Theatre & dance / Business & brands
Roger L. Stevens
1910–1998 · theatrical producer, arts administrator, real estate executive
Detroit-born real estate dealmaker turned Broadway producer of West Side Story, founding chairman of the Kennedy Center and the National Endowment for the Arts.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan- Died
Washington, D.C.
aged 87- Birth name
- Roger Lacey Stevens
- Detroit years
- 1910–1940s
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Stevens was born in Detroit, went east to the Choate School and was headed for Harvard when his father's finances collapsed. He spent a year at the University of Michigan, then worked on a Ford assembly line and at a gas station during the Depression. In 1934 he joined a Detroit real estate firm and within three years had made a small fortune; in 1951 he led the syndicate that bought the Empire State Building. He poured his money and energy into theater, producing more than 100 plays and musicals, among them West Side Story, Bus Stop and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and introducing Harold Pinter and Tom Stoppard to American audiences. President Kennedy asked him to build a national cultural center, and he chaired the Kennedy Center from 1961 to 1988; in 1965 he became the first chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts.
Highlights
- Began his career in a Detroit real estate firm in 1934
- Produced more than 100 plays and musicals, including West Side Story
- Founding chairman of the Kennedy Center (1961–1988)
- First chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts (1965)
- Presidential Medal of Freedom and National Medal of Arts (1988)