Así Era el Casino de Agua Caliente de Tijuana: El Lugar donde Hollywood se Perdía en los Años 30

Thirty kilometers from San Diego, during the 1930s, there was a casino frequented by Hollywood's elite every weekend. Charlie Chaplin, Rita Hayworth, Clark Gable, Al Capone, Bing Crosby, the Marx Brothers—they all crossed the border to lose themselves in its halls. The Agua Caliente Casino in Tijuana cost $10 million in 1928. It boasted a racetrack, a Neo-Mudéjar spa, an 18-hole golf course, its own airstrip, and a Louis XV-style Gold Room where the minimum bet was $500. This was at a time when a Mexican worker earned 42 cents a day. It operated for seven years. Lázaro Cárdenas closed it by decree on January 1, 1935. Today, a public high school stands in its place. This is the story of how Mexico had Las Vegas before Las Vegas. And how it lost it in a single night. IN THIS VIDEO YOU WILL DISCOVER: ▪️ How three American businessmen and a Mexican governor (future president) built a gambling empire during Prohibition ▪️ The night a Fox talent scout discovered a 16-year-old dancer named Margarita Cansino: Rita Hayworth ▪️ The victory of Phar Lap, the world's most famous horse, in the richest race ever run ▪️ The 1929 robbery that left two Mexican guards dead on the highway to San Diego ▪️ Why Lázaro Cárdenas banned everything, and what it had to do with taking Plutarco Elías Calles out in his pajamas ▪️ How the architect of Agua Caliente, Wayne McAllister, ended up designing the Las Vegas Strip 📚 MAIN SOURCES ▪️ Paul Vanderwood, Satan's Playground: Mobsters and Movie Stars at America's Greatest Gaming Resort (Duke University Press) ▪️ Chris Nichols, The Leisure Architecture of Wayne McAllister ▪️ José Alfredo Gómez Estrada, Government and Casinos: The Origin of Abelardo L. Rodríguez's Wealth ▪️ Tijuana Historical Archive (AHT/IMAC) ▪️ Newspaper Articles: Los Angeles Times (1929), San Diego Union-Tribune ▪️ Memoirs of Lázaro Cárdenas 🔔 SUBSCRIBE to continue discovering the Mexico that no longer exists. Hotels, casinos, spas, and cities that were once glorious and are now ruins. 💬 Did your family live through that era? Did you know anyone who visited Agua Caliente? Let us know in the comments. #HistoryOfMexico #Tijuana #UnknownMexico This is what the Agua Caliente Casino in Tijuana looked like: The place where Hollywood got lost in the 1930s Mexico had a splendor that the world envied. Hotels that welcomed Hollywood. Cities that rivaled Paris. Beaches that were a paradise for the powerful. What happened to all that? In Paths of the Forgotten, we document the rise and fall of the great places of Mexico's Golden Age: the destinations, the hotels, the neighborhoods, and the cities that were glorious—and that today no longer exist or are not what they once were. Each episode is an investigation. Real dates, real names, stories that no one has ever told you like this. 🎬 Documentaries about Mexican history 🏨 Hotels and destinations of Mexico's Golden Age 🌊 Acapulco, Veracruz, Tampico, Ensenada, Mexico City, and more 📅 New episodes every 3 days Subscribe if you want to know what Mexico once was—and understand why it left that behind.