Tropicana Club

Tropicana is a world known cabaret and club in Havana, Cuba. It was launched in 1939 on a six-acre (24,000 m²) suburban estate in Havana's Marianao neighborhood.

The Tropicana showcased lavish shows staged by choreographer Roderico "Rodney" Neyra. Headliners included Xavier Cugat, Carmen Miranda, Nat King Cole and Josephine Baker. Heralded as a "Paradise Under the Stars," the Tropicana became known for its showgirls, conga sounds, domino tournaments and flashy, spectacular productions. The long list of celebrities who flocked to the Tropicana included Édith Piaf, Ernest Hemingway, Jimmy Durante and Marlon Brando. Beginning in 1956, Cubana Airlines' Tropicana Special was a round-trip flight that ferried club customers from Miami to the Tropicana and returned them to Florida at 4am the following morning. [ [http://cuban-exile.com/doc_201-225/doc0201.html Night Club in the Sky] ]

Influence

The Tropicana had an impact in spreading Cuban culture internationally. New York's Tropicana was a Latin music club launched in 1945 by two Cuban restaurateurs, the brothers Manolo and Tony Alfaro, who made it the most glamorous nightclub in the Bronx. On the TV series "I Love Lucy", the character Ricky Ricardo (played by Cuban-born Desi Arnaz) was a singer and bandleader at Manhattan's fictional Tropicana nightclub, now recreated in reality in Jamestown, New York at the Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Center's Tropicana Room. In 2004, the Atlantic City Tropicana opened The Quarter, [ [http://www.tropicana.net/thequarter/index.htm Tropicana.net] - The Quarter] which attempts to recreate the architecture, atmosphere and cuisine of Old Havana during the 1940s. [ [http://www.cubalibrerestaurant.com/ Architecture, atmosphere and cuisine of Old Havana] ] In its September 1956 issue, "Show" magazine displayed a four-page spread on "Tropicana" (1957), a Mexican musical comedy filmed on location at the cabaret and featuring some of the Tropicana's performers.

History

The property was rented from Guillermina Pérez Chaumont, known as Mina, and the tropical gardens of her Villa Mina provided a lush natural setting for an outdoor cabaret. Impresario Victor de Correa provided the food and entertainment, while Rafael Mascaro and Luis Bular operated the casino located in the chandeliered dining room of the estate's mansion. With a fanfare from the Alfredo Brito Orchestra, the club opened on December 30, 1939.

Correa was squeezed out when Martin Fox bought Villa Mina in 1950. Fox then hired architect Max Borges-Recio, who created Tropicana's Arcos de Cristal, parabolic concrete arches and glass walls over an indoor stage. Construction continued through 1951. When the indoor cabaret at the air-conditioned Arcos de Cristal opened on March 15, 1952, it had a combined total seating capacity of 1,700 for the interior and outside areas. That same year, Martin Fox married Ofelia Suárez, the youngest of four, from Havana.

After the Cuban Revolution of 1959, Martin and Ofelia Fox, who had no children, fled to Miami. Martin Fox died of a stroke in the mid-1960s. When Ofelia moved to Los Angeles with her long-time companion Rosa Sanchez, her Glendale house became a gathering place and social center for Cuban-American friends and neighbors who continued the Tropicana tradition of domino tournaments. The history of the cabaret is detailed in "Tropicana Nights: The Life and Times of the Legendary Cuban Nightclub" (Harcourt, 2005) by Rosa Lowinger and Ofelia Fox. In "Booklist", Mike Tribby reviewed::Lowinger and Fox tell the story of Havana's notorious Tropicana nightclub, the template from which Las Vegas was made after the Batista government collapsed, and the Tropicana was closed. In its day the Tropicana was a prime site for gambling, elegance, seeing and being seen--a resort of choice for international gangsters and jet-setters. Readers who enjoyed Anthony Haden-Guest's "biography" of Studio 54, "The Last Party" (1997), will enjoy comparing the differing modes of showmanship, decadence, and ostentation current in the Tropicana's 1950s heyday to those of 1970s New York's debauched disco scene. Fox married Tropicana owner Martin Fox in 1952 and helped him run it until 1962, when they decamped to Miami. She and Lowinger take pains to establish that the Tropicana was hardly a sleazy Mob hangout but rather a world-class entertainment venue that discriminating gangsters happened to enjoy frequenting. An excellent resource on Cuban popular culture, lavish entertainment, and everyday life just before and just after Castro, this is also an exciting and rewarding read.

Three months after the book was published, Ofelia Fox died at age 82 on January 2, 2006 of cancer and complications from diabetes at Burbank's Providence St. Joseph Medical Center. [ [http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/entertainment/music/13575167.htm Associated Press: "Tropicana" 'first lady' Ofelia Fox dies] ] The Tropicana continues to operate with very few changes to this day, [ [http://havanajournal.com/culture/entry/tropicana_nightclub_in_havana_switching_rhythms/ Tropicana is changing] ] attracting tourists to its elaborate floorshows.

Visiting

Shows take place at 9pm, Tuesday to Sunday, in the open-air Salon Bajo Las Estrellas. These days, foreign tour groups comprise the majority of patrons. The layout of the club means that from many of the seats the show is difficult to see. Tickets begin at CUC$65.

Gallery

Read

* [http://www.powells.com/biblio?show=HARDCOVER:USED:0151012245:17.95&page=excerpt#page Excerpt from "Tropicana Nights: The Life and Times of the Legendary Cuban Nightclub" by Rosa Lowinger and Ofelia Fox]
*"Moon Handbooks: Cuba" (Avalon Travel Publishing, 2007). Detailed travel information for visiting the show.
*"Mi Moto Fidel: Motorcycling Through Castro's Cuba" (National Geographic Adventure Press, 2001). Includes description of the author meeting a Tropicana dancer and their subsequent love affair.

References

ee also

*Anacaona
*Buena Vista Social Club

External links

* [http://www.edwebproject.org/havana/photo-album/tropicana.html Andy Carvin/Susanne Cornwall: A Night at the Tropicana] - Photos of the show