Cesar Romero: 1907-1994: Dancer, Actor

Although Romero and Higgins never achieved true celebrity status for their dance routines, their performance merited billing at New York's finest dinner clubs, including Club Richman, the St. Regis Roof, the Ambassador Roof, and the Montmartre Café. As he did in his youth, Romero relied on his charming good looks and Latin-lover appeal to begin hob-nobbing with the theater elite. He was soon invited, along with Higgins, to join the cast of the Broadway revue Lady Do, which was about to open at Manhattan's Liberty Theater. In his first stage performance, Romero did the foxtrot, waltz, and tango for 56 shows beginning April 18, 1927.

Romero also continued as a dinner club dance partner with Higgins until 1929, but he sustained a painful injury lifting a new partner, Nita Vernille, onto his shoulders while performing the tango at the Club Montmartre, which effectively ended his dancing career. Instead, Romero turned to the theater full time. In September of 1929 he opened in The Street Singer, also starring Andrew Tombes, who would become Romero's longtime companion. During the show's 191 performances, Romero gained the attention of producer Brock Pemberton, who cast him as a replacement for the romantic lead role of Count Di Ruvo in Strictly Dishonorable.

During the summer of 1931, Romero played the part of Count Di Ruvo for a road company in Mount Vernon, New York, and then returned to Pemberton's production. After appearing in The Social Register during the first half of 1932, Romero took on the part of the chauffeur in the hit show Dinner at Eight, which ran for 232 performances in New York and became a successful road show.