Tropicana: The Cabaret and the Legend

Since the early years in the last century, at the entrance to the Marianao municipality in the province of Havana, next to the Zanja-Marianao railroad, was Villa Mina, the beautiful suburban property once owned by Regino Truffin, surrounded by a luxuriant tropical forest and now a fairy-tale dream for a nightclub that became a legend in the history of world musical and variety shows and that ata a time was known as the "most attractive and sumptuous nightclub in the world": the mythic Tropicana Nightclub.

Towards the end of the thirties, Mina Perez Chaumont, Truffin's widow, decided to rent her property to a group of entrepreneurs headed by Victor de Correa, who wanted to setup a nightclub. Choreographer and show director Sergio Orta suggested naming it "Tropicana", the title of a song by composer and flutist Alfredo Brito, that had been played for the first time in that very place. That was the name it received in the 1940 New Year Eve celebrations; the new boite de nuit had opened its doors a year before on Saint Sylvester's Eve. Correa, who was not a newcomer to that type of business activity, achieved a very successful opening. His wife, songstress Teresita de España, was one of the main attractions in its early shows.

Very soon Tropicana became a favorite spot for the most select and affluent in society. The spell of Cuban nights, with starry skies, warm tropical moon, hot and languid music, dazzling women-reputedly the most beautiful of Cuban dark-skinned girls- and its exuberant gardens created in the visitors the feeling of being in an unreal world of exotic splendor.

The presentation of Congo-Pantera musical revue in the '40s was a milestone. The surrounding Shruberry was for the first time linked to the show in the hunt of an African panther; dancers appeared among the rich foliage and the lights shining on them were given new importance. The panther itself, Tania Leskova, descended from an enormous tree. David Litchin, who as well as Leskova had come from the celebrated Montecarlo Russian Ballet, was the director of this production. The famous Cuban musician Chano Pozo was also part of the ensemble.

Famous foreign performers like Josephine Baker, Tongolele, Xavier Cugat and Los Chavales de España were soon on stage. No less famous Cuban entertainers like Rita MOntaner, Ignacio Villa (BOla de Nieve) and Alfredo Brito were there too. By that time Tropicana was already known as "the most beautiful casino in the world" and also as "the Monte Carlo in the Americas".

In the final years of the decade, Martin Fox came to Havana from the countryside. They nicknamed "Guajiro Fox" (Fox, the peasant or country bumpkin) and he was big in the numbers of racket. As a person born and raired in the country, he loved plants and become their most ardent keeper. He had no education whatsoever, but he was bold and has close relations with the more solvent groups. Thus, in a few years he toppled Victor de Correa and, together with Alberto Ardura and Oscar Echemendia, formed an entrepreneurial trilogy that made Tropicana one of the most famous nightclubs in the continent.

Towards the end of 1949, Fox started to transform the place with the help of the young architect Max Borges Recio, the son of Max Borges del Junco, also an architect and the owner of the construction company in charge of the enlargement and remodeling of Tropicana. The first fruit of that union was the stylized ballerina "long,long as temptation and fine as desire, who standing beautifully on her points, seems to turn on a mirror of water," as a writing of the times had it. It was cast in artificial stone by the already renowned Cuba sculptrees Rita Longa and placed at the entrance of the nightclub in 1950.

The coup d'état on March 10, 1952, gave rise to a great moment of gambling in Cuba. The country came to be known as "The Island of Gambling" and Havana as "The Caribbean Las Vegas". Martin Fox, aware of Tropicana's role as the most notable casino in the country, went one step ahead and built the new roofed hall, Arcos the Cristal (Glass Arches), for presentations on rainy or winter nights. A new images was styled for the classic Bajo las Estrellas (Under the Stars), an exquisite open-air-terrace that had already given rise to the slogan still in place today: "A Paradise under the Stars." One of its main appeals was a famous "spider" or "surrealist insect," as the inventive design at the head of the stage has also been called. It is said that it was inspired by the signature of the owner of the place, and this may very possibly be the case given the decisive weight his ideas had in the remodeling process. The Nymph Fountain, a delicate group of sculptures by Italian artist Aldo Gamba, which since the beginnings of the century had been at the door by the also famous Gran Casino Nacional, was moved to Tropicana in 1952, the year in which the central kitchen was extended too. Trees and plants were respected up to a point that still today the thick trunks of trees stemming from very small flowerbeds and the holes in the ceillings allowing the branches to grow outside are a surprise for many visitors. This is something that can also be seen in the foyer and in the famous Arcos de Cristal.

Outstanding architect Robert Segre has said: "The best achieved architectural example in the \'50s, as to the aesthetic significance of tropical nature within an architectonic context, is Arcos de Cristal in Tropicana nightclub, awarded with the Golden Medal by the National School of Architects in 1953. Slight covering arches whose form is obserbed by the prevalence of exuberant nature in an integrative synthesis assimilating the original framework of an old suburban estate form all its architecture."

To recreate the canopy of heaven in the midst of the countryside-the highest hope of the owner-the place was painted in dark colors and the outer grove was strongly lighted. Lights enter the dimly lit interior through the transparent glass covering the spaces between the arches. Evidently, as a report of the times reflects, Arcos de Cristal was an architectonic conception unique in its class.

