Who is the Piper of Chestnut Ridge?

Every night the residents of Chestnut Ridge in Anderson Township step out of their quarantine for just a few minutes. Families, large and small, stroll from their front doors to the edge of their lawns and greet each other with distant waves as they wait for the performance to begin.  

When I first saw the Facebook video of a local bagpiper lifting his neighborhood’s spirits with music, I knew I had to learn more about him. And so after a few Facebook messages and one phone call, there I was with my camera on location waiting for the show to start myself.

“He’s been playing for us every night since Saint Patrick’s Day,” one resident told me. “He’s truly been a blessing for us all,” she added. By now, several families have taken their places within the invisible amphitheater. 

Then right on time, Roger Loth emerged from his Chestnut Ridge home dressed in full Celtic attire with his bagpipes.  He walked across his perfectly manicured lawn, placed a music stand in the street at the apex of the quiet cul-de-sac and began to play. 

Roger’s neighbors stood silently as the reeds from his pipe emptied their powerful breath into the cool evening spring air. I recognized O’Danny Boy, God Bless America, and of course Amazing Grace in that evening’s repertoire.  The scattered audience applauded after each tune, some more delicately than others, depending on whether or not they were holding a glass of wine.

Occasionally Roger would explain the history behind one of the tunes.  “This was one of the songs the pipers played for the Allies during the invasion of Normandy,” Roger said before he played Bonny Dundee. Perhaps instinctually Roger walked in circles around the perimeter of the cul-de-sac making sure his pipes rang in every direction so that Chestnut Ridge would not be the only neighborhood to hear his music.

Earlier in the afternoon I had the pleasure of interviewing Roger over the phone.  We talked for about an hour, because this would not be a true Beechmont Story if I didn’t pry curiously all the way back into Roger’s childhood. 

Born in Florida in 1946, Roger was adopted by Cincinnati business owners, Nathan and Marian Loth. The Loths, who owned Loth Office Furniture, adopted Roger after being unable to conceive children of their own.  Life as an only child to successful business owners was interesting to say the least for Roger.

In 1953, to stay in close proximity to his furniture store, Nathan Loth, Roger’s father, moved his family into the Netherland Plaza Hotel to live. For the next 17 years, Roger would eat, sleep, play, and explore every nook and cranny of the majestic hotel, including its three sub-basements and three maintenance levels above the top residential floor. In other words, during the 1950’s and 1960’s, the historic downtown Netherland Plaza hotel was Roger’s personal childhood playground. 

“Our family basically lived in three small rooms, suites 2112, 2114, and 2116,” Roger recalled.  

When little Roger wasn’t pogo sticking down the main staircase, he was crashing conventions and chasing down the autographs of famous people, some of which included then Vice President Nixon, “Big Klu” Ted Kluszewski, and Liberace. 

Roger fondly recalled when the hotel bakers would cut their square cakes into rounds, then bag up the corner scraps of cake for Roger to snack on later.

“Some days I would eat so much cake, I didn’t even have room for dinner,” Roger said.

Check out this 1957 article by the Cincinnati Times-Star covering the curious hotel life of young Roger. The article compares Roger to Eloise, a fictional character from then popular children’s book series, Eloise at the Plaza, which is about a little girl who grew up living in a hotel in New York City.  I couldn’t help but laugh at the title of the article after reading 10 year old Roger’s threatening quote found in the first few lines of the piece:

“Anybody else who calls me Eloise I’m gonna soak them with my squirt pencil.”

Poor Roger.

It was hard for me to imagine Roger’s hotel life growing up in the Netherland Plaza without thinking about Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining.  

That led me to ask Roger about the infamous Lady in Green that reportedly haunts the halls of the Netherland Plaza. Urban legend has it that her ghost eternally roams the halls looking for her husband, a laborer who died accidentally from a fall prior to the hotel’s opening in 1931.  Many have reported sightings of her specifically in the hotel’s Hall of Mirrors ballroom.  

If anyone would have run across the Lady in Green, surely it would have been young Roger, but sadly, not only has Roger never seen her, Roger never even heard of her.  Sorry ghost hunters, but it appears The Lady in Green is likely just another public relations stunt.  

