Oscar summoned the family for a lunch at the 63rd Street town house and passed out studio portraits of himself. Stephen Sondheim asked Hammerstein to autograph his copy. Oscar thought for a moment, before allowing himself a slight smile and inscribing a tender message that nodded to the verse of “Getting to Know You.” (“It’s a very ancient saying, but a true and honest thought, that if you become a teacher, by your pupils you’ll be taught.”) “For Stevie,” Hammerstein wrote. “My friend and teacher.” Sondheim had trouble making it through the meal.
