LAS VEGAS– Crystal chandeliers that once glittered above a chic lounge, bright blue costume feathers that enveloped wiggling showgirls, and faux palm trees that evoked a desert oasis are just some of the artifacts making their way from Las Vegas’ newest casino graveyards into Sin City’s history .
The kitsch comes from the Tropicana, that was demolished in a spectacular implosion October 9 to make room for a new baseball stadium; and from The Miragethe Strip’s first mega-resort, which handed out its last cards in July and will reopen as a new casino nearly 40 years after it originally debuted.
As the neon lights dimmed and the last chips were cashed in, a different kind of spectacle unfolded behind the casino doors. Millions of objects large and small were carefully sorted and sold, donated and thrown away.
“You take this hotel-casino and you turn it upside down, shake everything out until it’s empty,” said Frank Long, whose family business, International Content Liquidations, led the effort to unload the Tropicana’s merchandise before it imploded .
Long, 70, a third-generation auctioneer, likes to say he’s in the business of “going, going, going.” He jokes that his Ohio home is “turned into an early hotel,” after helping clean out dozens of homes and casinos across the country. In Las Vegas, including the Dunes, Aladdin and Landmark.
“Vegas buyers are special,” Long said. “This is their community and they want a piece of it.”
On a warm day in June, two months after Tropicana closed its doors, Long welcomed buyers to the casino floor.
The buzzing slot machines were long gone and transferred to other casinos. In its place was a strange collection of things: desks and chairs, rattan bedside tables, table lamps, pillows and couches. Piled high in what was once the high-limit playroom were mattresses and box springs. Small crystal chandeliers worth $1,000 hung from old luggage carts.
“Fill your entire truck for $100,” Long said to shoppers, grinning.
Shoppers of all ages filled wagons and luggage carts with armchairs for $25, mirrors for $6, floor lamps for $28. Behind red velvet ropes where guests used to check in, customers waiting to pay lined up in front of 43-inch flat-screen televisions. One man hugged a mattress and box spring and tried to keep them from falling over.
Inside Tropicana’s enormous conference room, stacks of large vintage spotlights labeled “FOLIES” sat in waist-high bins marked for donation. They were off-limits to buyers and destined for the Las Vegas Showgirl Museum.
The Tropicana was home to the city’s longest running show, ‘Folies Bergere’, a topless revue imported from Paris. Thanks to its nearly 50-year history, the feathered showgirl became one of Las Vegas’ most recognizable icons.
One of Long’s favorite parts of the job is searching forgotten corners of casinos.
At the Tropicana, his team rescued black-and-white photos of stars drinking, dining and headlining there. His favorite was a candid photo of Elvis Presley, found in an unused office.
In its heyday, the casino played host to A-list stars including Elizabeth Taylor and Debbie Reynolds, Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr.
Long said his people also enjoy the work. The boredom of collecting several thousand pillows from the Tropicana’s two hotel towers turned into “the world’s largest pillow fight.”
When Sarah Quigley heard the Tropicana was closing, she knew she had to act quickly if she wanted some of the casino’s historical records for the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Special Collections and Archives.
Quigley, director of special collections, wasn’t the first to call.
But after meeting with Tropicana’s management team, UNLV’s Special Collections acquired five boxes of records between 1956 and 2024, including vintage 1970s advertisements for the Tropicana showroom, old restaurant menus, architectural blueprints and original film reels of the dancing “Folies “-showgirls who were rehearsing. mid-seventies.
The Neon Museum, which rescues iconic Las Vegas signs, received the red one from Tropicana and the original arch from The Mirage that welcomed guests for 35 years. With a huge effort, the 9-meter-high sign was placed on a flatbed truck in August. Part of the Strip closed so that the piece could be slowly moved to its new home in the museum.
The Mirage opened in 1989 with a Polynesian theme and sparked a construction boom on the Strip that stretched into the 1990s. The Volcano Fountain was one of the first sidewalk attractions and tourists flocked to the casino to see Cirque du Soleil perform The Beatles or Siegfried and Roy tame white tigers.
In a few years, the Strip’s skyline will look different. The Mirage will become the Hard Rock Las Vegas in 2027, with a hotel tower in the shape of a guitar. The following year, the new baseball stadium is expected to open on the former site of the Tropicana.
While the Tropicana’s last building collapsed in 22 seconds, parts of the Las Vegas landmark have found new life in nearby museums, curated collections and homes.
“There is history here,” said Aaron Berger, executive director of the Neon Museum. “You just have to look past the glitter to find it.”
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Associated Press video journalist Ty O’Neil in Las Vegas contributed to this report.