{"id":206367,"date":"2026-03-05T23:55:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T23:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/206367\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T23:55:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T23:55:10","slug":"the-north-beach-carol-doda-mural-will-rise-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/206367\/","title":{"rendered":"The North Beach Carol Doda mural will rise again"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the past few years, people passing through North Beach via Columbus Avenue were greeted by a dreamy mural of Carol Doda<\/a>. Rendered in soft pastels by artist Natalie Gabriel<\/a>, Doda\u2019s face graced an exterior wall of the wine bar Bodega. The mural honored the woman who shimmied her way to international fame as a topless dancer at North Beach\u2019s Condor Club in the 1960s and \u201970s. The mural quickly became a beloved local landmark.<\/p>\n

So Gabriel, a former North Beach resident who now lives in Sonoma, was stunned when she recently learned her tribute to Doda, which Bodega\u2019s owners Lalo Luevano and Paria Sedigh had commissioned, had been painted over. She got the news from a friend that the mural was gone.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was heartbroken and shocked,\u201d Gabriel told 48 Hills. \u201cOf course, my ego and personal attachment to the mural played into that. But at the end of the day, I\u2019m a public artist. I paint murals on the streets, and my art\u2014and the work of all public artists\u2014is at the disposal of the public. Nothing lasts forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Longtime North Beach resident and artist Fanny Renoir poses with the dearly departed Carol Doda mural. All photos courtesy of Natalie Gabriel <\/p>\n

It\u2019s true that murals fall prey to taggers, the sun\u2019s bleaching rays, and the whims of building owners every day. But the loss of the Doda mural has hit North Beach hard. Gabriel\u2019s heard from a number of folks, some with personal ties to the performer, upset that a tribute to an important woman in the history of both the neighborhood and the city had been erased.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a shame to see the mural painted over, and not only because Nat is a brilliant artist,\u201d said Aldea Sullivan, a North Beach resident who works at Beacon, a coffeehouse across the street from Bodega. \u201cThe Carol mural was a stunning reminder of our not-so-distant North Beach history. Amongst the constantly homogenizing storefronts, she gave us an opportunity for story-telling and reminiscing. I\u2019d much rather tell visitors about topless dancing and 20th century beauty standards than stare at another boring black wall.\u201d<\/p>\n

The wall likely won\u2019t remain colorless for long, though. Luevano told 48hills that he and Sedigh always envisioned it as a rotating platform to showcase the work of different local artists.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re really proud of Natalie and all the conversation the Carol Doda mural sparked,\u201d he said in a phone call. \u201cIt turned out to be a big success.\u201d<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t just her status as a legendary stripper than made Doda special. In her obituary<\/a> in the Chronicle in 2015, former Mayor Willy Brown called the multi-talented artist \u201cbright, beautiful, creative, and outrageous.\u201d The late columnist Herb Caen agreed\u2014Doda had been a regular character in his column. Dick Winn, who performed showtunes with Doda in her later years, called his friend one of the fastest comedians he\u2019d ever worked with. He praised her for being a \u201cwonderfully caring person who listened to you and gave good advice.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"The original Carol Doda mural on the wall of Bodega.<\/p>\n

Long-time North Beach resident and tour guide Blandina Farley also has fond memories of Doda. She described her friend as a feisty survivor and a kind, humble person. The two used to sing together at various clubs.<\/p>\n

\u201cCarol was an icon, but she didn\u2019t see herself that way,\u201d said Farley. \u201cShe just loved to entertain, clothes on or clothes off.\u201d<\/p>\n

As upset as Gabriel was when she first heard about her mural\u2019s fate, she\u2019s not one to wallow in self-pity or hold a grudge. Instead, she\u2019s working with the community to find another wall for a new mural of Doda.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt won\u2019t be the exact same one, because you can never go back, it will never be the same,\u201d Gabriel explained. \u201cBut it will have the same feeling. It will be even bigger and better\u2014that\u2019s how I like to frame things. I have another sketch that I actually think is stronger than the one we landed on for the original mural.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Artist Natalie Gabriel works on her first Carol Doda mural.<\/p>\n

With help from her friend Anastasia Thanash\u2014her father was a co-owner of the Condor, where her mother stripped\u2014Gabriel has set up a Gofundme<\/a> to raise $13,000 to cover the costs of creating the new mural. (She specifies that the amount needed to complete the project will depend on the size of the wall and how much repair work it needs.)<\/p>\n

Starting over also gives the artist a chance to find a more prominent home for Doda. The old mural was on the outskirts of North Beach, amd Gabriel hopes to bring this one to life in a location that\u2019s closer to the heart of the neighborhood. She\u2019s already found a couple of contenders, including a large parking lot wall on Broadway near the Condor.<\/p>\n

\u201cA piece of history was painted over, but the community has the power to bring a new mural to the people who value that history, know the neighborhood, and want to see beauty on every corner of North Beach,\u201d Gabriel said. \u201cThat\u2019s what\u2019s most important to me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the past few years, people passing through North Beach via Columbus Avenue were greeted by a dreamy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":206368,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-206367","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco","8":"tag-san-francisco","9":"tag-san-francisco-headlines","10":"tag-san-francisco-news","11":"tag-sf","12":"tag-sf-headlines","13":"tag-sf-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}