The iconic Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas will close its doors in a matter of weeks to make way for a new $1.5billion baseball stadium for the Oakland Athletics.
The once-lavish Vegas hotel will shut on April 2 after 67 years in business – and a decadent history of midcentury glitz and glamor will vanish along with it.
While parts of the 1,500-room hotel will be removed manually, the landscape will have to be completely leveled – meaning that the Tropicana will face implosion and be demolished.
Arik Knowles, Tropicana’s VP and manager, said in a note to staff: ‘While this is a great opportunity for the company it comes with a bittersweet feeling as this means that operations at the Tropicana Las Vegas will shut down for redevelopment.’
The Tropicana was once an icon on the Las Vegas strip but now appears to exude faded glory
The girls, who all dance in the Folies Bergere at the plush Hotel Tropicana, Las Vegas, are: Virginia Justus, the blonde; Lydia Torea, the redhead; and the brunet, Sharon Cunningham
Elizabeth Taylor and Eddie Fisher hold hands as they leave the Tropicana Night Club
The A’s will now begin construction on their new ballpark at the Tropicana site in Las Vegas. Pictured: A rendering of what the baseball stadium will look like
The hotel first welcomed guests in 1957 as a Cuban-themed property with little else in Las Vegas at the time – and was said to be ‘famous from the day it opened.’
When the sensational hotel was first unveiled, the property boasted a massive 60-foot fountain and played host to illusionists Siegfried and Roy.
An array of stars filmed movies there – including Sean Connery as James Bond in Diamond’s Are Forever and The Godfather Corleones.
Superstar Elizabeth Taylor often graced the hotel with her presence – as did music legends including Sammy Davis Jr, Louis Armstrong, and Frank Sinatra.
The Tropicana became synonymous with the vibrancy of everything Vegas had to offer – with its Folies Bergère cabaret featuring feathered showgirls.
But decades have passed since the Tropicana’s heyday and now only a few customers frequent the dimly lit casino.
The Tropicana has been a historic staple of the world famous Las Vegas strip since the 1960s
The Tropicana, an iconic Las Vegas Strip establishment built in 1957, will be demolished to make way for a new baseball stadium for the Oakland Athletics. Above, as seen in 1958
The hotel is on a 35-acre site that will now be used for a $1.5billion, 30,000-seat stadium
Last year, the Oakland Athletics reached an agreement to build a potential $1.5billion Stadium on the Tropicana hotel site along the Las Vegas Strip.
Bally’s and Gaming & Leisure Properties will build a 30,000-seat stadium on the 35-acre site.
The project is expected to cost about $1.5bn, and the A’s are asking for nearly $400million in public support from the Nevada Legislature.
Oakland Athletics president Dave Kaval previously said: ‘For us to build a ballpark on it, the entire site needs to be clean. There will be some type of implosion.
‘Part of it will be taken down manually, but part of it will be imploded. That will be a big celebration. That will be a moment when people realize how big this is becoming.’
Elizabeth Taylor congratulates Eddie Fisher backstage at the Tropicana after watching his opening act in June 1958. The couple were married from May 1959 to March 1964
The hotel played host to illusionists Siegfried and Roy who debuted their show at the hotel
When Tropicana is demolished, a chunk of Vegas history will vanish and all the midcentury glamour that came along with it
Kaval said of the designs for the new baseball stadium: ‘We want it to be intimate and ensure all the seats are close to the action. That’s an important part of creating a unique experience. You’re competing against television.
‘It has to feel different. People don’t want to sit in the nosebleeds.’
A description of the hotel’s opening read: ‘Unlike many other Strip layouts, the Tropicana was designed and built as a resort hotel, not as a casino and night club with incidental guest rooms.
‘Wide sweeping drives approach the hotel from the highways, closely adjoined by a sparkling fountain rising 60 feet and cascading water down into a brilliant pool 100 feet in diameter.
‘Mosaic–tile decorations flank the entrance covered by an upsweeping canopy stretching out 40 feet and measuring 130 feet in length.’
But there were also rumors of mob ties with the facility from the onset.
The Follies Bergere became a legendary Vegas act lasting almost 50 years
Vegas played host to legendary acts including the Rat Pack, led by Frank Sinatra, which put the city’s name on the map. Sinatra is pictured performing in Las Vegas in August 1978
Actress Rhonda Fleming blossoms as a singer and dancer in the first nightclub appearance of her career at the Tropicana hotel in Las Vegas. Pictured here in May 1957
Actress and model Kitty Dolan at the pool of The Tropicana Hotel in 1958 in Las Vegas, Nevada
Sean Connery is seen in a scene from the 1971 Bond film, Diamond’s Are Forever
Some of the showgirls who danced in the Folies Bergère cabaret are pictured by the hotel pool in January 1968
Like most Vegas hotels and casinos, the Tropicana offers a vast array of gambling games
In 1967, Siegfried and Roy left Paris to become Las Vegas mainstays, first debuting at the Tropicana’s Folies Bergere show. The duo started 14th on the bill, and by 1978 they were the finale.
By the 1970s, the Tropicana started to lose out to competitors such as Caesars Palace. By the late 70s, it was again involved in mob activity and exposed by an FBI investigation into Vegas casinos and the mafia.
Joe Agosto, the owner of the Folies Bergere show, oversaw skimming money from the casino. Mitzi Stauffer Briggs owned the casino at the time and admitted years later that she realized she was a pawn.
The investigations and scandal led to the casino’s downfall and in the 1990s, part of the Tropicana’s site was sold to MGM to make way for the MGM Grand Casino – as modern casinos took over the Las Vegas strip.
Comedienne Joan Rivers and Folies Bergere cabaret performers attend The Best of Las Vegas Awards in 1980 at Tropicana Las Vegas
The ladies from the show are seen preparing to perform as they put on makeup backstage
Singer Eddie Fisher holding hands with his actress fiancée Elizabeth Taylor who is seen sporting a 50-diamond bracelet he gave her as an engagement present and a huge diamond ring from her previous marriage, relaxing in lounge after his opening show at the Tropicana
100 showgirls from the Tropicana ‘Follies Bergere’ show from the 1950s to the present pose on Fremont Street in downtown Las Vegas to celebrate the Las Vegas Centennial in 2005
A view of the sign for the Tropicana hotel featuring The Osmonds and Kelly Monteith on the Las Vegas Strip in November 1975
Actress and model Kitty Dolan at the pool of The Tropicana Hotel in 1958
Tropicana has seen several owners over the years and changes to the structure. In 2010, the hotel demolished two wings.
Today the owner is Bally’s Corporation, which operates casinos in Vegas and across the globe.
Tropicana is also known for being the filming location for several movies. In 1971, James Bond’s Diamonds Are Forever used the casino for Sean Connery’s Bond adventures to Las Vegas.
Viva Las Vegas and War of the Colossal Beast were also shot at the casino.
Chairman of Bally’s Corporation Soo Kim said: ‘The Trop is obviously iconic, but it is, really, in a lot of ways, economically obsolete. It literally is part of the glitz and glamour of Vegas, but it hasn’t been that for decades.’