The zen of Ken

For his 50th birthday, Ken is getting a shaving razor.

That's how life unwinds in doll time. While girls who struggled to pull a crewneck sweater over flock-haired Ken in the 1960s went on to graduate, pay mortgages and manage hot flashes, Ken has been rubbing his chin, hoping for bristles.

The result is Shaving Fun Ken, just one part of Mattel's birthday celebration for the original boy toy, who turns 50 on Friday.

Technically, he's an accessory. It's true: As Barbie responded to the jabs of bimbo-osity lobbed at her by dressing as a surgeon, astronaut, Army Ranger, dentist and art teacher, Ken mostly modeled fashions for the office, the beach, a date, the beach, the fraternity and the beach.

But that also served a purpose, enabling the Ken doll to consistently uphold the cultural shorthand used to describe TV anchormen, male models, game-show hosts and John Edwards.

For this, he is due the thanks of a grateful nation.

Short of that, he may be credited for helping foster the good humor of one Ken Doll of Greenwald, Minn., a town of less than 1 square mile southeast of Sauk Centre.

"But in my adolescent years, I found out the girls thought it was kind of cute," said Doll.

Ken the doll had been on the market for three years when Ken the human was born, but Doll said his parents never imagined the implications of the name. Nor, apparently, did the relatives who named his cousin Barb.

Doll, who works in welding and manufacturing, still gets ribbed every once in awhile, but chooses to use it to his advantage. "Whenever someone asks me my name, I spell it out, then say, 'Just like a Ken doll,' and they never forget it."

Controversial Ken

So maybe there's never been a Welder Ken, but a mind-boggling number of versions have been sold over the past half-century. In addition to Beach Blast Ken, Fashion Fever Ken, Stars & Stripes Rendezvous With Destiny Army Ken and Wedding Day Ken, there have been Kens as Rhett Butler, the Cowardly Lion and Captain Kirk. Last year, Mattel released a "Mad Men" collection with Don Draper Ken. (No cigarette, though.)

Eyebrows shot up at the gold digger implication -- and rose higher at Mattel's smooth explanation: Sugar's Dad Ken was part of the Barbie Collector Line, meaning that it was not for kids, but for grownups.

So it should come as little surprise that Ken now has his own reality show.

"Genuine Ken: The Search for the Great American Boyfriend" is online on Hulu.com, and features eight "Ken-testants." Real human men dubbed Compassionate Ken, Crooner Ken, Artistic Ken or Party Ken compete for the title of Ultimate Boyfriend. At the close of each episode, the eliminated contender steps forward and a judge wielding a scissors cuts off his wrist tag.

Ready for his close-up

Ken got his star turn in the Oscar-nominated "Toy Story 3," and revealed an expected poignancy as he gave the toys a tour of his Dream House, murmuring that he yearned for "someone to share it with."

This union, of course, has not happened in real life. Or, um, doll life. Barbie and Ken's 2004 "breakup" -- on Valentine's Day! -- made news. Or, um, "news." No wonder. Seventy percent of U.S. girls between ages 3 and 10 own at least one Barbie doll. On average, three Barbies are sold worldwide every second.

Ken's sales figures are considerably more modest. Mattel couldn't even readily supply them -- a circumstance that avid collectors such as Jef Beck find regrettable. Beck, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, runs the website Keeping Ken, at www. manbehindthedoll.com, which is much lauded among collectors of male fashion dolls. He estimated there's one Ken made for every 20 Barbies.

Beck also has written "I Ken: My Life as the Ultimate Boyfriend" (Running Press, $14.95), released to coincide with Ken's March 11 "birthday." It's a tongue-in-cheek homage to the doll's best boyfriend advice, such as, "Offer her your arm (if it bends that way)."

"I was called to preserve the history of Ken," said Beck, who has 230 of the dolls. "I gave him a voice for the first time." Or at least more personality than the first talking Ken doll, perhaps best known for uttering, "Hey, Barbie, I'll bring the guitar to the party."

Beck, who works in a children's clothing store, said that Ken fashions, more than dolls, are the Holy Grail for collectors these days. "Here Comes the Groom" and "Seeing the Sights" are prized. He once paid $900 for a Ken's "Summer Job" outfit.

Come on: She takes him back just as his movie is about to win an Academy Award?

Typical.