Kenneth Handler
{{Short description|American filmmaker and namesake of Mattel's Ken doll (1944–1994)}}
{{use American English|date=May 2023}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2023}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Kenneth Handler
| birth_name = Kenneth Robert Handler
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1944|03|22}}
| birth_place = Los Angeles, California, U.S.
| spouse = {{marriage|Suzie Handler|1963}}
| children = 3
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1994|06|11|1944|03|22}}
| death_place = New York City, New York, U.S.
| occupation = Screenwriter, director, composer
| known_for = Namesake of the Ken doll
| mother = Ruth Handler
| father = Elliot Handler
}}
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.{{cite web|url=https://www.history.com/.amp/news/barbie-through-the-ages|title=Barbie Through the Ages|author=Brynn Holland|date=January 29, 2016|publisher=History|access-date=February 13, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230808082858/https://www.history.com/news/barbie-through-the-ages|archive-date=August 8, 2023|url-status=live|quote=Ken was named after Ruth Handler’s son.}} He directed Delivery Boys and A Place Without Parents.
Early life
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." Handler attended Hamilton High School.{{cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-01-29-fi-1652-story.html|title=Fame Dogs 'Real' Barbie, Ken|author=Denise Gellene|date=January 29, 1989|access-date=February 13, 2023|newspaper=LA Times |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210117231900/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-01-29-fi-1652-story.html |archive-date=January 17, 2021 |url-status=live}}
Education and career
Handler received a bachelor's degree in music from UCLA. In 1965, he worked in the mailroom at Universal Studios with Mike Medavoy.{{cite book |last1=Medavoy |first1=Mike |title=You're Only As Good As Your Next One |date=2013 |publisher=Atria |location=New York |page=xxix |isbn=9781439118139 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GQe4nFeemPMC&dq=%22ken+handler%22&pg=PR29 |access-date=July 20, 2023}}
In 1966, Handler and Norm Ratner founded Penthouse, a music label distributed by Mira.{{cite book |last1=Poter |first1=Maximiliano |title=Losers: Historias de famosos perdedores del rock |date=2018 |publisher=Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial Argentina |isbn=9789877800005 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UTt7DwAAQBAJ&dq=mira+%22ken+handler%22&pg=PT106 |access-date=July 20, 2023}} Handler subsequently formed Canterbury Records, a Penthouse subsidiary, with Pat Boone.{{cite news |title=Canterbury Setup |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eA8EAAAAMBAJ&dq=canterbury+records+pat+boone+handler&pg=PA13 |access-date=July 20, 2023 |agency=Billboard |date=November 19, 1966}} 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."{{cite web |title=Davy/It's A Gas |url=https://www.45cat.com/record/2213 |website=45Cat |access-date=July 24, 2023}} 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.{{cite magazine |last1=Weber |first1=Bruce |title=Mattel Toys Into Records With Capitol As Distributor |magazine=Billboard |date=May 25, 1968 |pages=1, 74 |url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Billboard/60s/1968/Billboard%201968-05-25.pdf |access-date=July 24, 2023}} The promotional budget for the two-month campaign was $300,000 ($2.6 million in 2022).{{cite magazine |title=Mattel 'Gimmicks' Click With Top 40s |magazine=Billboard |date=July 6, 1968 |page=6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xwoEAAAAMBAJ&dq=%22bath-house+brass%22+%22it%27s+a+gas%22&pg=PA6 |access-date=July 24, 2023}}
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."{{cite journal |last1=Swisher |first1=Viola Hegyi |title=Los Angeles |journal=After Dark |date=August 1976 |page=20 |url=https://archive.org/details/after-dark-august-1976/page/20/mode/1up?q=%22chiaroscuro+galleries%22 |access-date=July 24, 2023}} Selma Avenue is probably a reference to the Los Angeles street that runs parallel to Hollywood Boulevard, where gay hustlers worked in those years.{{cite magazine |last1=Welch |first1=Paul |title=The "Gay" World Takes to the City Streets |magazine=Life |date=June 26, 1964 |page=68 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qEEEAAAAMBAJ&dq=gay+hustlers+selma+avenue&pg=PA68 |access-date=July 24, 2023}}{{cite book |last1=Doe |first1=John |title=Under the Big Black Sun: A Personal History of LA Punk |date=2016 |publisher=Da Capo |page=147 |isbn=9780306824081 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fRXRDQAAQBAJ&dq=gay+hustlers+selma+avenue&pg=PA147 |access-date=July 24, 2023}} (Anthony Friedkin famously photographed hustlers on Selma Avenue.