Kenneth Robert Handler (March 22, 1944 – June 11, 1994) was an American screenwriter, director, and film composer.
[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.
[5] In 2016, Taimak wrote in his memoir that Handler offered him a role in Delivery Boys contingent on sexual favors.
[14][15] 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.