Possible "Tropico" name origin theory

[evilentity]

When the title Tropico first surfaced, there was a lot of speculation about where the name came from. People wondered if it had anything to do with a video game of the same name. Or if it was a reference to the Pat Benatar album.

I just assumed it was a word Lana came up with independently, or perhaps that she forgot Pat Benatar's album was where the word first entered her mind. (After all, she does often reference others' lyrics and album titles seemingly unconsciously. See: Lust for Life.) At any rate, I never gave it much thought after the release of the film, which I watched a grand total of two times (three if you count searching through it for screenshots for this thread).

But recently I've developed a possible theory about where the name may have come from that I don't recall seeing discussed on the forum before (though maybe I just missed it):

Tropico is/was the name of a real place in California. Now just a neighborhood in Glendale, CA and Los Angeles' Atwater Village, it was once incorporated as an independent city from 1911 until 1918 when the upper half merged with Glendale and the lower half merged with Los Angeles.

Today, there seem to be only a few references to the name of the city that once was: a post office, a seedy motel, a new apartment project, an old folks' home.

Here are links to several pages about "the lost city of Tropico":
https://www.kcet.org/shows/lost-la/the-lost-city-of-tropico-california
http://atwater-village.blogspot.com/2007/02/sunday-drive-through-lost-city-of.html
https://web-beta.archive.org/web/20120717082459/http://www.glendalehistorical.org/tropico.html
http://waterandpower.org/museum/Early_Views_of_Glendale.html
https://calisphere.org/search/?q=tropico (There's probably some great cover/fan art material in some of the PDFs here.)

Tropico was also home to Glendale's Forest Lawn Memorial Park, where Walt Disney and many old Hollywood celebrities are buried or have their ashes interred.

I have no idea if Lana is aware of any of this history-- given her proximity to it I suspect it may have inspired the name either way-- but it is certainly in keeping with themes in her work of old Hollywood and lost Americana.

Feel free to post anything else interesting you find about the city of Tropico.

[Flowerbomb]

To be honest I thought it was a reference to the book 'Tropic of Cancer' by Henry Miller

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropic_of_Cancer_(novel)

[missdelreyxo]

Besides it being a beautiful Lana video, if I never knew her and saw it for the first time I would be so amazed by the whole theme and the referencing in general.

[longtimeman]

It's almost too perfect as an explanation, and until she confirms or denies it, I'm going to imagine that she drove past that motel and the name stuck with her. 

[reputation]

I had a similar theory of tropico, but tropico moreso refering to the Tropic Of Cacner, the place, where Mexico & California are located (according to wikipedia.)

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropic_of_Cancer

https://tools.wmflabs.org/geohack/geohack.php?pagename=Tropic_of_Cancer&params=23_26_N_110_15_W_type:country&title=Mexico

https://tools.wmflabs.org/geohack/geohack.php?pagename=Tropic_of_Cancer&params=23_26_N_109_24_W_type:waterbody&title=Gulf+of+California

[Summersault]

This totally makes sense 

Gods & Monsters with the "L.A. L.A." intro, Bel Air, all the scenes of L.A. through out the film. How could Tropico NOT be a reference to Los Angeles? I know she has said before that she just likes certain words that are "heavenly" and "tropical" and what not, but I could totally see her stumbling over some reference to the old neighbourhood and liking it, maybe just from walking around in the area.

[Trash Magic]

that is such a cool story. I feel like so many these things just gravitate around Lana without necessarily being the sole inspiration.

 

Like her not having heard the line hit me and it felt like a kiss...

The Old Money melody

her having not seen A Clockwork Orange and having the title Ultraviolence (I don't remember her exact comment)

The Peg Entwissle Hollywood sign story

[reputation]

that is such a cool story. I feel like so many these things just gravitate around Lana without necessarily being the sole inspiration.

 

Like her not having heard the line hit me and it felt like a kiss...

The Old Money melody

her having not seen A Clockwork Orange and having the title Ultraviolence (I don't remember her exact comment)

The Peg Entwissle Hollywood sign story

Old Money melody?

[Summersault]

Old Money melody?

Apparently it resembles the theme of the Romeo and Juliet movie, but Lana says she wasn't aware

 

EDIT:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCmUWNUzaqo

[evilentity]

Here are a few images I found online taken from the documents linked in the OP:









I'll post a few more when I get a chance to screenshot some.

[Sugar Venom]

Apparently it resembles the theme of the Romeo and Juliet movie, but Lana says she wasn't aware

 

EDIT:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCmUWNUzaqo

i feel like a lot of things she says she "wasn't aware of" she probably came across at one point but forgot about it because it wasn't interesting at the time or something, so when she thought of it again for whatever coincidental thing that happened she didn't remember anything specific about it so she just she was the one who came up with it lol ( i kinda don't believe a lot of the things she says, but i go along with them anyways    love u lana    )

 

--

i think she knows about that motel/town in general tho, whether she's actually visited it in person or just came across it one day when she was researching about things in california or something, it's just so her. i mean an abandoned town, the classic look of everything, the graveyard with all the famous people buried there, if she really doesn't know about this someone needs to tell her lmao. it would be super cool if she did a music video or photoshoot here or even a tropico 2.0  

[comeintomybedroom]

Maybe Elizabeth just wanted something that sounded "exotic" and "gorgeous coming off the tip of the tongue"

[PARADIXO]

This is really cool

[evilentity]

 

[evilentity]

 

 

[evilentity]

 

 

[surfnoirswing]

this is a gorgeous theory, loves it. I always thought the word just really fit the whole theme of the Paradise album and was just something that "sounded beautiful" to her but if she actually had this kind of influences in mind it would be amazing !

[evilentity]

 

[evilentity]

 

[evilentity]