After almost 70 years, the Tropicana is closing its doors.

We examine the property's rich past and potential future this week on Nevada Week.

♪♪♪ Support for Nevada Week is provided by Senator William H. Hernstadt.

Welcome to Nevada Week.

I'm Amber Renee Dixon.

Once known as the "Tiffany of the Strip," the Tropicana's $15 million price tag made it the most expensive resort developed in Las Vegas back when it opened in 1957.

Now one of the oldest casinos on the Las Vegas Strip, the Rat Pack era property will close for good on Tuesday April 2.

And set to replace it is a Major League Baseball stadium.

Here to reflect on the Trop's place in Las Vegas history as well as on the site's future use are Bob Stoldal, Chair of the City of Las Vegas Historic Preservation Commission; Karan Feder, former Guest Curator of Costume and Textiles at the Nevada State Museum and Author of The Folies Bergere in Las Vegas; Howard Stutz, Gaming and Tourism Reporter for The Nevada Independent; and Mike Weatherford, Writer and veteran Entertainment Reporter.

What a panel we have here today and so much I want to cover.

Bob, I'm going to start with you.

Set the scene for us.

When the Tropicana opened in 1957, what was the Las Vegas Hotel and Casino scene like?

(Bob Stoldal) Well, Las Vegas at that moment in the 1950s was an exciting time in the town.

It was post-World War II when we-- in 1950, there were four major resorts on the Strip.

Of course, the Last Frontier, the original and-- or excuse me, the El Rancho Vegas and the Last Frontier, Flamingo and the Thunderbird.

In the next decade, more hotel casinos opened than any other period in our history.

We had seven of them open, from the Sahara hotel all the way to the Stardust and the Tropicana at the very end.

It was a very exciting time, except most of them within a couple of years either went bankrupt or had to go through a reorganization, largely because the mob doesn't know how to run casinos.

They know how to-- they know how to take money from their skimming pool, so to speak.

But there was some real challenges.

The Riviera went bankrupt.

The Dunes went bankrupt.

The Royal Nevada, which became part of the Stardust, it never reopened.

So it was a challenging time but an exciting time.

And the foundation for the Las Vegas Strip really was set during the '50s.

-We're going to talk about the mob influence in the Tropicana.

But Mike, you pointed out ahead of this interview that the Tropicana was ahead of its time.

How so?

(Mike Weatherford) A little bit, because, you know, everything now is, because there's gaming all over the country, everything now is a resort that happens to have a casino.

It's not a casino with motel rooms like a lot of the Vegas places were at the time.

And the Trop opened up with a big footprint, and it emphasized the elegance and the poshness of the place.

Later it even had a golf course across the street where the MGM is now.

-Okay.

So within a month of opening, it is discovered that there are mob connections to the Tropicana.

Bob, will you tell that story.

-Well, the connection occurred because the prime minister-- well, it was revealed because the prime minister of organized crime, so to speak, as he was known, Frank Costello, his friends within the organized crime ministry wanted to take him out.

And so they shot him.

He got shot in the head.

Turned out to be what you could say would be a flesh wound because it didn't really, didn't kill him.

But as the police were investigating the shooting, they uncovered in his pocket this note that had the exact dollar figure to the penny of how much money came into the casino, how many IOUs were out there, and then how the money was distributed to each.

And there was the names listed to each one of those.

It was to the penny, and-- -There you go.

That's the connection.

-That's the connection, and it didn't go away.

The mob did not go away from the Tropicana hotel.

-We're gonna go back to Joe Agosto with you coming up, but first I want to go over to you, Karan.

And explain a little bit about as a result of that initial Frank Costello connection, ownership changes hand.

A man named J.K. Houssels, Sr., becomes principal owner.

His son, Jr., is the man who is responsible for bringing the show The Folies Bergere to Las Vegas into the Tropicana.

UNLV Historian, Professor of History, Michael Green said, quote, One of his legacies is knowing how to find a niche.

He had the wisdom to be different.

How did this show fill a niche?

(Karan Feder) Well, I think probably the idea for The Folies Bergere in Vegas came from the success that the Lido, that the Stardust was having with the Lido de Paris.

