Las Vegas Weekly

March 30, 2009 · 7:21 AM

Photo Gallery: Folies Bergere‘s nearly 50-year run comes to a glorious end

By Robin Leach

Crew member Ted Zylman sweeps the stage before one of the final performances of Folies Bergere.

Photo: Leila Navidi

Over the 49 years that Folies Bergere played at the Tropicana, some 400 dancers, showgirls and entertainers have come and gone through the ranks. Some have never missed a show in 15 consecutive years! This past weekend, they all gathered for one last time for a history-making photograph on the grand staircase to say farewell.

Click HERE for our esteemed editor Johnny Kats’ live blog of the final two hours as the curtain lowered for the last time ever Saturday night! The cast, which changed over the years, performed more than 29,000 shows during the run -- possibly the world’s longest-running show ever! Back in 1959 at the show’s premiere, the hotel billed Folies Bergere as “Home of the Most Beautiful Women in the World,” with costumes made in Paris and flown here, re-creating an era dating back to the 1860s.

The Tropicana hasn’t announced what new show might take its place, but they have signed racy comic Bobby Slayton, who had starred next door at Hooters, to a run in the smaller cabaret clubroom there.

Robin Leach has been a journalist for more than 50 years and has spent the past decade giving readers the inside scoop on Las Vegas, the world’s premier platinum playground.

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