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Turning 50, Las Vegas's Tropicana Gets Juiced Up
Audiences "used to get all dressed up in evening gowns and mink stoles," says former showgirl Donna Hart. "Now people come in Levi's and shorts."
(Photos By Jae C. Hong -- Associated Press)
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The Tropicana opened a golf course next door in 1961, and a lounge room in 1965 that hosted the likes of Count Basie and Guy Lombardo. From 1973 to 1975, such big names as Sammy Davis Jr., Ann-Margret and Jack Benny drew crowds.
"It was a fun time," said Donna Hart, who became an acrobat in "Folies Bergere" in 1974. "In the old times, they used to get all dressed up in evening gowns and mink stoles, and people really made it an event to go to the Folies. Now people come in Levi's and shorts."
To clear the Tropicana of its mob connections, gambling regulators forced the casino to be sold to Ramada Corp. in 1979. Ten years later Ramada spun off its casino operations as Aztar, a publicly traded company.
The Tropicana upgraded with new hotel towers, a theater and a pool known for its swim-up blackjack table. But by the 1990s the main attraction of the aging property was its proximity to the Excalibur, New York-New York and MGM Grand.
As a sign of its fading competitiveness, Aztar stopped booking rooms past mid-April of last year as it prepared to announce it was going to demolish the Tropicana and start over, spokeswoman Lisa Keim said.
Las Vegas-based Pinnacle Entertainment Inc. tried to buy the company for $1.45 billion, but lost out in a bidding war to Columbia.
Now Columbia is planning to revamp the property, destroy the low-rise motel wings and build new towers that will expand the room count from 1,880 to more than 10,000 by 2010. "One-armed bandit" slot machines are being replaced with the latest coinless models, and the company is expanding convention and casino space.
But at least one thing will remain: the Folies, and probably the Tiffany Theatre, where the showgirls perform, FitzPatrick said. "It's a great link to the past."
Spinosa said he plans to retire before the changes happen. But he said he's grateful for a career that outlasted many of the crooks who roamed the casino -- like Johnny Roselli, whose chopped up remains were found in a 55-gallon drum off the Florida coast in 1976.
"That's why I say, when I thank the people that hired me, 'God bless their body parts, wherever they are.' "