That was, that show came over directly from Paris just like The Folies Bergere did, and it was doing very well.

It came in '57.

So when the Trop opened in '57, it tried the headliner thing for a few years.

And then they settled on, they managed to obtain the license from The Folies Bergere to do an American version of The Folies Bergere here in Vegas, the only one there was at that point in time.

So there was a specific license that came with the show.

And at that point in time what was so fascinating is that all of the artistry of the show, the costume design, the set design, all the creatives, the choreographer, all those folks were European.

They were the same folks that were working on the Parisian show that were just-- and so the whole thing was just imported here to Vegas.

And so when you look at advertisements from the era, you'll see, you know, the sort of descriptors, "A Continental Experience."

Right?

And it sort of plays into this, you know, the highest echelon of experience on the Strip at that moment in time could be found at The Folies Bergere and the Tropicana.

So it was really a certain chi-chi place to land and spend your money at that point in time.

-It would go on to be the longest-running show on the Strip.

And as you've been quoted as saying, it changed the population of Las Vegas a bit.

How so?

-Yeah, I really think so.

Especially when the show opens in '59, a lot of cast and crew are Europeans.

They're coming from all over the world to take the jobs here.

And those folks stayed here and became, you know, for generations came here.

It's funny.

As you interview people who worked within that show for that 50-year span of time, there are two and three generations of people that continued, right, that stayed in Vegas and continued with that show.

And from my perspective, those folks were sort of the beginning of sort of the identity of Vegas, that bohemian culture that we do so well here, that we embrace this sort of change that happens here constantly.

I think that show folks have a lot to do with that.

-Sure.

Our Nevada Ballet sprang from the Trop, from The Folies, with Vassili Sulich and that kind of group.

Those trained European dancers went on to form what's now the Nevada Ballet.

-Yep.

-I don't want to leave you out of this, Howard.

[laughter] [inaudible] -No, no.

We will talk more about the significance of that show.

But I mentioned the change in ownership early on.

There have been a lot of owners of the Tropicana, especially in recent years.

(Howard Stutz) Going back to the late 1980s, early '90s, because it had been owned by the Ramada, the hotel chain.

Ramada spun off their gaming division into a company called Aztar.

And that included two other Tropicanas, one in Laughlin, which at the time was known as Ramada Express, became Tropicana Laughlin, and the Tropicana Atlantic City.

But eventually Aztar sold out to a company called Columbia Sussex, which I will say was probably one of the worst gaming companies to ever operate on the Strip.

They ended up going bankrupt.

Carl Icahn bought up pieces of the Tropicana.

They got sold off.

Today, Tropicana Laughlin and Tropicana Atlantic City are owned by Caesars.

But what happened was eventually a company ran by-- that involved Alex Yemenidjian, the former MGM executive, right hand to Kirk Kerkorian, and a Canadian group came in, cleaned up the Tropicana, spent about $200 million back in the late early 2000s, made it really nice again, and started moving forward.

And then PENN Entertainment bought the Trop, which everybody thought, okay, finally this big East Coast, you know, regional gaming company was gonna come in, finally get a beachhead in Las Vegas with the Tropicana.

But then the pandemic hit.

PENN got hit financially.

They sold it to Gaming and Leisure Properties, which is now the owner.

And here we are today waiting, you know-- eventually Bally's came in as the operator.

And here we are today waiting for the doors to close on Tuesday and a baseball stadium to replace the Tropicana at some point.

-The pending closure, how much of it do you think is due to the numerous owners the Tropicana has had?

-It's a bit-- when you go through that many changes, you lose customers.

Customers fade off.

They go different places.

Bally's was not-- it wasn't their focus.

Bally's really is focused right now on building this casino in Chicago, and they got financial problems too.

So that becomes another aspect of it.

But I think if PENN had stayed on as owner, maybe that might have changed.

They have a big database of customers from all over the country.

Bally's database is still, you know, kind of out there.

So it was a challenge for it.

And I went into it in January and talked to some customers.

There was a gentleman who was a Bally's customer in Rhode Island but got a deal to come out here.

