Tropicana Nights: The Life and Times of the Legendary Cuban Nightclub

by Rosa Lowinger

What days those were! Like Paris in the 1890s, Berlin in the 1930s, New York in the Studio 54 days, Cuba was an endless party, and Tropicana was its epicenter. Marlon Brando, Liberace, Tyrone Power, Ava Gardner, Ernest Hemingway, Debbie Reynolds, Dianne Carroll, Edith Piaf, Elizabeth Taylor, Eddie Fisher, Mamie van Doren, Cesar Romero—everyone who came to Cuba, every performer who worked at other cabarets, every movie star who lunched in the outdoor patio of the Hotel Nacional or dove off the platform diving board at Lansky’s new Riviera Hotel, or swam in the saltwater swimming pool built into the rocky coastline of Trafficante’s seaside Comodoro, eventually spent a night under the stars at Tropicana, drinking rum, dancing the mambo, or playing roulette. The cast basked in the glory of it all. “Ava Gardner was there the night we did Luisa Fernanda en Chemise,” remembered Eddy Serra. “I did a modern dance interpretation of Peggy Lee’s hit song, ‘Fever.’ Afterward, many of the cast went to the Cabaret Nacional, and there was Ava with her entourage. We used to go down there all the time. We’d eat pan con bistec [steak sandwiches], or una rubia con ojos verdes [a blond with green eyes, referring to a dish consisting of rice with avocado], and keep partying until morning.”