3/29/2024
By the time you watch this video, everything shown here is likely gone.
Opened on 4/4/1957, Tropicana Las Vegas will be closed on 4/2/2024, just 2 days shy of its 67th birthday, and will be demolished in the following months to make way for the new A's Stadium. When it first opened, the Tropicana was the most expensive resort ever built in Vegas, and was frequented by celebrities such as Elizabeth Taylor and Frank Sinatra. The 4,250 sq-ft stained-glass ceiling wowed the guests, and won the Tropicana the nickname "the Tiffany of the Strip." And the tropical gardens with exotic birds were unthinkable in the middle of a dry desert.
At the personal level, I've been taking advantage of the free parking behind Tropicana for my regular walks along the Strip for a few years now. Nowhere can one find better urban trails than in Vegas - from Egypt to Venice, from Paris to New York, all within a few city blocks. I get my workout done while getting pampered like a tourist, despite that I only live a few miles away.
I first visited the Tropicana in the early 2000's, when the casino debuted the free "Air Play" show, featuring singers, dancers, and acrobats performing under the stained-glass ceiling in the main gambling hall (see photos in the end of video). Looking back, that was Tropicana's final attempt to bring in guests after losing its luster competing with newer fancier resorts on the Strip. It has stopped trying for more than a decade now.
People come and people go. Buildings rise and buildings fall. For a city that's never meant to be, change is the only constant. Vegas is all facade, but memories are still real. Now I need to find another free parking for my Strip walks.
My "Las Vegas Hikes and Stuff" playlist: • Las Vegas hikes and st...