Benjamin Sonnenberg

Benjamin Sonnenberg (born Baruch Sonenberg; July 12, 1901 – September 6, 1978) was an American public relations consultant who represented celebrities and major corporations. He was best known for the lavish entertaining he hosted for clients and other notables at his Manhattan townhouse located at 19 Gramercy Park South.

Background Sonnenberg was born in Brest-Litovsk, Russian Empire (now Belarus), to Polish Jewish parents, Harry (Arje) Sonenberg from Warsaw and Ida (Chaya) Sonenberg from Kowel (now Ukraine). He began his life living in poverty in a small wooden hut. His father immigrated to New York in 1905 and began work in dry goods; Sonnenberg, his mother, and his two younger sisters, Mary (Masche) and Belle (Beile), moved to Warsaw; they joined Harry in New York in 1910 via the . The family lived on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City.

Sonnenberg attended Public School No.62 and then DeWitt Clinton High School. He took part in drama and dance at Henry Street Settlement, where his mother was a cleaning lady. Miss Wald, the director, was very impressed with Ben. At the age of 16, she offered him a job as the leader of the boy's club, and in turn allowed him to continue his schooling and live at the settlement house. Two years later, Miss Wald helped him get a scholarship to study at Columbia College. He got a job covering Columbia University sports for the Brooklyn Eagle. This helped his writing skills to become a publicist. Sonnenberg died in New York City at age 77 of a heart attack on September 6, 1978. In 1922, Miss Wald got a call from Lewis Strauss, the former secretary to Herbert Hoover and director of the American Relief Administration with the task to get food and medical assistance to the famine-stricken areas of Russia and Europe. Sonnenberg took the job where he realized what it was like to be rich, and he fell in love with the lifestyle that coincided. At the age of 22, he rented a room in Greenwich Village and made an earning by providing publicity for Jewish fund drives, writing stories for the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. Moreover, he was often performative in entertaining and gifting his guests.

Perhaps his most famous client was Charles Luckman, an extremely successful architect, in 1950. "If there is one single achievement that public relations men cite Sonnenberg for, it is the media barrage that he engineered for Luckman, beginning with a Time cover piece." In 1927, Sonnenberg publicized Bergdorf Goodman department store for $100 a month. He was then hired to promote the 50th anniversary in 1951. He planned for a gala dinner dance in the Plaza Hotel with almost 700 or 800 in attendance. It was a sellout and tickets sold for $50. There was a live fashion show. There were also live mannequins in the store windows. Because of this great success he was then hired by Fred Lazares Jr. who operated Bloomingdale's, Abraham & Straus, Filene's of Boston, and Burdine's in Miami.

In the 1950s he counseled his friend Stanley Marcus, founder of Neiman Marcus, for free who stated, "I learned more from Ben Sonnenberg about life and business than from any other person except my father." Working for Pepperdine, Inc. made Sonnenberg a multimillionaire. Pepperdine, Inc was created by a poor family that made bread suitable for asthmatics and sold to Campbell Soup Co. in 1958 for $28 million, which earned him $9 million.

Legacy After 36 years of hustling clients and building a business, Sonnenberg closed down Publicity Consultants, Inc. in 1963, because 247 Park Avenue was being torn down and his right-hand man George Schreiber was terminally ill with a brain tumor. He became strictly a consultant and gradually reduced his number of clients. In his later years Sonnenberg focused less on making money and more on his hobbies, collecting being his favorite. He went for one last collecting jaunt to England in 1978 at the age of 76. In his final phase he worked alone. He claimed to have earned between $25 million to $30 million in his lifetime.