The Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign is a Las Vegas landmark funded in May 1959 and erected soon after by Western Neon. The sign was designed by Betty Willis.
All good things must come to an end, even a hotel that was at the time of its opening in 1957 the most expensive resort ever built at $15 million ($165.2 million in 2024 dollars).
Sin City’s third oldest hotel closed its doors to guests for the last time on Tuesday and demolition is slated to begin in October of this year in preparation for a $1.5 billion baseball stadium for the relocating Oakland Athletics.
The Tropicana opened on April 4, 1957. At that time, was the most expensive and lavish casino on the Las Vegas Strip and contemporary reports indicate that over 12,500 people – including more than just a few members of the mob – were in attendance for its grand opening. It was developed by The resort was conceived by Ben Jaffe, part owner of the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach.
The hotel opened with 300 rooms in a low-rise structure that split into a Y and expanded into a property with some 1,467 rooms with two towers and a 44,570-square-foot (4,141-square-meter )casino. The 600-room Tiffany Tower and 800-room Island Tower were added in 1979 and 1986, respectively.
The Tropicana was known for its live entertainment and it was home to the topless showgirl revue known as “Folies Bergere.” Imported from Paris, “Folies Bergere” made its debut on Christmas Eve in 1959. closed in 2009 after a run of just under 50 years, making it the longest-running show in Las Vegas history. The revue featured what is now one of Si City’s most recognizable icons, the feathered showgirl.
Once open, the Tropicana was frequented by a host of celebrities that included Elizabeth Taylor and members of the Rat Pack including Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr., the latter who took an 8% ownership stake in the property. Multiple films including parts of “The Godfather” and the James Bond franchise were shot at the resort. Magicians Siegfried Fischbacher and Roy Horn of “Siegfried and Roy” fame got their start in the hotel.
Also shot there was mobster Frank Costello, who was involved behind the scenes in the hotel’s construction. Costello survived being shot in the head weeks after the grand opening but police found a piece of paper with the Tropicana’s exact earnings figure in his coat pocket. The note also mentioned “money to be skimmed” for the mobster’s associates, according to the website of the Mob Museum of Las Vegas.
(Photo: Accura Media Group)
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