LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — It marks a historic date in the history of the Las Vegas Strip. April 2 is the date the legendary Tropicana will close its doors to make way for a Major League Baseball stadium.
Just short of marking its 67th anniversary, the Tropicana is a hotel-casino with a storied past that includes ties to the mob, Hollywood legends, jazz greats and glamorous showgirls.
"When they opened they really were more luxurious than the other hotels," said gaming historian David Schwartz.
He says the Tropicana Las Vegas was once called the "Tiffany of the Strip."
Some of the earliest acts included singer Eddie Fisher, who was a regular with his first wife, legendary performer Debbie Reynolds.
Plus, there was a striptease revue starring actress Jayne Mansfield. But all that shine did come with a little tarnish.
"Frank Costello, who was notorious, was one of the big mobsters in New York was one of the big, early investors and was connected to the property," Schwartz said.
History professor Michael Green said casino operations at the Tropicana were corrupt from the start.
"Originally a casino guy named Dandy Phil Kastel, and if you're nickname is Dandy Phil, you probably have connections, and he did. He was tied to Frank Costello in New York. He was tied to the New Orleans crime family," Green said.
But J. Kell Houssels, owner of The Las Vegas Club, was hired to operate the Tropicana and turn things around.
"And it turned out the mob really didn't know what it was doing there and was going to go under, and Houssels came in, took it over, cleared them out, and ran the Tropicana followed by his son, Cal Jr. into the late '60s," Green said.
Houssels Jr. traveled to Paris to negotiate a deal that would bring what would become the most notable act yet, Folies Bergere.
The show was introduced by Lou Walters, father of legendary journalist Barbara Walters.
"Folies Bergere was there for just under 50 years, and they went with the production show because the Stardust had opened the Lido de Paris, and that was big," Green said. "The other thing is with a production show like that, you don't have one star you depend on."
Some future stars were featured in Folies Bergere, including the debut of magicians Siegfried & Roy and Lance Burton.
"Another act they had, there was a dance couple names Zoni and Claire. Claire was Nancy Claire, who became Nancy Houssels," Green said. "She was one of the key people in creating our ballet theater. So in a funny sort of way, besides the memories of the Tropicana, we have this great cultural institution, and she and her husband were also important in starting The Smith Center."
They also had an elegant showroom called The Blue Room, where some of the biggest names in jazz performed, like Benny Goodman, Louie Armstrong and Count Basie.
But in the 1970s, an FBI investigation uncovered more mob connections.
"The Tropicana was begun by the mob. Then it was cleaned out, but the mob came back after the Houssels sold it, and it was connected to the Kansas City mob led by Nick Civella and his brother Carlo Civella," Green said.
The FBI eventually uncovered a skimming operation at the resort involving Joe Agosto, the owner at the time of Folies Bergere, who was working to siphon money to Kansas City.
"And eventually, through wiretaps, they caught all this stuff, and it was part of a big operation that targeted the heads of the Chicago, Kansas City and Milwaukee crime families, and the head of the teamsters union."
Eventually, Green said the hotel chain Ramada Inn taking over the Tropicana in the '80s was considered a major step toward cleaning out organized crime and making casinos a clean industry.
"Do you think Las Vegas will miss it as a hotel?" I asked Green.
"I think people who've been around Las Vegas for a while will miss it," Green said.
"The unfortunate thing is we who do history and believe in historic preservation will miss it and we don't like to see it happen. So we have to understand, people don't come to Las Vegas for the experience of going to a hotel built in the 1950s. That's not why they're here," Green said.
"So what we have to hope is the signage goes to Neon, other things go to the Mob Museum or the State Museum or the County Museum, and they preserve the papers, and they record the memories, and there are a lot of memories of the Tropicana."
The Tropicana is survived by Caesars Palace, Circus Circus and The Flamingo as resorts on the Strip that predate the 1970s that have not been imploded or renamed.
While the physical building will come down in October of this year, what will survive is the storied and legendary past of Tropicana.
Eventually, pieces of the hotel will end up at the Neon Museum for photo ops and social media posts.
