How Sondheim Hired His Houseman

Stephen Sondheim

Financially buoyed by the movie sale of Gypsy, composer Stephen Sondheim bought himself a row house in the Turtle Bay area of Manhattan. 
Featuring an upstairs rental apartment and opening in the back, London-like, into a shared garden, the place could even boast bird-filled trees. Sondheim had his collection of games and puzzles to line the walls and some 2,500 record albums to fill the shelves. All he lacked was someone to take care of it all.

In his 1998 book Stephen Sondheim, biographer Meryle Secrest notes that Sondheim was eager to hire Louis Vargas, “a sort of South American version of Jeeves,” as his cook/houseman. But Vargas was unimpressed with the job offer.

Sondheim dropped names in an effort to entice him, but nothing worked. Not until Sondheim happened to mention the barefooted next-door neighbor who had come banging on his glass door to protest his habit on composing on the piano in the middle of the night.

Her name was Katharine Hepburn. Vargas instantly took the job.

“The day he came to work he heard her voice out in the garden, and went out and was feather-dusting the flowers,” Sondheim recalled. “They struck up a conversation …  and became fast friends within 10 minutes. She would bring him fruits and vegetables from the country and he would give her recipes.”