School Days

Roger attended Cincinnati Country Day School in Indian Hill for his early schooling. “My father would drive me to school in his Buick Super in the morning, but the bus would take me home after school,” Roger said. Although Roger’s school friends envied his hotel life, especially the unlimited room service they enjoyed during sleep overs, Roger actually envied their more natural domestic lifestyles.

“I was highly envious of them with their homes out in Indian Hill, Hyde Park, or here in Anderson where they could actually be out with the trees and have yards and go-carts and things like that,” Roger told me.  

Roger would move on from Cincinnati Country Day to attend Culver Military School in Culver, Indiana, then back home to eventually graduate from Walnut Hills High School. Later, Roger would receive his Arts and Science degree from the University of Cincinnati.  

Roger’s dream was to attend West Point, but a failed physical exam would foil it for him in the end.  “Two stupid things – dental and vision,” Roger said. “I passed everything else but them.” Roger’s thwarted plan may have ended serendipitously for him if you think about how he would have graduated from West Point during the height of the war in Vietnam. 

After college, Roger worked closely with the family business, which obviously went very well for him. In the late 1990’s Roger purchased Laurel Court directly from Buddy LaRosa. Laurel Court was the opulent College Hill mansion utilized by Buddy as a headquarters for his pizza empire. Previous Laurel Court owners (other than Buddy and Roger) include The Archdioceses of Cincinnati and Peter Thompson, owner of Champion Coated Paper Company.

Roger could write a book about his life living at Laurel Court. I just can’t do it justice here, but I did enjoy hearing about the 10 years Roger lived in the massive home. Details of our conversation that stood out for me were the blood red carpeting, the 1,000,000 BTU boilers, the 18 inch granite foundation, the parties, the gardens, the music room with 14 carat gold leaf walls, and the mansion’s secret passageways (found and unfound).

Roger’s lavish Valentine’s Day parties at Laurel Court would host around 450 guests each dressed in either red or white according to the dress code. Pool parties would attract about 150 guests.  “That house was made to entertain,” Roger mused.

I’m not sure, but I think Roger may have been the Great Gatsby of Cincinnati.

It was during his time at Laurel Court that Roger began to play the bagpipes.  Often you would find him playing from the rooftop near where the glass atrium ceiling juts out above the surface. Nuns from a nearby convent would come out and listen to him play.

Roger would eventually sell Laurel Court and move to Florida for some years. Florida is where Roger was first caught serenading passersby with his music.

But in 2015, Roger would move back home and settle here in Anderson Township where he spends much of his time volunteering for the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office Pipe and Drum Corp, as well as the Blue Line Pipers.

Roger and the organizations he volunteers for do a lot of good work for our community, especially for first responders, including fundraisers and of course honoring them with their music.  Roger and I recalled our experiences at fallen Cincinnati police officer Sonny Kim’s funeral back in 2015. Even though we didn’t know each other then, we were both present there. Roger honored Sonny with his music and I was among the hundreds of officers who gathered to say goodbye.  We reflected on the impromptu rain storm that soaked attendees shortly after Sonny’s body arrived at the cemetery. 

Why?

“What made you start these routine neighborhood bagpipe performances and why do you do them?” I asked Roger.

“To be patriotic is one reason.  Right now as a country we need to be one people – one nation under God. We’ve drifted away from that for far too long. A lot of people, especially younger people don’t understand the value of patriotism. They don’t understand what our country was and what it has become, so I want to do what I can to pull us all back together in that respect.”

Roger also hopes to bring people back together, at least in spirit, during the times of social distancing.  “A lot of people are not feeling normal because of social distancing. It’s not natural for us to be so distant to one another. I hope my music will bring people out just far enough to remind them that other people are still out in the world – your neighbors are still here for you if you need them. We all know each other and we’re here for each other.”

So there he is – The Piper of Chestnut Ridge – a touch of The Shining, a little bit Gatsby, and a lot of Braveheart, all wrapped into one talented and gracious local musician and volunteer.  

That’s one piper down. Next, I will begin my search for the Piper of Wolfangel.  I can hear you out there from my window. Now to find you…

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