Las Vegas says goodbye to the Tropicana with a flashy casino implosion

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Sin City blew a kiss goodbye to the Tropicana before first light Wednesday in an elaborate implosion that reduced to rubble the last true mob building on the Las Vegas Strip.

The Tropicana's hotel towers tumbled in a celebration that included a fireworks display. It was 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 Strip casino since 2016, when the final tower of the Riviera was leveled for a convention center expansion.

This time, the implosion cleared land for a $1.5 billion baseball stadium for the relocating Oakland Athletics, 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, Schumacher 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 the 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.

There were 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.

FILE - A tattered fabric hangs from a cabana at the shuttered pool area at the Tropicana hotel-casino Friday, March 29, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)

FILE - Tropicana general manager Airk Knowles, right, embraces an employee at the Tropicana hotel-casino after the property closed, Tuesday, April 2, 2024, slated for demolition in October to make room for a $1.5 billion baseball stadium, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)

FILE - Cars drive by the Tropicana hotel-casino along the Las Vegas Strip, Thursday, March 28, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)

Fireworks are launched before the Tropicana Las Vegas towers are imploded Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/David Becker)

The Tropicana Las Vegas hotel tower is imploded Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/David Becker)

The Tropicana Las Vegas hotel tower is imploded Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/David Becker)

Tropicana Las Vegas hotel towers are imploded Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/David Becker)

The Tropicana Las Vegas hotel tower is imploded Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/David Becker)

Fireworks are launched before the Tropicana Las Vegas towers are imploded, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/David Becker)

FILE - Lights adorn vacant rooms at the Tropicana hotel-casino Thursday, March 28, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)

FILE - People take pictures before the closing of the Tropicana hotel-casino, Tuesday, April 2, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)

FILE - People stand outside of the Tropicana Las Vegas, Tuesday, May 16, 2023, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)

FILE - People walk outside of the Tropicana hotel-casino Thursday, March 28, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)

FILE - Shut down slot machines adorn the casino floor in preparation for closing the Tropicana hotel-casino Friday, March 29, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)

FILE - People stand on a pedestrian bridge by the Tropicana hotel and casino, Aug. 4, 2015, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)

FILE - - Stained glass covers the ceiling at the Tropicana Resort & Casino on Wednesday, March 28, 2007, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)

FILE - Wayne Newton poses on the red carpet for the grand opening of his new Las Vegas show, "Once Before I Go," Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009, at The Tropicana Hotel and Casino. (AP Photo/Eric Jamison, File)

FILE - People ride an escalator outside of the Tropicana hotel-casino Thursday, March 28, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)

FILE - People walk through the casino floor at the Tropicana hotel-casino Friday, March 29, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)

FILE - Sunlight illuminates a sign at the Tropicana hotel and casino on Aug. 4, 2015, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are holding relatively steady Wednesday following the latest scary swerves for markets in China.

The S&P 500 was 0.1% lower in early trading but still drifting close to its all-time high set last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 20 points, or less than 0.1%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.2% lower.

Boeing slumped 3.4% after it withdrew a contract offer that would have given striking workers 30% raises over four years following a break down in labor talks.

Alphabet’s stock was drifting as the U.S. Department of Justice considers asking a federal judge to break up its Google business after its search engine was declared an illegal monopoly, one of many possible remedies under review. Its shares were most recently down 0.8%.

Treasury yields and oil prices were also holding relatively steady or easing after big jumps for both helped send the S&P 500 on Monday to its worst loss in a month.

Wall Street’s relatively modest moves followed another manic day in China. After earlier surging on hopes for stimulus to prop up the world’s second-largest economy, Chinese stocks have slumped on disappointment that more isn’t on the way.

Stocks in Shanghai tumbled 6.6% for their worst loss since February 2020, when fears were rising about a virus emanating from Wuhan and other cities in China. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index fell 1.4% after dropping more than 9% the day before, which was its worst loss since the global financial crisis of 2008.

The Chinese government has set a target for about 5% annual growth this year, but the economy expanded at only a 4.7% pace in the last quarter and economists have been revising their estimates for the full year downward.

Moves announced by China in late September fueled a rally that has since fizzled. But analysts have pointed out that a news conference on Tuesday by China’s main planning agency, the National Development and Reform Commission, was unlikely to convey much information about government spending, which is the purview of the Finance Ministry.

That ministry is due to hold a briefing on Saturday that could provide further details on planned government outlays that so far have fallen short of what investors have been hoping for.

The Shanghai Composite is still up 9.5% for the year so far, while Hong Kong’s index is up 21.1%.

Indexes were more stable elsewhere around the world and rose 0.9% in Japan and 0.2% in Germany.

In the oil market, prices were easing further. A barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, fell 1.5% to $76.02. after briefly topping $81 early this week. Benchmark U.S. crude fell 2.1% to $72.04 per barrel.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.04% from 4.01% late Tuesday. The two-year Treasury yield, which moves more closely with expectations for what the Federal Reserve will do with interest rates, edged up to 3.98% from 3.96%.

AP Writers Zimo Zhong and Matt Ott contributed.

Signs marking the intersection of Wall St. and Broadway in New York's Financial District are shown on Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan, File)

The New York Stock Exchange, rear, is shown on Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan, File)

People walk in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

People stand in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

People walk in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

People walk in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

A person looks at an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

People walk in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

A person walks in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)