Roger Stearns

Roger Stearns (1902 – February 20, 1958) was an American pianist, entertainer, and stage actor whose career spanned Broadway productions, nightclub performances, and wartime theatrical service. Born in Dunkirk, New York, the son of Lester F. Stearns, he received his early piano training in Fredonia under Harriet Bannister and Jessie Hillman. He later attended Yale University, where he studied architecture, and subsequently practiced in New York at the studio of Kenneth Murcheson. In 1945 he designed a country house for Libby Holman.

Stearns built a reputation as a pianist and entertainer at prominent venues across several American cities. His club engagements included Marmont Lane in Hollywood, the Statler Hotel in Cleveland, and multiple New York establishments such as the Algonquin Hotel, the Barberry Room, and the St. Moritz Cafe de la Paix of the St. Gregory Taylor Hotel on Central Park. During the Great Lakes Exposition in Cleveland, he performed at the Admiralty Club, which served as an informal gathering place for journalists covering the fair. A contemporary journal credited him with "a singing voice that out-swoons most of the swoon-singers."

His social and professional circle included Cole Porter, Dwight Deere Wiman, Leonard C. Hanna Jr., and Jerome J. Hill, the latter group supporting him when he opened the 123 Club at 123 East 54th Street in New York. The venue attracted a notable clientele that included Gertrude Lawrence, Tallulah Bankhead, Dorothy Parker, Irving Berlin, Charles Boyer, Monty Woolley, Lucy Monroe, Morton Downey, Vincent Youmans, and Dorothy Fields. The 123 Club was the first nightclub to feature songs from Cole Porter's Something for the Boys, as well as Oklahoma and One Touch of Venus.

On Broadway, Stearns appeared in productions between 1930 and 1945. His stage credits included the musicals You Never Know, Stars in Your Eyes, and New Faces of 1943, as well as the play The Distant Shore. His first stage appearance was in New Faces, and he also appeared in Show Boat and performed alongside Ethel Merman in other stage productions.

Among his most significant theatrical undertakings was his participation in a wartime touring production of The Barretts of Wimpole Street, organized under the American Theatre Wing War Players, the first all-star war theatre company to take repertory overseas. Operating under orders from Army Special Services, the company performed as close to the battlefronts as possible, giving 140 performances for American soldiers in Italy and France before moving to Boston, other New England theaters, and ultimately the Barrymore Theater in New York City in 1945. The production starred Katharine Cornell and Brian Aherne in the leading roles and featured McKay Morris, Margalo Gillmore, Brenda Forbes, Betty Brewer, Elaine Perry, William Noon, Emily Lawrence, Gertrude Macy, Chester Stratton, Eric Martin, and Keinert Wolf. Guthrie McClintic directed and also appeared as an actor, while Robert Ross served as both director and musician. Nancy Hamilton and Morgan Lewis contributed the book, lyrics, and music. Beyond his role in the production, Stearns visited military hospitals during the day to entertain soldiers who were unable to attend performances.

In 1950, Stearns appeared as a lead alongside Peggy Woods and Joseph F. Moor in The House on the Cliff, directed by Rex Harrison. His longtime companion was Winsor French, a Cleveland reporter, with whom he shared residences in Lakewood and Shaker Heights, Cleveland. Cole Porter inscribed on an ashtray belonging to French the words "To the lovely loins of Roger Stoins." Stearns died on February 20, 1958.