Imagine a job where all you do all day is work with the most beautiful bikini models in the world. You travel to the most exotic beaches, tell the girls how to pose, how to look at you, and what to wear. Even better, you get paid for it.
Sound like a fantasy? Not if you're Howard Sonnenschein, bikini-meister extraordinaire. As one of the nation's top swimsuit media moguls, the 29-year-old wunderkind has seen more beautiful girls in bikinis than most lucky fellows see in a lifetime.
Sonnenschein is probably best know as Co-Executive Producer and Co-Host of The Bikini Open, a wildly popular, internationally syndicated series of television special events which covered the best bikini contests in the country. In the process of producing the series, he hung out with hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of the country's most voluptuous and charming swimsuit models. He spent five years traveling to the best bikini contests from the Caribbean to Hawaii. "There are over 10,000 bikini contests each year in the United States, and we covered the best of the best," he boasts. He also directed hundreds of the nation's top swimsuit and fitness models on location everywhere from Hawaii to the Caribbean, and added his creative and often zany spin to the overall visual look of the series.
"The first question people always ask me is, 'What are those girls really like?'" says Sonnenschein. "Most people think that because they're so gorgeous, they must be stuck up. In my experience, however, 99% of them are incredibly down-to-earth and approachable. Some guys think that these girls would only date hunks--but except for a few top supermodels who date rock stars, most of the swimsuit models are 'girl-next-door types who like regular good guys."
Becoming the king of the bikini world came naturally to Sonnenschein. He entered show biz at age 10, when he made his first appearance as the magician "Howdini." For $8.00 per show, he entertained other children at birthday parties with tricks he had purchased from the back of his comic books. He later became fascinated by photography, and became a sports photojournalist at the age of 16. Even with the ancient manual equipment that his father had lent him, the teenager managed to win the New Jersey Press Association's award for Best Sports Photograph of the year.
But beautiful women were his destiny. "The prettiest girls in my high school saw my sports pictures published in the newspapers and asked me to take their pictures for their modeling portfolios. I couldn't believe that they would pay me to pose for me. Initially, I had to improvise on the cheap. We shot the pictures in my basement, my light kit was literally my bendable night light, and we used shag carpet remnants as backgrounds. My darkroom was on my mother's washing machine."
Bikinis were apparently in his genes. "My father had a factory where they designed and printed the fabrics for swimsuit manufacturers such as Gottex and Cole of California; my mother had stores where she sold bathing suits, and I often helped her sell. I developed a sense of fashion from visiting my father's factory and an understanding of what suits looked right on women by working with my mother in the stores."
When Sonnenschein was 17, he got his first big commercial photography assignment--a bra catalogue. But it was a far cry from Victoria's Secret. The bras were industrial strength brassieres for large-sized women. Says his mother Stella, "I remember hearing him yell at the modeling agency because they sent him B-cup models rather than the C-cup girls he requested."
College is where Sonnenschein really started to make his mark. At the State University of New York at Albany (SUNY), he founded and ran Adbank, one of the country's largest student-run, not-for-profit advertising agencies. 200 student members in Adbank's teams created free advertising campaigns for local businesses including Benetton and J.C. Penney. (Today, many of them are top advertising and marketing executives.) Sonnenschein later expanded Adbank to other campuses and used models from the SUNY Modeling Association (another organization which he founded). All this led to the honor of Sonnenschein being chosen by Princeton University's "Business Today" magazine as one of the country's top 200 future business leaders.
Sonnenschein started his television career in 1987, when he joined the international marketing department of New York's Videofashion, Inc., the world's largest producer of fashion television and video programming. He quickly learned the ropes of the television business, and regularly flew to industry conventions in Cannes, France to negotiate media deals with his overseas contacts. In addition, he frequently joined Videofashion's TV crews at fashion shows, photographing top supermodels such as Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista and Naomi Campbell as they strutted down the runway. But his primary focus was still sales of the company's programs. Within two years, Director of International Marketing--and shortly thereafter, to Director of U.S. Marketing.
While Sonnenschein was at Videofashion, the company was approached by a pay-per-view television syndicator who was interested in airing a fashion special on swimsuits. It was during this period that Sonnenschein had his first "bikini epiphany"--attending a bikini contest in Wildwood, New Jersey.
"In the summer of 1989, a friend of mine was organizing a series of bikini contests for Seagrams and asked me to attend with my home video camera to record it for her. When I came back with the footage and showed it to Nicolas Charney, Videofashion's Chairman, we both thought that it was highly entertaining and fun. The excitement of the crowds, the thrill of seeing someone win, the sexiness of the participants, the humor, it was all there. Everybody was having a good time--the crowd, the girls on the stage, the sponsors, even the judges--and it also looked really great on tape. Because of that bikini contest, we decided to focus more of the show on bikini contests, as compared to straight fashion."
From that point on, Sonnenschein changed the direction of the program, and actively participated in the production of the show. He was soon named Co-Executive Producer. Little did her know that the first Bikini Open special would quickly start bikini mania all over the country. The Bikini Open was an enormous success on pay-per-view television, outdrawing rock concerts and first-run movies. What started out as one pay-per-view special turned into eight--and when broadcast television stations saw its popularity, they ordered up six more two-hour specials for syndicated broadcast television. International broadcasters from South America to South Africa also bought into the fun, All-American lifestyle. Millions of viewers worldwide tuned in, and The Bikini Open soon became one of the world's most popular swimsuit programs. But Sonnenschein is adamant about sharing the credit. "I attribute the success of The Bikini Open to the fact that we had an extremely talented team of producers, editors and camera crews that was dedicated to making this a groundbreaking series."
