Kenneth Handler

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Kenneth Handler
Born
Kenneth Robert Handler

(1944-03-22)March 22, 1944
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
DiedJune 11, 1994(1994-06-11) (aged 50)
New York City, New York, U.S.
Occupation(s)Screenwriter, director, composer
Known forNamesake of the Ken doll
Spouse
Suzie Handler
​
(m. 1963)​
Children3
Parents

Kenneth Robert Handler (March 22, 1944 – June 11, 1994) was an American screenwriter, director, and film composer.

He was the son of Mattel founders Elliot Handler and Ruth Handler, creators of the Barbie and Ken doll, the latter of which is named after him.[1] He directed Delivery Boys and A Place Without Parents.

Early life[edit]

Kenneth Handler was born on March 22, 1944, in southern California. He showed an early love and talent for both movies and music; he played piano, listened to opera, and watched foreign movies with subtitles. He was something of a non-conformist to the world and shared his father's creative talents, and got along reasonably well with his mother Ruth. This was in contrast to his sister Barbara, who had more fraught relations with her mother while growing up; the two siblings did not particularly get along. In later interviews, Kenneth said his sister was "a conform freak" in contrast to his self-designation as a "nerd", while Barbara called Kenneth an "eccentric."[2] Handler attended Hamilton High School.[3]

Education and career[edit]

Handler received a bachelor's degree in music from UCLA. In 1965, he worked in the mailroom at Universal Studios with Mike Medavoy.[4]

In 1966, Handler and Norm Ratner founded Penthouse, a music label distributed by Mira.[5] Handler subsequently formed Canterbury Records, a Penthouse subsidiary, with Pat Boone.[6] In 1968, Mattel backed a music group of teens, the Bath-House Brass, and produced an EP featuring two songs, "It's a Gas" and "Davy," with Capitol Records as distributor; Handler wrote and produced "It's a Gas."[7] The release of the EP was tied to a line of musical instrument toys. The record was promoted to Top 40 stations, featured in a "promotional film," and the music was used in Mattel commercials.[8] The promotional budget for the two-month campaign was $300,000 ($2.6 million in 2022).[9]

During the 1970s, Handler also owned a photography gallery in Los Angeles, Chiaroscuro Galleries, where, according to After Dark, a culture magazine with a heavily LGBTQ+ influence, he showed his own work in a show called All-American Boys, which featured two portfolios, "Children of the Streets (read Selma Avenue) and Children of Affluence."[10] Selma Avenue is probably a reference to the Los Angeles street that runs parallel to Hollywood Boulevard, where gay hustlers worked in those years.[11][12] (Anthony Friedkin famously photographed hustlers on Selma Avenue.[13])

Handler may have run a casting couch throughout his years in entertainment. Bobby Jameson, signed briefly to Penthouse, alleged that Handler dropped him in 1966 after Jameson refused a sexual advance.[5] In 2016, Taimak wrote in his memoir that Handler offered him a role in Delivery Boys contingent on sexual favors. Taimak declined the role.[14][15]

Relation with Ken dolls[edit]

Despite being named after him, Kenneth did not particularly participate in the design of Ken dolls, and felt ambivalent at best and resentful at worst toward them. He seems to have disliked the materialism promoted by the dolls (compared to more traditional play activities) and worried about negative impacts toward children's self-image. He wrote a letter to his parents in 1970 complaining that the dolls were "[kow]towing to those who can't accept the issue of their own sexuality."[2]

Personal life[edit]

