He Tropicana hotel, casino and clubwhich for almost four decades was the scene of shows such as the “Folies Bergère” cabaret and films such as “Diamonds Are Forever”, in Las Vegas, United States, will close its doors this Tuesday, April 2 and will remain ready for demolition in October.
The Tropicana’s betting room will close forever at dawn and the last guests occupying some of the 1,500 rooms The hotel must leave before midnight.
There was high demand for reservations in recent days of the Tropicana and the hotel’s website indicated that available rooms were listed at $499, excluding taxes and fees.
The reason for Tropicana’s closure
On the site occupied by the Tropicana since April 4, 1957on Las Vegas Boulevard, a new Major League Baseball stadium which will be the headquarters for the Oakland Athletics starting in 2028.
About 500 workers represented by the Culinary and Barista Guild will receive $2,000 for each year of service and eight months of health insurance upon dismissal, according to union sources.
The stadium that will be built, with a budget of 1.5 billion dollars and capacity for 33,000 spectatorswill cover just over 36,000 square meters on the 142,000 square meter plot now occupied by the Tropicana, operated by the Bally’s firm.
The property belongs to the firm Gaming and Leisure Properties, which will collaborate with Bally’s in the development of a new leisure and hospitality center on that site.
The casino floor, part of Tropicana. Photo ShutterstockThe brilliance of the famous and dark moments of the Tropicana
In other times, the Tropicana It was considered a luxury hotel and casino who, during the 1960s, welcomed some of the most prominent jazz musicians of the timeentre ellos Louis Armstrong, Dave Brubeck and Al Hirt.
At the time of its opening, then costing $15 million, the Tropicana included a large gourmet service roomand the building had two wings of three floors each and about 300 rooms decorated in French provincial, Italian Renaissance, Far Eastern and other fantasies.
Historical photo showing comedian Groucho Marx (left) with his wife, Eden Hartford (right), and actress Debbie Reynolds (center) at the Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas, in 1957. Photo LVNB VIA EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCYIn the following decades the Tropicana offered performances by figures such as Elizabeth Taylor y Elvis Presleyand was even the setting for a James Bond saga film.
The fame of the Tropicana had its dark moments: builder Ben Jaffe, owner of the Fontainebleau in Miami apparently had ties to the mafiaand the manager was Phil Kastel, also apparently related to New York’s Frank Costello.
About three weeks after the opening of the Tropicana, there was an attempted assassination of Costello, who was found in his pocket with a paper recording the Tropicana’s income.