{{cite web |last1=Teicher |first1=Jordan |date=June 13, 2014 |title=Hustlers, Drag Queens, and Lovers: Gay California in the '60s and '70s |url=https://slate.com/culture/2014/06/the-fine-arts-museums-of-san-francisco-present-the-exhibition-anthony-friedkin-the-gay-essay.html |website=Slate |access-date=July 24, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201021023623/https://slate.com/culture/2014/06/the-fine-arts-museums-of-san-francisco-present-the-exhibition-anthony-friedkin-the-gay-essay.html|archive-date=October 21, 2020|url-status=live}})
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. In 2016, Taimak wrote in his memoir that Handler offered him a role in Delivery Boys contingent on sexual favors. Taimak declined the role.{{cite web |last1=Shine |first1=Jacqui |date=July 21, 2023|title=Ken's Last Movie |url=https://roadmapmag.com/articles/kens-last-movie |website=Roadmap |access-date=July 24, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230722131429/https://roadmapmag.com/articles/kens-last-movie|archive-date=July 22, 2023|url-status=live}}{{cite book |last1=Guarriello |first1=Taimak |title=The Last Dragon |date=2016 |publisher=Incorgnito |location=Pasadena, CA |pages=77–78 |url=https://archive.org/details/lastdragonautobi0000taim/page/n3/mode/2up?q=%22ken+handler%22+%22delivery+boys%22&view=theater}}
Relation with Ken dolls
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."
Personal life
Handler married Suzie Handler in 1963.{{Cite web|last=Gibson|first=Kelsie|title= All About Ruth Handler's Daughter and Son, After Whom Barbie and Ken Were Named|url= https://people.com/all-about-ruth-handler-children-barbara-kenneth-7562635|date=July 21, 2023|work=People|access-date=August 22, 2023|url-status=live|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20230722164334/https://people.com/all-about-ruth-handler-children-barbara-kenneth-7562635|archive-date=July 22, 2023|quote= Kenneth and his wife Suzie Handler, who he married in 1963}} They had three children. Handler died on June 11, 1994. His mother publicly stated that his cause of death was a brain tumor,{{Cite web|last=Woo|first=Elaine|date=April 28, 2002|title=Barbie creator Handler, 85, dies|url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-2002-04-28-0204280198-story.html|website=Baltimore Sun|access-date=February 13, 2023|quote=Her son, Ken, died of a brain tumor in 1994.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230214002803/https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-2002-04-28-0204280198-story.html|archive-date=February 14, 2023}} 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.{{cite web|url= https://www.thedailybeast.com/barbie-like-her-creator-ruth-handler-is-a-feminist|title= Barbie, Like her Creator, Is a Feminist|first=Susan|last=Shapiro|date=March 11, 2019|work=Daily Beast|access-date=February 14, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190402023854/https://www.thedailybeast.com/barbie-like-her-creator-ruth-handler-is-a-feminist|archive-date=April 2, 2019|url-status=live|quote= 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.}}{{cite book |last=Oppenheimer |first=Jerry |author-link= Jerry Oppenheimer |date=2009 |title= Toy Monster: The Big, Bad World of Mattel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zzmGEAAAQBAJ&dq=google+books+toy+monster+kenneth+handler+gay&pg=PT81 |location= |publisher=Wiley |page= |isbn= 9780470371268}}{{cite book|title=Barbie and Ruth: The Story of the World's Most Famous Doll and the Woman Who Created Her|last=Gerber|first=Robin|publisher=Harper |date=2010 |orig-date=2009 |isbn=978-0-06-134131-1 |pages=84–85; 233–244}} 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.{{cite web |last1=Juzwiak |first1=Rich |date=October 31, 2019 |title=The Strange, Sad Story of the Ken Doll's Crotch |url=https://jezebel.com/the-strange-sad-story-of-the-ken-dolls-crotch-1839221635 |website=Jezebel |access-date=July 25, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191031201532/https://jezebel.com/the-strange-sad-story-of-the-ken-dolls-crotch-1839221635 |archive-date=October 31, 2019 |url-status=live}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{IMDb name|0359582|Ken Handler}}
{{Barbie}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Handler, Kenneth}}
Category:Film directors from Los Angeles
Category:American male screenwriters
Category:American people of Polish-Jewish descent
Category:American LGBTQ screenwriters