Benjamin Sonnenberg

Who is Benjamin Sonnenberg?

Benjamin Sonnenberg was a Belarusian-born American press agent who represented celebrities and major corporations, who was best known for the lavish entertaining he did for his clients and other notables at his Manhattan townhouse located at 19 Gramercy Park South.

Sonnenberg was born in Brest-Litovsk, Russia, now part of Belarus. He emigrated to the United States with his family in 1910. He briefly attended Columbia College and worked for a newspaper in Flint, Michigan.

Returning to New York City, his first work in the public relations field was writing stories for the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. He started his own business in 1924, where among his initial clients were Manhattan hotels for which he generated newspaper coverage of their notable guests. Sonnenberg had a knack for self-promotion, as a means to make himself seem more important to the public and to his existing and prospective clients. Early in his career, he would ride the subway most of the trip and then take a taxi to show up at theater openings. In restaurants, he would have the restaurant manager send a bus boy to wander around the tables announcing that there was a phone call for Sonnenberg.