Las Vegas casino where James Bond stayed to be demolished to make way for MLB arena

LAS VEGAS (AP) — In the 1971 film “Diamonds Are Forever,” James Bond stays in a swanky suite at the Tropicana Las Vegas.

“I hear the Hotel Tropicana is very comfortable,” says Agent 007.

it was Tropicana's heydaya frequent haunt of the legendary Rat Pack, its mob-controlled past cemented its place in Las Vegas lore.

But the third-oldest casino on the Las Vegas Strip, which has welcomed guests for 67 years, closed for good on Tuesday. Employees gathered at the front entrance, cheering and crying, while tourists and locals watched the historic moment from behind the yellow gates. A box of tissues made its way through the crowd.

Then, just before 1 p.m., security began locking up the Tropicana. A thick chain was wrapped around the casino's golden door handle, making a clicking sound.

Demolition is scheduled for October to secure $1.5 billion in funding. major league baseball stadium — part of the city's latest rebranding as a sports entertainment hub.

Tropicana bartender Charlie Granado said it's a bittersweet ending for the restaurant he's called his second home for 38 years.

“It's time. It was a given,” Granado said. “It makes you sad. But on the other hand, it's also a happy ending.”

When Tropicana opened on a strip surrounded by vast desert, Clark County's population had just exceeded 100,000. It cost him $15 million to build a three-story building with 300 rooms that he divided into two wings.

Its manicured lawns and flashy showroom earned it the nickname “Tiffany of the Strip.” There was a towering tulip-shaped fountain near the entrance, and the entire wall was covered in mosaic tiles and mahogany panels.

black and white photography From those days, everyone from Elizabeth Taylor and Debbie Reynolds to Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr.. Mel Tormé And Eddie Fisher performed at the Tropicana.

Decades later, New Jersey resident Joe Zapra was one of the last hotel guests to check out of the Tropicana before the doors were locked. He spent his $600 on the room and fulfilled his Las Vegas fantasy of lying on his craps table on the casino floor.

“When can we do this in Las Vegas?” he said.

Zappula honeymooned in Las Vegas in 1961 and grew up hearing fascinating stories from his parents, who were frequent visitors, about encounters with the Rat Pack during the Tropicana's heyday. It's the version of Sin City that his parents loved.

“Old Vegas, it's over,” Zappler said, tears rolling down his cheeks. “So I’m just holding on to that little bit.”

In a city known for reinvention, the Tropicana itself has undergone significant changes as Las Vegas has grown. In later years he added two hotel towers. In 1979, the casino's now beloved $1 million green and amber stained glass ceiling was installed above the casino floor.

Barbara Boggess was 26 years old when she started working at the Tropicana as a linen room attendant in the late 1970s.

Boggess, now 72, has seen the Tropicana over and over again. Rebranded as “Las Vegas Island” in the 1980s, the pool featured a swim-up blackjack table, and a South Beach-themed renovation was completed in 2011.

Today, only the low-rise hotel room wing remains of the original Tropicana structure. Still, the casino still evokes nostalgia for old Las Vegas.

“When you first walk in, you're going to see stained glass and low ceilings,” said JT Seumara, a Las Vegas resident who was staying at the casino in March. “It feels like you've gone back in time for just a moment.”

During their visit, Seumara and her husband wandered around the vast grounds, turning down hallways and snapping photos of the purple and orange carpets, wallpaper and ceilings. They tried their luck at blackjack and roulette and struck up a conversation with a cocktail server who has worked there for 25 years. They saved some red $5 poker chips to remember the casinos of the mob days.

Behind the scenes of the casino's opening decades ago, Tropicana had ties to organized crime, primarily through notorious gangster Frank Costello.

Costello was shot in the head in New York a few weeks after his Tropicana debut. According to the Mob Museum, he survived, but upon investigation, police found a slip of paper in his coat pocket stating the exact amount of Tropicana's earnings and mentioning “money being skimmed” to Costello's associates. did.

By the 1970s, federal authorities investigating the Kansas City gang had charged more than a dozen operatives with conspiring to siphon $2 million in gambling revenue from Las Vegas casinos, including the Tropicana. He had five convictions for Tropicana-related charges alone.

But the Tropicana had many years of mob-free success. It was home to the city's longest-running show, the Folies Bergere. Imported from Paris, his topless revues have lasted nearly 50 years and helped make the feathered showgirl one of the most recognizable Las Vegas icons.

Today, the casino, once surrounded by vast desert, intersects with its namesake boulevard at the southern end of the Strip, and has been dwarfed by the towering mega-resorts that are now a Las Vegas signature. Ta. Nearby is the home of the NFL's Las Vegas Raiders, who left Oakland, California in 2020, and the NHL's Vegas Golden Knights, the city's first major league professional team.

The stadium, planned for the basement of the Tropicana, is scheduled to open in 2028.

“There's a lot of controversy about whether it should continue or be abolished,” Seumara said. “But what I love about Las Vegas is that it's always reinventing itself.”