One of Las Vegas’ oldest and most historic hotels is closing its doors after nearly 67 years to make way for a new Major League Baseball stadium.
The Tropicana Las Vegas closed its doors on Tuesday, just shy of its 67th. birthday.
Demolition is scheduled for October to make way for a $1.5 billion Major League Baseball stadium.
The hotel, which opened on the iconic Las Vegas Strip on April 4, 1957, was nicknamed the “Tiffany of the Strip” for its opulence.
When it was built in the late 1950s, the Tropicana cost $15 million to build. It was three stories with 300 rooms divided into two wings, creating a footprint shaped like the letter “Y.”
Later, the Tropicana underwent two major hotel expansions: The Tiffany Tower opened its doors in 1979 with 600 rooms.
It was renamed Tour du Paradis.
In 1986, the Island Tower opened with 800 rooms.
Behind the scenes of the Tropicana’s opulent opening, the hotel had close ties to notorious gangster Frank Costello.
A few weeks after Tropicana’s debut, Costello was shot in the head in New York.
He survived, but the police found a piece of paper in his coat pocket with the exact figure of the Tropicana’s revenues.
The memo also mentioned “skimming money” for Costello’s associates, according to a publication on the Mob Museum website, which looks back at the Tropicana’s storied past.
P.A.
In the 1970s, federal authorities investigating Kansas City mobsters charged more than a dozen mob operatives with conspiring to embezzle nearly $2 million in gambling revenue from Las Vegas casinos, including the Tropicana.
The Tropicana-related charges alone resulted in five convictions.
In 1959, the Tropicana debuted a risque show featuring topless feathered showgirls.
The cabaret was featured in the 1964 Elvis Presley film “Viva Las Vegas.” Magicians Siegfried Fischbacher and Roy Horn made their debut on the series, as did Lance Burton.
Part of “The Godfather” was filmed at the Tropicana and in the 1971 film “Diamonds Are Forever” James Bond stayed there.
“I heard the Tropicana Hotel is pretty comfortable,” Bond said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
New York Post
