My personal encounter with Carol Doda at The San Francisco Fillmore for a Nancy Sinatra concert made me super-interested in watching the 2024 document “Carol Doda – Topless at the Condor”.  Not only is it a well-done documentary starring the first famous topless dancer with silicone breast injections, but it was about my city and a landmark building in the North Beach that was simply part of this city’s history.  Highly recommended for fans of Carol Doda, topless strippers, The Swim and Bobby Freeman and San Francisco’s North Beach in the 60’s.  I loved it, but Carol’s story is a bit sad.  Check it out. 

So how did I get this great autograph inscribed “To Bobby – DO NOT SELL – Carol Doda” on a Fillmore menu?  First, you’ve got to understand how the San Francisco Fillmore seating works.  It’s a venue with a large floor for General Admission (standing) with a few private boxes (special guests) above the floor that look directly over the crown onto the stage.  And then there’s an upper-level side area with a limited group of tables and chairs where you can see the stage from above left.  But you’ve got there friggin’ EARLY to get those seats, because it’s first come, first serve. My best friend and I are both huge Nancy Sinatra fans and had seen her earlier during an in-store appearance at Tower Records in the Castro.  We were super-excited to see her in concert, since neither of us had done so before, and she was experiencing a resurgence with her Playboy cover and layout.  So you know we were in line WAY early and got great seats in the corner with prime view to the stage.  (Lots more about Nancy Sinatra separately.) 

A group of us are settled in, chatting, drinking, getting ready for Nancy Sinatra to take the stage.  All of a sudden this big mane of blonde hair, preceded by a substantial bust, comes up to us and says something along the lines of "We really need to sit here, because of my back problems." I'm thinking "That's a hard pass and pretend I can't see or hear her".  Then my best friend says "Carol, you just need to tell management and they'll give you a chair on the floor close to the stage". 

Now keep in mind that my friend owned a pretty popular bar in San Francisco and I was accustomed to him knowing just about everybody ...but when "Carol" started to insist that she really needed to have our table, I finally looked closely and realized it was CAROL DODA.  At that time, I knew her for three things:  

1. Being the hostess on cable channel 36, always purring between shows, "Welcome to the perfect 36" 

2. Having her name, image and nipples lit up on the Condor sign on Broadway in North Beach  

3. Big boobs due to silicone  

So now I'm interested on how this going to go down. I want to ask for her autograph but I'm not giving up our seats.  Luckily, my friend convinced her she'd be better off downstairs and they'd put her "right in front of the stage".  Which they did, by the way. Stage right on the floor in folding chairs. 

The show hasn't started yet, the crowd below us on the floor is milling and I can see Carol's blonde mane seated near the corner of the stage.  I grab a food menu, steal a ballpoint from the waitress station and head downstairs.   

I approach Carol hoping she doesn't recognize me from the "NO Table" since my friend did all the talking and I hold out the menu and pen saying "Carol! It's so wonderful to see you here! I always watched you on the "perfect 36" and I'd love to get your autograph!" 

Her response?  "No. Everybody just sells them."  Wow. Talk about a prescient rebuff since this way way before the online/eBay autograph tidal wave. 

"But Carol, I'm a sincere fan, ever since I was a kid. I have no intention of selling it and you can inscribe it to me - my name is Bobby."  There was reluctance, perhaps a sigh and then a quick scribble. DO NOT SELL is one of the best inscriptions in my entire collection.  It's for sale in my store. Ha...jk. 

And, that night, on the way to the bathroom, I saw a man come out of one of the private suites overlooking the stage and it was Lee Hazlewood!  Nancy Sinatra's producer and duet partner on songs like the hit "Jackson".  I had no pen, no paper and no time before he was out of sight. I really should have persevered and tracked him down, but I was caught up in the Nancy Frenzy, These Boots and the boozy night.... 

Side notes: Carol ran a sexy lingerie boutique that was written up in our local paper  (photos shown here) and I really wanted to visit, but it closed so quickly, before I had a chance.  Carol did not have a lot of great luck. She was good pals with a friend of mine who knew here when he was working at Mama's in North Beach.  When she was visiting him at his parent’s house in St. Francis Woods, she slipped on their  front porch and sprained her ankle. My friend’s dad's homeowners insurance paid her because she was off stage for three nights. Luckily she didn’t break that ankle!  

Now, while we're on the topic of big boobs in San Francisco, I've got two other related stories/autographs. 

CANDY SAMPLES had (supposedly) the same 44DD breast size as Carol Doda and was appearing at a "strip show" on Market Street in San Francisco when I wrote to her.  I was a bit precocious, always looking at strip club "live nude appearance" ads in the newspaper for a name that I recognized, knowing that (a) I was too young to get in these clubs and (b) it was a great opportunity for through the mail autograph collecting these nomadic, often elusive, erotic entertainers. 

I knew Candy Samples primarily from 16mm film that I should have never seen at my age, specifically one with Kevin James (loved him; died young of testicular cancer - more on him elsewhere). It might have been a threesome with Mike Ranger.  But I digress.... 

When the busty, lusty Candy was appearing here in San Francisco, I wrote to her at the Market Street theater, and she sent me the pink flyer in addition to the card I had provided.  I subsequently added another signed card to my collection from a purchase of "sexy ladies lot of signed cards".  The thing I love most about Candy Samples, in retrospect, (now that I'm old enough for AARP), is that she was one of the first famous MILFS and proved that older can be sexy.  She seemed to make MORE money the older she got.  Quite the opposite of how the world perceives aging "juggs" today (with exceptions of course) 

Now Carol and Candy may have had 44” busts, but CHESTY MORGAN had them both beat with a NATURAL (no implants) 73” bust, and even made a movie called “Double Agent 73”.  Wikipedia states that footage from Chesty’s two films were in John Waters’ film “Serial Mom”, but personally I think he took his interest to another level with Selma Blair’s character in “A Dirty Shame”.  Selma’s character is literally a real-life Chesty Morgan dealing with the flip sides of our (still) sexual/puritanical society. 

P.S. This song by Bobby Freeman inspired the girls to take their dancing topless while doing movements to “The Swim”.  Listen and imagine swimming actions while dancing … and topless!