Current:Home > Contact-usLas Vegas will blow a kiss goodbye — literally — to the Tropicana with a flashy casino implosion-Angel Dreamer Wealth Society D1 Reviews & Insights
Las Vegas will blow a kiss goodbye — literally — to the Tropicana with a flashy casino implosion
View Date:2024-12-23 19:21:13
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Sin City will quite literally blow a kiss goodbye to the Tropicana before first light Wednesday in an elaborate implosion that will reduce to rubble the last true mob building on the Las Vegas Strip.
The Tropicana’s hotel towers are expected to tumble in 22 seconds at 2:30 a.m. Wednesday. The celebration will include a fireworks display and drone show.
It will be the first implosion in nearly a decade for a city that loves fresh starts and that has made casino implosions as much a part of its identity as gambling itself.
“What Las Vegas has done, in classic Las Vegas style, they’ve turned many of these implosions into spectacles,” said Geoff Schumacher, historian and vice president of exhibits and programs at the Mob Museum.
Former casino mogul Steve Wynn changed the way Las Vegas blows up casinos in 1993 with the implosion of the Dunes to make room for the Bellagio. Wynn thought not only to televise the event but created a fantastical story for the implosion that made it look like pirate ships at his other casino across the street were firing at the Dunes.
From then on, Schumacher said, there was a sense in Las Vegas that destruction at that magnitude was worth witnessing.
The city hasn’t blown up a casino since 2016, when the final tower of the Riviera was leveled for a convention center expansion.
This time, the implosion will clear land for a new baseball stadium for the relocating Oakland Athletics, which will be built on the land beneath the Tropicana as part of the city’s latest rebrand into a sports hub.
That will leave only the Flamingo from the city’s mob era on the Strip. But, Shumacher said, the Flamingo’s original structures are long gone. The casino was completely rebuilt in the 1990s.
The Tropicana, the third-oldest casino on the Strip, closed in April after welcoming guests for 67 years.
Once known as the “Tiffany of the Strip” for its opulence, it was a frequent haunt of the legendary Rat Pack, while its past under the mob has long cemented its place in Las Vegas lore.
It opened in 1957 with three stories and 300 hotel rooms split into two wings.
As Las Vegas rapidly evolved in the following decades, including a building boom of Strip megaresorts in the 1990s, the Tropicana also underwent major changes. Two hotel towers were added in later years. In 1979, the casino’s beloved $1 million green-and-amber stained glass ceiling was installed above the casino floor.
The Tropicana’s original low-rise hotel wings survived its many renovations, however, making it the last true mob structure on the Strip.
Behind the scenes of the casino’s grand opening, the Tropicana had ties to organized crime, largely through reputed mobster Frank Costello.
Costello was shot in the head in New York weeks after the Tropicana’s debut. He survived, but the investigation led police to a piece of paper in his coat pocket with the Tropicana’s exact earnings figure, revealing the mob’s stake in the casino.
By the 1970s, federal authorities investigating mobsters in Kansas City charged more than a dozen operatives with conspiring to skim $2 million in gambling revenue from Las Vegas casinos, including the Tropicana. Charges connected to the Tropicana alone resulted in five convictions.
Its implosion on Wednesday will be streamed live and televised by local news stations.
There will be no public viewing areas for the event, but fans of the Tropicana did have a chance in April to bid farewell to the vintage Vegas relic.
“Old Vegas, it’s going,” Joe Zappulla, a teary-eyed New Jersey resident, said at the time as he exited the casino, shortly before the locks went on the doors.
veryGood! (1851)
Related
- Diamond Sports Group will offer single-game pricing to stream NBA and NHL games starting next month
- Beyoncé's Adidas x Ivy Park Drops a Disco-Inspired Swim Collection To Kick off the Summer
- Inside Clean Energy: Biden’s Oil Industry Comments Were Not a Political Misstep
- Transcript: Kara Swisher, Pivot co-host, on Face the Nation, July 16, 2023
- Bull doge! Dogecoin soars as Trump announces a government efficiency group nicknamed DOGE
- Chris Martin Serenading Dakota Johnson During His Coldplay Concert Will Change Your Universe
- How the cats of Dixfield, Maine came into a fortune — and almost lost it
- Pollinator-Friendly Solar Could be a Win-Win for Climate and Landowners, but Greenwashing is a Worry
- Ex-Duke star Kyle Singler draws concern from basketball world over cryptic Instagram post
- Titanic Director James Cameron Breaks Silence on Submersible Catastrophe
Ranking
- How many dog breeds are there? A guide to groups recognized in the US
- Pennsylvania inmate captured over a week after making his escape
- An Explosion in Texas Shows the Hidden Dangers of Tanks Holding Heavy Fuels
- As Big Energy Gains, Can Europe’s Community Renewables Compete?
- Dramatic video shows Phoenix police rescue, pull man from car submerged in pool: Watch
- Cartoonists say a rebuke of 'Dilbert' creator Scott Adams is long overdue
- Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes on being a dad, his career and his legacy: Don't want to have any regrets
- Chinese Factories Want to Make Climate-Friendly Air Conditioners. A US Company Is Blocking Them
Recommendation
-
Will Trump’s hush money conviction stand? A judge will rule on the president-elect’s immunity claim
-
3 congressmen working high-stakes jobs at a high-stakes moment — while being treated for cancer
-
Tomato shortages hit British stores. Is Brexit to blame?
-
Ohio GOP Secretary of State Frank LaRose announces 2024 Senate campaign
-
The View's Sara Haines Walks Off After Whoopi Goldberg's NSFW Confession
-
Warming Trends: The BBC Introduces ‘Life at 50 Degrees,’ Helping African Farmers Resist Drought and Driftwood Provides Clues to Climate’s Past
-
Pennsylvania inmate captured over a week after making his escape
-
Kiss Dry, Chapped Lips Goodbye With This Hydrating Lip Mask That Serayah Swears By