When boobs were "political"

One of our more illustrious SF citizens died - here is a part of her obituary - from the SF Chronicle - that you won't see in her official obit:

It was just a small notice the other day among the paid obituaries, that Yvonne Boreta, "accomplished painter, model and college graduate," had passed away in Las Vegas at the age of 64.

The obit didn't mention it, but she was better known in these parts as one of the hottest acts in North Beach when the strip scene there was in its heyday.

Back in the 1960s, the Iranian-born blond bombshell took it all off - or most of it, anyway - at the Off Broadway under the stage name Yvonne D'Angers. The reporters of the day, uniformly male, dubbed her "the Persian Lamb."

Along with Carol Doda at the nearby Condor Club, she helped launch the topless craze. "She and Carol Doda were like (Joe) DiMaggio and (Ted) Williams," recalled state Democratic Party Chairman [and former State Senator] John Burton, who was bartending those days just down the street at Bimbo's.

In 1965, D'Angers - wearing an electric-blue sequined dress - was the star witness in a trial over the legality of topless waitresses. And in 1966 she chained herself to the Golden Gate Bridge to protest her long-threatened deportation to Iran.

Just another slice of San Francisco's treasured past. "It sure as f- was," Burton said. "As good as it got."

Here is the California Historical Marker for the Condor Club.

Yvonne D'Angers also had a short career as an actress. Her films listed in IMDB include:

• Ground Zero, a 1978 film about an atom bomb attached to the Golden Gate Bridge and is described as being awful,
  
• a 1971 Russ Meyer film called The Seven Minutes (Tom Selleck and John Carradine were also in this 'steamy' movie),
  
• a 1971 movie called Move (with Elliot Gould and Paula Prentiss)
  
• and a 1968 Lesbian-themed move called Sappho, Darling, which was written by Albert Zugsmith, who produced some classics: Fanny Hill, Sex Kittens Go to College, Girls Town, The Beat Generation, High School Confidential, Touch of Evil, The Female Animal, Invasion USA and Captive Women - I going to see if I can buy the complete set!)

This sums up Yvonne's appeal - it is the last paragraph from a 1967 Billboard Magazine article about North Beach:

Perhaps the whole significance of North Beach to the City is detected in the newspaper ad: "Two of San Francisco's three most famous landmarks . . .belong to Yvonne D'Angers, now appearing topless in North Beach at Off Broadway."

Yeah, this is my neighborhood. I won't go into the details about the last death at the Condor Club. Even though the guy got crushed to death by the ceiling when the piano rose too far, he had a smile on his face. Not so for the stripper involved, who was rescued several hours later. Did I mention that our exotic dancers here are unionized and some are worker-owners of a peep-show venue?

Ah, San Francisco....she never disappoints.