NEW YORK — Sonny Sonnenfeld, legendary lighting salesman, educator and architectural lighting designer, died Wednesday, Feb. 10 at his home in New York City. He was 96. During his storied career, Sonnenfeld handled sales for Century Lighting (now Philips/Strand), Colortran, ETC, Wybron and again at Philips/Strand.
As an extension of his sales work in architectural lighting Sonnenfeld was one of the pioneers in the field of architectural lighting design, receiving Architectural Lighting Magazine’s Living Legend Award. He also created the Broadway Lighting Master Classes and Super Saturday Stage Seminar.
Born on Sept. 29, 1919 on New York’s Upper East Side, Sonnenfeld learned the basics of theatre at the Central Jewish Institute and its associated Cejwin camp, where he was asked to help with the scenery as a kid. He started volunteering at the 92nd Street Y, where he took over the job as TD and ran the switchboard, among other things. He liked to say that he was at the Y “after Abe Feder and before Tharon Musser.”
During WWII, Sonnenfeld worked as a lineman in the Pacific, returning to New York City after the war. He married Irene “Kelly” Kellerman, who worked in wardrobe and as a costume designer in theatre. He auditioned for a career as a stage manager, but Kermit Bloomgarten rejected him because of his New York accent. At that time assistant stage managers could be required to speak dialogue, and Sonnenfeld couldn’t sound like a sheriff in the deep south for the Elia Kazan production of Deep Are the Roots. Bloomgarten recommended him to Century Lighting where he took the job in order to be working with the great Stanley McCandless.
During this time he pioneered the field of architectural lighting, guiding stores into a new era of lighting with his uncredited designs. He became instrumental in helping architects and engineers figure out what lighting needed to be done to help stores succeed.
After 16 years at Century, where he reached the level of New York Sales Manager, he went on to create Lighting and Electronics Inc. with three partners. It went through bankruptcy two years later but remained in business and Sonny became a rep for manufacturers, working with Colortran and then for many years with ETC—which is where he again crossed paths with Michael Eddy, now a freelance writer and marketing agent in the lighting industry. “He was the consummate salesman,” Eddy recalls. “He met people and they became his friends and he became a resource. He had a Rolodex—and literally it was a Rolodex with hand-written notes on it—and he could call for favors anytime anywhere. He could call and get anybody to do just about anything. He was a one of a kind person in the industry where many people’s paths intersected. The industry will really miss him.”
In the early ‘90s, Sonnenfeld got a lot of people together to start one of his largest projects, the Broadway Lighting Master Classes. The sessions brought designers and students together for lessons on the best of design, and proved invaluable for many young designers, including Scott Parker, currently director of lighting at IMS Technology Services and a member of the Lighting Design and Technology Commission for USITT—which is honoring Sonnenfeld with a Distinguished Achievement Award at their 2016 Conference. Parker was a lighting grad student at NYU when the Broadway Master Classes first started.
“So I called his office and asked if there was a student discount, and Sonny said ‘Well, I could use an extra pair of hands. Why don’t you come up and give me some help. So I was able to go and be an intern,” says Parker. “He really liked seeing young people succeed and learn the business. He was adamant that he wanted to help designers be designers—but he was also adamant that anyone could do anything in the business. He was proponent of people working in the industry a way that wasn’t just about being a designer.”
In 2003 Sonnenfeld was awarded the Wally Russell Lifetime Achievement Award in honor of his contributions to the field and in 2004 he moved to Las Vegas and shortly thereafter retired from ETC. His passion for the industry couldn’t be stilled, though, and he found himself working again for Philips/Strand before retiring again. He partnered with Scott Parker to start the Super Saturday Stage Lighting seminar in 2005, continuing his tradition of educating people at all levels about the lighting industry.
And in 2010 Sonnenfeld returned to New York City to be closer to the theatre he loved. He shared an apartment with the lighting designer Jennifer Tipton, who described the effect he had on people. “I have heard so many people—primarily salesman, but designers, too—saying to him, ‘You taught me more than anybody else in my life. It’s been so important what I’ve learned from you.’ Over and over again I’ve heard that,” says Tipton. “He always had wonderful suggestions for the LD. And they often had, I don’t want to say problems, but situations that needed solutions. And he would be the one who gave them solutions.”
