Carol Doda, who was widely credited with triggering a nationwide topless revolution as a 26-year-old go-go dancer in 1964, died on Monday in San Francisco. She was 78.

Her death was confirmed by the St. Luke’s campus of California Pacific Medical Center. Friends said the cause was complications of kidney failure.

To understand the scandalousness of Ms. Doda’s precedent-setting impromptu performance in San Francisco, on June 19, 1964, consider that it was followed less than a month later in that same city by the Republican National Convention that nominated the conservative Barry Goldwater.

Delegates flocked from the Cow Palace convention hall to the Condor Club in the North Beach neighborhood to see her act. As word spread, toplessness became a sensation in clubs and bars across the country.