He paid for airfare, and he had three nights free, all the free, a bunch of gaming comps, dinner comps.

And he came out and he was having fun, and he said he actually liked the Tropicana better than a couple other properties on the Strip.

So... -Indicative of the budget-friendly property that-- -Yeah.

That's really what it's become.

-You take what Howard just said, in the last 10 or 15 years, the owners have changed.

You can flop that back to the very beginning from '57 on, it went through a whole series of owners and changes and at one point somebody had to come in with bags of cash to rescue the place.

It was-- its foundation, sadly, was always rocky.

And that's because of the mob foundation that they put in.

-Will you pick up with Joe Agosto then.

Who was he, and how did he-- -Well, Joe Agosto was the, you can call him the strawman for the Kansas City mob.

I use that phrase because that's what the FBI called their operation, Operation Strawman.

And Joe Agosto oversaw-- well, that's not really actually true, but that was his title, oversaw The Folies Bergere.

But his knowledge of dancing was limited to counting money in the count room.

One for you, two for me kind of a dance.

But he was-- the FBI got onto his case, and he said, Well, I'll tell you what?

I'm gonna tell you all the secrets of organized crime there, and he became a witness.

And then he had a heart attack and died.

-Karan, will you expand on his in The Folies Bergere?

-He was credited as Executive Producer of The Folies Bergere.

And so I agree with you to think, well, what exactly did he do?

But there is-- I talked to a showgirl who actually had some correspondence from Joe Agosto, and she saved this letter over all the years.

You can see it now in The Mob Museum.

And it's a letter that says, Dear Marianne, I've been watching you on stage, and you're so good.

And I see-- and she was in a swing position, which means she fills in for other performers' roles when they're out sick or something.

And so Joe writes this letter saying, I've been watching you.

You're doing such a good job in your swing role.

And I just want to tell you that if anything else comes up at the property, you're going to be the first person I think of.

So he pretended that he was actually really quite involved on a daily basis.

But he ends up dating one of the showgirls, and-- -Shocker!

-Of course, the most gorgeous, you know, one of the lead showgirls, ends up dating.

And Joe also installs Charles Agosto as some sort of a managerial role within the, within the show.

So there is quite a large footprint there.

And the funny thing that I have read and that the showboys tell me they remember is that Joe used to always use the telephone, the pay telephone outside the showboys' dressing room downstairs to make his calls.

And as I understand it, that's how the FBI, that's the phone that they tapped.

-Recorded.

-That's how he was caught.

-If you've met Joe, and I had the opportunity to interview him two or three times.

-Really?

-He was kind of a nice guy.

He had this deep Italian accent and was very talkative and, in a sense, promoting the show and glorified his role there.

But you would kind of like the guy.

You know, he was just an interesting character.

-And this was kind of common because Rosenthal, for example, what was his title?

-Rosenthal, I had a chance to interview Rosenthal and shook his hand, and my hand for the next week was still cold.

He was not the same character as Joe Agosto.

-But he was, title-wise, publicity-- -Well, that was because Joe didn't have, couldn't get a gaming license.

And so you give him the title.

The same thing with Frank Rosenthal.

He was the entertainment director at the Stardust hotel, but he ran the casino.

-Okay.

-He had his TV show.

That might be what you were thinking of, the local show we all wish there were tapes of.

[laughter] -I think they've been uncovered.

-Ah.

-Mike, I want you to add to The Folies Bergere because off camera, you said, I think that was the only successful show to come out of the Tropicana.

-It sure was.

And you think, 49 years from Eisenhower to Obama.

You just think about that it outlived kind of its inspiration or its model because, when it started, people were quite used to watching variety TV and Ed Sullivan and people juggling plates and things.

The last time The Folies really got updated was 1983.

And then after that, they would only get money to do like this segment, let's change part of it, little bit of it.

But they were still doing that can-can up until 2009.

That's pretty incredible when you think about it that that many generations of people, that what kind of started this Parisian import became this distinctly Vegas thing.

-And Karan, why did it close?

-Well, I think that it just wasn't making money anymore.

It wasn't a terribly expensive show.

I mean, they owned everything at that point.

