinating side to a story with which some may not be so familiar.
In Theaters Friday, March 29th
