If you live in Las Vegas, or are just a fan of this place, you know that last week the Tropicana Las Vegas closed its doors to make way for an Oakland Athletics baseball stadium and a (possible) new hotel/casino. The hope is that the new ballpark stadium will be ready by 2028. The project is expected to cost $1.5 billion dollars and will include a 33,000-seat domed stadium. Demolition of the two towers is to commence in October and the speculation is that at least some of the former Tropicana structures will be imploded.

I visited the Tropicana a day before it officially closed and my video is attached.

My own memories of the Tropicana go back to the 1960s. I worked in Chicago then and came on a business trip to Las Vegas. The owner of our company and his wife, my boss, stayed at the Tropicana which was, at the time, the classiest place in town, (I stayed elsewhere.) When the Tropicana was built in 1957 it was Las Vegas’s most expensive resort.

The Tropicana history is varied and includes mob ties and skimming, bankruptcies, multiple changes of ownership, the building of new hotel towers, renovations and many different entertainers appearing there. My own last visit to the Tropicana was to see the Rich Little show which, I must say, was a more enjoyable show than I expected.

Other information about the Tropicana: the Tropicana’s signature show, Les Folies Bergere, ran for almost 50 years and is the longest running entertainment show in Las Vegas history. (A number of the ladies who appeared in that show are about to appear in the musical FOLLIES.) And the street named Tropicana? That road used to be Bond Road, but in 1961 the name was changed at the request of the Tropicana.

Enjoy the video: