Kenner Products

Kenner Products was an American toy company founded in 1947. Throughout its history the Kenner brand produced several highly recognizable toys and merchandise lines, including the original series of Star Wars action figures. The company was closed by its corporate parent Hasbro in 2000.

History

Founded in 1947 in Cincinnati, Ohio by brothers Albert, Phillip, and Joseph L. Steiner, the company was named after the street where the original corporate offices were located, just north of Cincinnati's Union Terminal. It was a pioneer in the use of television as a medium for advertising toys across the United States, beginning in 1958.

In the early 1960s, Kenner introduced its corporate mascot, The Kenner Gooney Bird, which would be used in both its company logo ("It's Kenner! It's fun!") and TV ads, in both animated form and puppetry. One commercial was produced by Muppets creator Jim Henson. The Bird was phased out by 1974.

The company was purchased by General Mills in 1967. In 1970, General Mills merged its Rainbow Crafts division into Kenner Products, bringing Play-Doh into the Kenner product line. In 1985, General Mills would spin-off both its Kenner and Parker toy divisions to form Kenner Parker Toys, Inc. The following year Kenner Parker sold off its Lionel Trains division.

Kemp

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People

Charles Bronson

Charles Bronson (born Charles Dennis Buchinsky; November 3, 1921 – August 30, 2003) was an American film and television actor.

He starred in films such as Once Upon a Time in the West, The Magnificent Seven, The Dirty Dozen, The Great Escape, Rider on the Rain, The Mechanic, and the Death Wish series. He was often cast in the role of a police officer, gunfighter, or vigilante in revenge-oriented plot lines. He had long collaborations with film directors Michael Winner and J. Lee Thompson. In 1965, he was featured as Major Wolenski in Battle of the Bulge.

Early life and World War II service

Bronson was born Charles Dennis Buchinsky in Ehrenfeld in Cambria County in the coal region of the Allegheny Mountains north of Johnstown, Pennsylvania.

He was the 11th of 15 children born to a Lithuanian immigrant father and a Lithuanian-American mother. His father, Walter Bunchinski (who later adjusted his surname to Buchinsky to sound more "American"), hailed from the town of Druskininkai. Bronson's mother, Mary (née Valinsky), whose parents were from Lithuania, was born in the coal mining town of Tamaqua, Pennsylvania. He learned to speak English when he was a teenager; before that he spoke Lithuanian and Russian.