Handler married Suzie Handler in 1963.[16] They had three children.[3] Handler died on June 11, 1994. His mother publicly stated that his cause of death was a brain tumor,[17] but multiple writers, including Jerry Oppenheimer and Robin Gerber, attribute his death to AIDS-related complications. Handler had come out as gay to his parents and acknowledged his AIDS diagnosis in 1990. His parents and wife were all supportive of him and helped however they could.[18][19][2] In 2019, Gerber told journalist Rich Juzwiak that she confirmed Ken Handler's cause of death by consulting correspondence between Ruth Handler and Ken's physician, and by interviewing the physician herself, as well as a box of restricted materials in the Mattel archive.[20]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Brynn Holland (January 29, 2016). "Barbie Through the Ages". History. Archived from the original on August 8, 2023. Retrieved February 13, 2023. Ken was named after Ruth Handler's son.
  2. ^ a b c Gerber, Robin (2010) [2009]. Barbie and Ruth: The Story of the World's Most Famous Doll and the Woman Who Created Her. Harper. pp. 84–85, 233–244. ISBN 978-0-06-134131-1.
  3. ^ a b Denise Gellene (January 29, 1989). "Fame Dogs 'Real' Barbie, Ken". LA Times. Archived from the original on January 17, 2021. Retrieved February 13, 2023.
  4. ^ Medavoy, Mike (2013). You're Only As Good As Your Next One. New York: Atria. p. xxix. ISBN 9781439118139. Retrieved July 20, 2023.
  5. ^ a b Poter, Maximiliano (2018). Losers: Historias de famosos perdedores del rock. Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial Argentina. ISBN 9789877800005. Retrieved July 20, 2023.
  6. ^ "Canterbury Setup". Billboard. November 19, 1966. Retrieved July 20, 2023.
  7. ^ "Davy/It's A Gas". 45Cat. Retrieved July 24, 2023.
  8. ^ Weber, Bruce (May 25, 1968). "Mattel Toys Into Records With Capitol As Distributor" (PDF). Billboard. pp. 1, 74. Retrieved July 24, 2023.
  9. ^ "Mattel 'Gimmicks' Click With Top 40s". Billboard. July 6, 1968. p. 6. Retrieved July 24, 2023.
  10. ^ Swisher, Viola Hegyi (August 1976). "Los Angeles". After Dark: 20. Retrieved July 24, 2023.
  11. ^ Welch, Paul (June 26, 1964). "The "Gay" World Takes to the City Streets". Life. p. 68. Retrieved July 24, 2023.
  12. ^ Doe, John (2016). Under the Big Black Sun: A Personal History of LA Punk. Da Capo. p. 147. ISBN 9780306824081. Retrieved July 24, 2023.
  13. ^ Teicher, Jordan (June 13, 2014). "Hustlers, Drag Queens, and Lovers: Gay California in the '60s and '70s". Slate. Archived from the original on October 21, 2020. Retrieved July 24, 2023.
  14. ^ Shine, Jacqui (July 21, 2023). "Ken's Last Movie". Roadmap. Archived from the original on July 22, 2023. Retrieved July 24, 2023.
  15. ^ Guarriello, Taimak (2016). The Last Dragon. Pasadena, CA: Incorgnito. pp. 77–78.
  16. ^ Gibson, Kelsie (July 21, 2023). "All About Ruth Handler's Daughter and Son, After Whom Barbie and Ken Were Named". People. Archived from the original on July 22, 2023. Retrieved August 22, 2023. Kenneth and his wife Suzie Handler, who he married in 1963
  17. ^ Woo, Elaine (April 28, 2002). "Barbie creator Handler, 85, dies". Baltimore Sun. Archived from the original on February 14, 2023. Retrieved February 13, 2023. Her son, Ken, died of a brain tumor in 1994.
  18. ^ Shapiro, Susan (March 11, 2019). "Barbie, Like her Creator, Is a Feminist". Daily Beast. Archived from the original on April 2, 2019. Retrieved February 14, 2023. When she found out her married son Ken had contracted AIDS from a gay affair, she supported him and took him to top doctors, before he died in 1994.
  19. ^ Oppenheimer, Jerry (2009). Toy Monster: The Big, Bad World of Mattel. Wiley. ISBN 9780470371268.
  20. ^ Juzwiak, Rich (October 31, 2019). "The Strange, Sad Story of the Ken Doll's Crotch". Jezebel. Archived from the original on October 31, 2019. Retrieved July 25, 2023.

External links[edit]

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