Carol Doda was one of San Francisco’s first topless strippers.
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In 1964 she made international news, first by dancing topless at the city’s Condor Club, then by enhancing her bust from size 34 to 44 through silicon injections. Her breasts became known as Doda’s “twin 44s” and “the new Twin Peaks of San Francisco”
She go-go danced the Swim to a rock and roll combo headed by Bobby Freeman as her piano settled on the stage. From the waist up Doda emulated aquatic movements like the Australian crawl. She also did the Twist, the Frug, and the Watusi.
Doda was a witness during the trial of two all-nude dancers who were arrested for indecent exposure and lewd and dissolute conduct, in 1969. Presiding Municipal Court Judge Earl Warren, Jr. moved the trial, temporarily, from the courtroom to Chuck Landis Largo club. There Doda performed to live song and dance numbers, along with a movie entitled Guru You. She was cross-examined by a deputy district attorney about what she hoped to convey to audiences in her act. She responded that the movie represents a satire of pornography…it’s to show people the humorous side of sex. Several members of the 10-man, 2-woman jury kept in check their smiles as Doda explained the 17-minute movie. The deputy district attorney opposed asking her to perform, considering it irrelevant to the case. He was overruled by Warren.
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In 1968 she appeared in The Monkees’ film “Head” for which Jack Nicholson co-wrote the screenplay and Toni Basil wrote the choreography.
“The film rejects plot in favor of a psychedelic trip through a series of parodies of every major film genre, including the Western, the musical, and the war film. These stylized romps are intercut with various surreal scenes, such as the classic sequence where the Monkees are sucked up through a giant vacuum cleaner and then spewed out as bits of dandruff in Victor Mature’s hair“
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Co-screenwriters Rafelson and Jack Nicholson based HEAD on conversations they had with the Monkees while on a vacation. Nicholson and Rafelson can both be spotted briefly on the commissary set. It’s also memorable for Teri Garr’s first line in a motion picture “Suck it before the venom reaches my heart.”