It wasn't, you know-- they were paying cast and crew, but I don't think it was bringing in the bodies.

I think the property felt that they could come up with something to bring in more bodies on a consistent basis is my guess.

So I'm not sure.

I'm not sure exactly, but the town sure loved that show.

There was such nostalgia for it.

Even in 2009, I was like, Oh, my God, we're gonna lose that?

So I think it was sad for everyone.

But it was long in the tooth at that point.

I don't think they had sunk enough money into bringing it up to date on a regular basis.

In the beginning, you used to get a new show shipped over from Paris every other year so there was a good excuse to come back.

You know if you're in Toledo, I mean I've got to go see the new Folies Bergere.

So that stopped happening at '75, that point when it becomes an American show.

The distance between each new edition gets bigger and longer, and it's less fresh.

And I think by 2009, it had just been over, it was just done.

-Other notable events in the entertainment history of the Tropicana would be the famous Elvis movie Viva Las Vegas being filmed there.

Siegfried & Roy and Lance Burton both got their starts there.

What else though, Mike, was the Tropicana known for entertainment-wise?

-Outside of the main showroom in the early days, there was the Blue Room jazz club and big name jazz people-- you know, the musicians union hall was right next door, and that may have had some symmetry there.

But there's like live albums by Stan Kenton and other jazz people that were recorded there.

And then later if you jump into the late '80s, even though it didn't last a long time, the comedy club started with Rodney Dangerfield, Rodney's Place, and some famous-- and then that became for many years, what was it called?

The laugh-- No.

Comedy Stop at the Trop.

And locals would go there because I think on Tuesday and Wednesday, they had a locals' rate.

And people like Ray Romano were there before they were famous.

And it was a real good locals interface for the Strip because of the price.

And then that room is still open as the-- or was still open as the Laugh Factory.

So there's a long streak for that comedy club since the late '80s.

-And so, Howard, the newest show set to take place, so to speak, at the Tropicana would be the Las Vegas Athletics.

Major League Baseball has approved the relocation of the Oakland team.

The team and the Stadium Authority have come up with the community benefits agreement, as you recently reported.

But there are several other hurdles ahead.

And of them, what stands out to you?

-Well, the financing.

We know we saw the renderings just recently, $1.5 billion, 33,000-seat stadium, enclosed roof, not a retractable roof.

But it's the financing.

We know that 380 million is coming from the state in public money.

John Fisher, the owner, said recently to the San Francisco Chronicle-- he's changed his story several times--he now says 500 million will come from his family, 500 million will come from equity partners, and 200 million in debt.

Well, we still don't know who the equity partners are.

I mean, it's very different from-- you and I have talked about this over time, Amber.

The Raiders, we knew upfront where they were financing what became Allegiant Stadium, where the money was coming from?

We don't know where this is coming from yet.

-The Governor was recently interviewed by John Ralston, was asked about this.

And the Governor says, Well, there's a 95% chance that they're coming.

And 5% is pretty big, and so the Governor quickly said, Well, let me rephrase that.

Because he didn't want to leave what all of us still have, an impression that it's not a done deal, he moved that up to 98%.

But his first reaction was, There's-- you know, there's not quite a done deal.

-It's got to be-- the Trop is closing.

It's going to be demolished by end of year.

And that's, in a sense, for Gaming and Leisure Properties and Bally's probably a good thing because for them, Bally's, they're going to probably readjust the rent that they pay on the site, which is about 10.5 million a year.

It's not a moneymaker for Bally's.

So-- and Gaming and Leisure will see a way to figure this out.

This stadium is not going to the back corner.

It's going more into the center of the site.

The A's admitted that.

It looks like the Sydney Opera House.

-Yeah.

-But let's face it.

We have a fake Eiffel Tower, we have a fake Statue of Liberty, why not a fake Sydney Opera House?

But how is it going to work for a baseball stadium?

How is this design going to work?

It's enclosed.

This glass wall in the outfield.

-How much odds will you give me that that's the way-- -Oh, of course it's going to look different.

It's going to change from the first rendering they brought up in the legislature back in May of last year.

It completely changed where they're going to be a retractable roof, and, yeah, it's going to change.

