Manager of the first topless bar in the United States is shot and killed in San Francisco
By Editor,Jensen Bird
Copyright dailymail
The manager of America’s first topless bar has been found dead near his home in California.
Mark Calcagni, 60, was the long time manager of the iconic San Francisco night spot Condor Club.
He was found lying in the street with a gunshot wound, just 350 feet away from his home in Santa Rosa, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
A commuter made the grim discovery at around 6.30am on October 3. Police declared him dead at the scene.
The Condor Club released a statement on their social media mourning the loss of Calcagni.
‘His dedication, leadership, and passion over many years shaped who we are today. We are devastated by this loss,’ the statement read.
‘Mark was more than our manager – he was the heartbeat of Condor Club and an integral figure of the North Beach and San Francisco nightlife communities that he helped shape and uplift.’
Santa Rosa police said that no suspects of the violence have been identified and no firearm has been linked to the shooting, according to ABC7.
‘Though any time a suspect of a violent crime remains at large it presents a potential risk, we do not believe there is an ongoing threat to public safety,’ a statement read.
The Condor Club opened in 1958 as a music venue and became the nation’s first fully topless nightclub in 1964.
It is located in San Francisco on Broadway in the city’s entertainment district.
The club is known all over the world as the birthplace of topless dancing and the longtime performance home of the first topless dancer in the US, Carol Doda.
Calcagni began managing the iconic club in 2013, and took on the Vanity Night Club in 2015.
The general manager of Vanity, Wolfgang Welch, told the San Francisco Gazetteer that the entire community would be mourning Calcagni.
He said: ‘He was a really great guy. He always spoke so highly of keeping the community and the family as strong and tied together as he could; he was always a “willing to take his shirt off to give it to someone else” kind of guy.’
Welch told the San Francisco Chronicle that Calcagni will be remembered as ‘larger than life’.
He said: ‘He became one of the Mount Rushmore’s of Broadway.’
Police are offering a reward of $5,000 for information leading the arrest of Calcagni’s killer.
The Daily Mail reached out to Santa Rosa Police and the Condor Club for comment.