TV Titan Art Linkletter Dies at 97

Art Linkletter, a longtime television figure who achieved widespread fame in the 1950s and ’60s as host of the popular shows People Are Funny and House Party, died May 26, 2010, at his home in Los Angeles. He was 97.

Linkletter’s most enduring legacy may have been his knack for connecting with children and everyday citizens, and coaxing them to speak with an amusing candor that made for irresistible television for all ages. Their disarming comments were an important component of his TV shows, and Linkletter also compiled them in a number of best-selling books.

Art Linkletter’s House Party, one of television’s longest-running variety shows, originated on radio in 1944. It moved to television in 1952, on CBS, and continued until 1969.

People Are Funny, which also began on radio, debuted in 1942. It aired on television from 1954 to 1961.

Linkletter’s programs presaged some of today’s reality television because, like some contemporary series, they spotlighted ordinary people divulging personal information potentially compromising on national television. A crucial difference was that Linkletter’s shows, and his on-camera style, were far gentler and more good-natured than some of today’s productions, which frequently veer into mean-spiritedness or intentional humiliation.

The most popular segment of House Party was its daily interviews with schoolchildren, which led to Linkletter’s book Kids Say the Darndest Things, which became an enormous best-seller.

Linkletter was born Arthur Gordon Kelly on July 17, 1912, in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. His unwed mother put him up for adoption when he was a baby. When he was about 7, he and his adoptive parents moved to the U.S., and eventually settled in San Diego.

According to reflections in news reports, Linkletter said that his father, who was a preacher, made him to take odd jobs to help support the family. Linkletter left and became a hobo, hopping trains across the West, working where he could. In later years, he expressed gratitude for the religious faith instilled by his father.

Art Linkletter was introduced to broadcasting in the 1930s, when he took a part-time job while studying at San Diego State College. He graduated in 1934.

He embraced the field and held several radio and promotion jobs in California and Texas, which allowed him to experiment with audience participation and remote broadcasts. He established a production company in the 1940s, which led to People Are Funny and House Party.

Although he enjoyed enormous professional success and always maintained an upbeat public image, Linkletter endured tragedy in his personal life.

He and his wife, Lois, had five children, three of whom died before he did. In 1969, his 20-year-old daughter Diane jumped to her death from her sixth-floor Hollywood apartment in an incident he attributed to her use of LSD, although toxicology tests revealed no LSD in her body following her death. The incident prompted Linkletter to become a crusader against drugs and served on President Richard Nixon’s national advisory council for drug abuse prevention.

A son, Robert, died in a car accident in 1980. Another son, Jack, was 70 when he died of lymphoma in 2007.

After he left daily television in 1969, Linkletter devoted himself to writing, lecturing and appearing in television commercials.

His other books included Old Age Is Not for Sissies, How to Be a Supersalesman, Confessions of a Happy Man, Hobo on the Way to Heaven and his autobiography, I Didn’t Do It Alone.

At the 2003 Daytime Emmy Awards, the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences honored Linkletter with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

In addition, he received two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame — one for radio, one for television.

He is survived by his wife, Lois, whom he married in 1935, two daughters, Dawn and Sharon, as well as seven grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren.

On September 15, 1997, Linkleter had the distinction of being interviewed by the Television Academy Foundation’s Archive of American Television. During the three-hour interview, conducted in Los Angeles, California, by Sam Denoff, Linkletter discussed his early years in radio and his business partnership with John Guedel, which resulted in many popular programs, including Groucho Marx’s You Bet Your Life. He also talked about his start, in 1950, in his first television series, Life with Linkletter. Linkletter then recounted some of his most memorable stories from the two television series he is most associated with, Art Linkletter's House Party and People Are Funny. He talked about the shows’ universal appeal and his humorous interviews with over 27,000 children. Linklletter, who was a longtime friend of entertainment industry legend Walt Disney, also discussed his notable appearance as host of the opening of Disneyland theme park on the live televised broadcast in July of 1955.

The entire interview may be viewed online here.