The
Tropicana hotel, casino and club
, which 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 It will be
ready for demolition in October
.
The Tropicana's betting room will close forever next morning and the last guests occupying some of the hotel's
1,500 rooms
must leave before midnight.
There was
high demand for reservations in the Tropicana's final days
, 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 that the Tropicana has occupied
since April 4, 1957 , on Las Vegas Boulevard, a
new Major League Baseball stadium
will be built
that will be the headquarters for the Oakland Athletics starting in 2028.
The hotel was opened in 1957. Photo Shutterstock
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 spectators
, will 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 Shutterstock
The brilliance of the famous and dark moments of the Tropicana
The Tropicana was once
considered a luxury hotel and casino
that, during the 1960s, hosted some of the
most notable jazz musicians of the time
in its Blue Room , including Louis Armstrong, Dave Brubeck and Al Hirt. .
At the time of its opening, then costing $15 million, the Tropicana included a
large gourmet serving room
, and the building had two three-story wings each and some 300 rooms decorated in French Provincial, Italian Revival style. , the Far East 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 AGENCY
In the following decades, the Tropicana hosted performances by figures such as
Elizabeth Taylor and Elvis Presley
, and was even the setting for a James Bond film.
The Tropicana's fame had its
dark moments
: the builder Ben Jaffe, owner of the Fontainebleau in Miami apparently had
ties to the mafia
, and the manager was Phil Kastel, also apparently related to Frank Costello of New York.
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.
With information from EFE