Manager of historic California strip club fatally shot

Decades after a bouncer was killed by a piano during a sexual interlude, tragedy has once again struck San Francisco’s legendary Condor Club. The general manager of the historic topless bar was recently gunned down outside his Santa Rosa home, and his killer, for now, remains a mystery.

The Santa Rosa Police Department is investigating the murder of Mark Calcagni, 60, who was found unresponsive on Brookwood Avenue near Birdsfoot Way at 6:25 a.m. Friday. He was shot multiple times and the motive for the attack is unknown.

As of Wednesday, the department was still searching for a suspect and a murder weapon, said department spokesman Sgt. Patricia Seffens. Anyone with information about the incident, or nearby residents with security camera footage, are asked to come forward.

The Condor Club acknowledged “the tragic death of our beloved general manager Mark Calcagni” in a statement released Wednesday, saying his sudden passing was met with shock and sadness.

“Mark’s memory – his warmth, generosity and commitment to the community – will live on,” the club said. “On behalf of everyone at the Condor Club, we extend our deepest condolences and stand in solidarity with those who are mourning this extraordinary loss.”

The Condor Club, which began offering adult entertainment in 1964, bills itself as America’s oldest topless bar and the birthplace of topless entertainment.

He has collected his share of colorful stories over his six decades in business.

Perhaps most notable was the infamous piano incident of 1983, when bouncer Jimmy Ferrozzo and his girlfriend, exotic dancer Theresa Hill, had sex on a white piano that, during performances, was lowered from the ceiling by cables. But the couple accidentally flipped the “on” switch and the piano rose to the ceiling, fatally crushing Ferrozzo in the process.

The piano was first made famous by exotic dancer Carol Doda, who made her nocturnal entrance atop the instrument. Doda widely popularized topless dancing, with her dazzling stage persona, and gained worldwide fame with her act in the 1960s and 1970s.

In 1965, the club was raided by police and Doda was arrested for indecent exposure. The club’s owners at the time, Gino Del Prete and Pete Mattioli, were accused of “running a disorderly house,” according to an article in the San Francisco Chronicle. They were all acquitted later that year in a case establishing that topless bars like the Condor Club did not violate California’s obscenity laws. Doda died in 2015 at the age of 78 from complications related to kidney failure.

Calcagni helped keep history alive as general manager of the Condor Club, which in 2022 became the first adult entertainment venue designated as a heritage business by the city of San Francisco.

“He (Calcagni) was really a great guy,” Wolfgang Welch, general manager of the nearby Vanity nightclub, told Gazetteer. “He always spoke highly of the need to keep community and family as strong and together as possible; he was always a ‘willing to take off his shirt and give it to someone else’ type.”