To me, the renderings-- -Why the retractable roof aspect?

People were upset when they learned there would be none.

-Yeah.

I mean, but go back to renderings.

Renderings are going to change all the time.

So that's-- very rarely does the final version look like some of the early renderings.

But it's really, right now, is this-- They have the community benefits agreement, but there's all the lease agreement, there's the construction deal.

They have to get this started by April of next year if they're going to open the season in April 2028 at this ballpark.

Then of course, look.

There's the outside factors.

We don't know where the A's are gonna play next season.

We're taping this on Thursday.

It's Opening Day for Major League Baseball.

The A's are opening tonight in Oakland and was supposed to be the last year in Oakland.

They're negotiating maybe to play there three more years.

They're looking at Sacramento.

We don't know where the A's are going to be.

So there's a lot of things, a lot of balls in the air, so to speak, with the ballpark.

-And Karan, I've been hearing you say, yeah, yeah.

Is there something you want to add?

-I'm sort of excited about this prospect and concept.

I think-- -Really?

-I am excited because, well, for one thing, I never thought when we first got the Raiders or the Knights, I thought, well, this is an experiment for this town, right?

We'll see.

There's so much to do in this town.

And I was surprised that the town embraced our sports teams like they have.

So I see no reason why the A's shouldn't be successful here.

Of course, it's sad to lose the Trop, but I do think that-- I do think-- even though you hear people not only just had some sort of affiliation with the Tropicana are, you know, nostalgic and a little sad about it, I do think it's in the best interest of this city.

It's what we do best, I think.

We raise to bring up something new and more relevant, and that probably is the case with the Tropicana.

-I'm sad, though.

Why do we have to get the worst team in baseball?

-There's that argument.

Bob's right.

There's the argument it should have been an expansion team like the Golden Knights.

The Raiders were an established franchise.

Football is very different.

NFL football, very different than Major League Baseball.

8 or 9 home games a year, maybe a playoff game.

The Raiders, maybe a playoff game here and there.

It's very different.

The fans travel.

All the Oakland fans-- I've been to Oakland now a few times because of the A's.

The Raiders fans travel.

They will come.

They will come here.

The A's fans said, I'm not coming.

I'm done.

We're not coming for it.

-Well, Mike, add onto that, but also the nostalgia.

You had mentioned do you think architectural buffs are going to be sad about the demolition of the Tropicana.

-Just to follow up, that's what disappoints me about the location is that there's so many more baseball games in a season than there are football games.

And I guess it's great if you're already on the Strip and you don't have to park.

I guess it's already great.

They'll be like, Oh, there's baseball game today.

Let's go.

But I think that actually disappoints locals who would otherwise-- baseball is so much more affordable, so many more chances to go to a game.

So now we got to go down and figure out where to park and how we're going to pay.

-You think about the Tropicana Boulevard redevelopment right now.

Imagine what the redevelopment is going to take when they build it out for the stadium.

Now, the beneficiary of all this is MGM Resorts.

They own all the properties surrounding the Tropicana site.

People are used to parking at MGM properties to go to Allegiant Stadium.

They're gonna park at the MGM properties.

Locals will.

It's a question of how do the locals get in and out?

There were other sites, notably the Wild Wild West site-- -The Rio.

-The Rio site, and the festival grounds next to Circus Circus that Phil Ruffin owns.

Those three sites, if I was to rank all four of them, the Tropicana would have been number four for better sites for the stadium.

-Watch me get back to your question.

I would park at the Tropicana to go to concerts at the MGM Grand.

And when I would park at the Tropicana, I would look at those original room wings, one of the two original three-story room wings and go, I think this is about it on the Strip for the original construction.

I think everything else is gone.

So that was kind of the last.

Downtown is different, of course.

But on the Strip, I think those were the last original kind of hotel/motel wings of construction.

-And that is the last point of this discussion we're able to get to.

We have run out of time.

But what a fruitful panel.

Thank you so much, all, for your time.

And thank you for watching.

For any of the resources discussed, go to our website, vegaspbs.org/nevadaweek.

And I'll see you next week on Nevada Week.