Kenneth Handler
Kenneth Robert Handler 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. 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.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.In 1966, Handler and Norm Ratner founded Penthouse, a music label distributed by Mira. Handler subsequently formed Canterbury Records, a Penthouse subsidiary, with Pat Boone. 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." 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. The promotional budget for the two-month campaign was $300,000.
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 and Children of Affluence." Selma Avenue is probably a reference to the Los Angeles street that runs parallel to Hollywood Boulevard, where gay hustlers worked in those years.
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.