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Revision as of 20:54, 9 August 2023

Kenneth Handler
Born(1944-03-22)March 22, 1944
Los Angeles, 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, real estate agent[1]
Known forNamesake of the Ken doll
Spouse
Suzie Handler
​
(m. 1963)​
Children3
Parent(s)Elliot Handler
Ruth 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.[2] He directed Delivery Boys and A Place Without Parents.

Early life

Handler attended Hamilton High School, played piano, and enjoyed watching movies with subtitles.[1]

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.[3]

In 1966, Handler and Norm Ratner founded Penthouse, a music label distributed by Mira.[4] Handler subsequently formed Canterbury Records, a Penthouse subsidiary, with Pat Boone.[5] 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."[6] 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.[7] The promotional budget for the two-month campaign was $300,000 ($2.6 million in 2022).[8]

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."[9] Selma Avenue is probably a reference to the Los Angeles street that runs parallel to Hollywood Boulevard, where gay hustlers worked in those years.[10][11] (Anthony Friedkin famously photographed hustlers on Selma Avenue.[12])

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.[4] In 2016, Taimak wrote in his memoir that Handler offered him a role in Delivery Boys contingent on sexual favors. Taimak declined the role.[13][14]

Personal life

Handler married Suzie Handler in 1963. They had three children.[1] Handler died on June 11, 1994. His mother publicly stated that his cause of death was a brain tumor,[15] but multiple writers, including Jerry Oppenheimer and Robin Gerber, attribute his death to AIDS-related complications. Handler had come out to his parents and acknowledged his AIDS diagnosis in 1990.[16][17][18] 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.[19]

References

  1. ^ a b c Denise Gellene (January 29, 1989). "Fame Dogs 'Real' Barbie, Ken". LA Times. Retrieved February 13, 2023.
  2. ^ Brynn Holland (January 29, 2016). "Barbie Through the Ages". History. Retrieved February 13, 2023.
  3. ^ Medavoy, Mike (2013). You're Only As Good As Your Next One. New York: Atria. p. xxix. Retrieved July 20, 2023.
  4. ^ a b Poter, Maximiliano (2018). Losers: Historias de famosos perdedores del rock. Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial Argentina. Retrieved July 20, 2023.
  5. ^ "Canterbury Setup". Billboard. November 19, 1966. Retrieved July 20, 2023.
  6. ^ "Davy/It's A Gas". 45Cat. Retrieved July 24, 2023.
  7. ^ Weber, Bruce (May 25, 1968). "Mattel Toys Into Records With Capitol As Distributor" (PDF). Billboard: 1, 74. Retrieved July 24, 2023.
  8. ^ "Mattel 'Gimmicks' Click With Top 40s". Billboard: 6. July 6, 1968. Retrieved July 24, 2023.
  9. ^ Swisher, Viola Hegyi (August 1976). "Los Angeles". After Dark: 20. Retrieved July 24, 2023.
  10. ^ Welch, Paul (June 26, 1964). "The "Gay" World Takes to the City Streets". Life: 68. Retrieved July 24, 2023.
  11. ^ Doe, John (2016). Under the Big Black Sun: A Personal History of LA Punk. Da Capo. p. 147. Retrieved July 24, 2023.
  12. ^ Teicher, Jordan. "Hustlers, Drag Queens, and Lovers: Gay California in the '60s and '70s". Slate. Retrieved June 13, 2014.
  13. ^ Shine, Jacqui. "Ken's Last Movie". Roadmap. Retrieved July 24, 2023.
  14. ^ Guarriello, Taimak (2016). The Last Dragon. Pasadena, CA: Incorgnito. pp. 77–78.
  15. ^ Woo, Elaine (February 27, 2002). "Barbie creator Handler, 85, dies". Baltimore Sun. Retrieved February 13, 2023. Her son, Ken, died of a brain tumor in 1994.
  16. ^ Susan Shapiro (March 11, 2019). "Barbie, Like her Creator, Is a Feminist". Daily Beast. 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.
  17. ^ Oppenheimer, Jerry (2009). Toy Monster: The Big, Bad World of Mattel. Wiley. ISBN 9780470371268.
  18. ^ Gerber, Robin (2009). Barbie and Ruth: The Story of the World's Most Famous Doll and the Woman Who Created Her. Harper. ISBN 9780061341311.
  19. ^ Juzwiak, Rich. "The Strange, Sad Story of the Ken Doll's Crotch". Jezebel. Retrieved July 25, 2023.
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