Cards and roulette were not the only options in Tropicana; there was also a direct line with Miami lottery. In 1954 the casino extended to where today the restaurant Los Jardines is. It is said it was for the use of the high officials in Fulgencio Batist's administration, who were very found of gambling. Men and women of attractive appearance, elegantly dressed, who seemed to have money to spare but actually acted as decoys to entice people into betting, should also be mentioned. Some of them were foreigners and were under contract with the casino. The cafeteria and a more modest gambling hall with slot machines-"one-arm robbers" they were called-were built in this period in the place where the stables and dog houses of the Truffin family used to be.

In the fifties, the shows were the most outstanding trait of the place. According to May 1955 Show magazine, "Tropicana was the first nightclub in Cuba that discovered the magnet of large productions and Rodney was the first choreographer to be successfully welcomed. "Rodney, whose real name was Roderic Neyra, was considered by the press of the times the best and better paid choreographer and artist director in Cuba. "Rodney, the Magician," as he was called, surprised those who visited Tropicana with his stunning shows. Omelen Ko, The Happy Widow, Roman Spring, Tea House, Mexican Fantasy, Six Beautiful Cuban Girls were among the most outstanding of them. Many exceptional performers-Rosita Fornes, Celia Cruz, Olga Guillot and the duet formed by Celina and Reutilio-were among those on stage. Two couples that became a landmark in those times were the ones made up by ana Gloria and Rolando (in typical Cuban dances) and Leonela Gonzalez and Henry Boyer (in classic dance). The pressence of Maestro Armando Romeo, a key figure conducting the orchestra, should be highlighted. Performances by artists of worlwide reputation-Carmen Miranda, Nat "King" Cole, Liberace, Pedro Vargas-were considered unforgettable, as was the presentation of the 1954 Spring-Summer Collection designer Pierre Balmain had just created, that was shown for the first time out in Paris. Balmain not only took care of the mise-en-scene, but came to Havana to personally present his designs.

After the triumph of the Cuban Revolution on January 1st, 1959, gambling was banned and the premises went to the hands of the Revolutionary Government. Some time later, an haute cuisine school was set, whose cooking skills were tested in Tropicana restaurant, the forerunner of the present Los Jardines, set in the former gambling room. It used to be called Panoramic, because of the very encompassing view it offered of the garden surrounding the place. The cafeteria today bears the name of Rodney, Café Rodney, in memory of the great artist.

There were some that thought that without gambling there would be no more Tropicana, but the magic of its colossal productions, overflowing with glamour, sensuality and color, the presence of hundreds of artists on stage and the luxuriant tropical forest where the nightclub was born more than half a century before, have ratified that "the paradise under the stars" is there to stay and Tropicana is a compulsory and desired site for tourists and visitors from every corner in the world. The shows, with a conception and a luxury at a par of those in Las vegas and the Lido in Paris, continued the trail of successes with shows like The Romans Were Like This, Almanac, Lecuona's Carnival, Tropicana Signs and Dances for You, A Toast for Tropicana and Tropicana: You Are the Glory, in which cabaret star Leticia Herrera and dancers Nancy Elena Ramirez, Lupe Guzman, Mery and Ketty Salazar, Armando and Alberto Perez, and Fernando Valdes, clear symbols of today's Tropicana, became celebrated performers. Also mainstayes of Cuban popular music with very personal styles were greatly acclaimed in the "Paradises under the Stars":Elena Burque, Omara Portuondo, Farah Maria and Los Papines, always working under prestigious directors like Joaquin M. Condall, Amaury Perez, Tomas Morales and Santiago Alfonso. Popular foreign performers like Norma Duval, Alejandra Guzman and salsa musician Cheo Feliciano were also on Tropicana's shows of the time.

Tropicana's productions have enjoyed worlwide acclaim. Centers as widely different as the Royal Albert Hall in London, the Monte Carlo Sporting Club in Monaco, the Friedrichstadt Palace in Berlin and the Beacon Theater in Broadway, New York, are irrefutable evidence of this. In 1992 the leading Mexican television program La Movida was broadcasted from the enchanted forest many consider Tropicana is. That same year, the American Academy of the Restaurant Industry awarded the coveted Best of the Best Five Star Diamond to Tropicana. On December 1994, during the 55th Anniversary of its creation, the Tropicana Award-a small replica of Rita Longa's Ballerina-was presented to various personalities with links with the nightclub.

In the summer of 1996, Tropicana clearly proved its artistic potential when Japanese fashion designer Junko Koshino presented her fashion show in the Under the Stars Hall, with the choreographic support of Maestro Santiago alfonso, endowed the show with dynemism and originality, by testing the professionalism of the nightclub cast, which took the lead that night in the unusual runway. Months later, its standing as a deluxe framework was ratified in what many consider the most sumptuous celebration in after 1959 Havana: the evening offered by the reputable firm Habanos S.A. celebrating thirty years of its highly regarded Cohiba cigars.

Tropicana nightclub was chosen among the twenty locations from which ABC and CNN, the America TV consortiums, directly transmitted to the entire world the farewell to the 20th century.

Tropicana has also been declared a National Monument.
Tropicana is Cuba, its night, its palm tree, it is a hymn to love and life; it is song and poetry...

Referencias:
* Bolitero: Jugador de bolita (lotería extraoficial que poseía billetes propios y se premiaba con los mismos números del sorteo oficial).
** José Manuel, Meme Solís (fragmento de la canción "Tropicana de Cuba")
1. Revista Arquitectura, Colegio Nacional de Arquitectos.
Año XXII,No.246, La Habana, enero de 1954 (pág.17).
2. Segre,Roberto. Arquitectura y Urbanismo de la Revolución Cubana.
Editorial Pueblo y Educación,1989(pág.19).
3. Revista Show, LaHabana, mayo de 1955.