Along with Bikini Open Chairman Nicolas Charney and Co-Executive Producer Mercedes Woods, Sonnenschein pioneered the use of interactivity in both pay-per-view and broadcast television. Viewers were asked to call into a special hotline and vote for their favorite male and female finalists. The results were played live in each city, a logistical challenge, since the program was precut. "Some people didn't believe it was real, because it went so smoothly, but we actually cut as many endings to each show as there were combinations of male and female winners. Once we even had 24 different endings. Each station had to call into a special hotline at just the right moment to find out who won the local poll. What was interesting was how each city--each country, actually--had a different preference."
Sonnenschein eventually became a nationally-recognized expert on the bikini biz, appearing on dozens of television shows, including Entertainment Tonight, Donahue, Geraldo, Joan Rivers, Montel Williams, and A Current Affair. "The press loved The Bikini Open. They knew that it was about fun as well as sexiness, that it was done in good taste, and that they always got good ratings when they did stories on us. We never really got any negative feedback. But they sometimes needed to create an issue. Once, I was a guest on the Montel Williams show, talking about bikini contests and swimsuit modeling. They brought out two beautiful women who modeled their bikinis in front of the audience, which responded enthusiastically. Then, Montel revealed that the models were actually men who dressed and lived as women, and who wanted to appear in The Bikini Open as women. I was totally put on the spot by Montel as to whether or not I would put them in The Bikini Open, and as what sex. I thought it would be fun to start a new category for them."
Prompted by his female co-executive producer, staffers and viewers, Sonnenschein had already acknowledged that bikini-watching had become a coed sport, and included profiles on handsome men as well as beautiful women in the Bikini Open series. "My initial response towards the idea of including guys in our programs was lukewarm, since I was afraid that we would lose our loyal male viewers. But we decided to portray guys in a very athletic, bodybuilding kind of way, which not only attracted the female viewers, but kept the males motivated to keep working out. It turned out to be a popular part of the show."
As it turned out, bikini-watching wasn't just limited to just the average, red-blooded American male. Sonnenschein discovered that there was a big circle of "celebrity" bikini-watchers at the events he was attending, and interviewed an eclectic mix of characters from Evil Kneivel to Weird Al Yankovic to O.J. Simpson. In his pre-Bronco chase days, Simpson was a judge at the Miss Hawaiian Tropic pageant in Daytona Beach, Florida. During his revealing interview with Sonnenschein, the football star was surrounded by several voluptuous Hawaiian Tropic models, and talked about mens' fascination with pretty girls in bikinis.
Today's successful television executives know that the merchandise from an entertainment project can often bring in far more than advertising revenues. The success of the Bikini Open television series spawned a demand for calendars, posters and trading cards--and, ever the photographer, Sonnenschein shot the majority of still images for the Bikini Open's merchandise. Sonnenschein also created a musical outlet for the nation's bikini fixation. Country music was just starting to take off nationally, and he decided to try to mix a country music song with bikinis. The result: "The Bikini Shuffle," a song and dance craze that took parts of the country by storm. (Of course, the video featured gorgeous "cowgirls" in red, white and blue bikinis).
With thousands of miles and experiences under his belt, Sonnenschein loves to entertain friends with tales of his bikini travels. "I have so many funny memories, it's hard to pick just one. Off the top, there was once a time in Florida where we were shooting this beautiful blonde model in a red bikini. We found a scenic pier with a stream of water running off. We posed the model in the stream of water and asked her to act as if she was taking a shower in the stream (of course, wearing her bikini). She was totally getting into this shower, and was incredibly hot, even for our jaded crew. The next day, I saw her on the beach. She ran over to me, and exclaimed with a giggle that she had discovered that the stream was actually runoff water from a nearby seafood restaurant, and that it was the water that they used to clean the fish. I was mortified. She asked me, totally innocently, if she smelled like fish. What could I say?"
One of the greatest pleasures has been watching new talent go on beyond bikinidom. Among his early discoveries were Deprise Brescia, who became a host on ESPN's "Body Shaping," Kelly McCarty, who went on to become Miss USA, and Steve Sandalis, who as the "Topaz" man, became known as the "next Fabio" for his steamy appearances on romance book covers. One of his current finds is Tanya Watts, a Pamela Anderson lookalike. He photographed some test shots of her, and helped her to submit them to Playboy, which subsequently shot her for its July 1995 issue. Watts echoes the comments of several models that Howard has worked with. "He's very professional and always tries to keep things fun," Watts comments. "Even if we're shooting at five in the morning, he's always making everyone laugh."
Sonnenschein's latest project brings his skills to the ultimate area of interactivity: the CD-ROM. His first foray into "cyberbikinidom" is "Bikini Challenge Magazine," a series of interactive CD-ROMs featuring the world's hottest swimsuit models. He plans to work with top multimedia specialists to make each issue as visually stimulating and fun as possible. "It's my way of introducing to the world the most incredible and beautiful models, as well as top-quality pictures and videos from leading photographers." The first issue, shot on location in Jamaica, will feature a behind-the-scenes photo shoot with interviews and profiles on 13 beautiful bikini-clad women. Bikini Challenge users will be able to choose models, locations and outfits, and will be asked to vote for their favorites by e-mail or fax. "The more interactive feedback I get from users, the more I'll be able to tailor make CD-ROMs to suit everyone's personal preferences."
As for Sonnenschein's future plans, the sky's the limit. Serious talks are underway with top entertainment leaders to create a weekly beach-oriented television series, as well as other interactive products and services. "I think that bikini -watching is the world's favorite spectator sport--and I hope to help bring it to and Olympic level."
