Art Linkletter: Daytime Legend Linkletter Dead at 97
A daytime TV legend, Art Linkletter, died after a full life--much of it on daytime TV
TV legend Art Linkletter died today. He was 97.
Art Linkletter, host of the long-running “House Party” during the 1960s is dead at the age 97. He was also the author of the best-selling book, “Kids Say the Darnedest Things.”
Linkletter was a TV legend for a reason: he once had five TV shows running in prime time at the same time!
From Art Linkletter:
Arthur Gordon “Art” Linkletter (July 17, 1912 – May 26, 2010) was a Canadian radio and television personality and the former host of two long-running United States television shows: House Party, which ran on CBS radio and television for 25 years, and People Are Funny, on NBC radio-TV for 19 years. Linkletter was famous for interviewing children on House Party and Kids Say the Darndest Things, which led to a successful series of books quoting children. He is the only person to have five network television shows running in prime time simultaneously.
“Everywhere I go I hear, ‘Why don’t you interview the kids again?’ Linkletter told the Washington Post in 1981. I’ve been around long enough to develop some insights,”
Art Linkletter was a household word–at least those households which had TVs in the 1950s and 1960s. Linkletter’s later years were relatively easy, happy ones.
Linkletter was once a spokesman for National Home Life, an insurance company. A Republican, he became a political organizer and a spokesman for the United Seniors Association, now known as USA Next, an alternative to the AARP. He was also a member of Pepperdine University’s Board of Regents. He received a lifetime achievement Daytime Emmy award in 2003. Also, he was recently a member of the President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation (the council ended in November 2008).
Linkletter received honorary degrees from a number of universities, including Pepperdine University and the University of Prince Edward Island.
In early 2008, Linkletter suffered a mild stroke.
Art Linkletter died on May 26, 2010 at his home in Bel Air, California. He will be buried in Forest Lawn-Hollywood Hills Cemetery.
Linkletter was only 26 months away from his 100th birthday. His was a life well-lived.
R.I.P.
“On ‘House Party’ I would talk to you and bring out the fact that you had been letting your boss beat you at golf over a period of months as part of your campaign to get a raise.”
UPDATE: More from Yahoo: TV’s ‘People Are Funny’ host Art Linkletter dies
Art Linkletter, who as the gently mischievous host of TV’s “People Are Funny” and “House Party” in the 1950s and ’60s delighted viewers with his ability to get kids — and grownups — to say the darndest things on national television, died Wednesday. He was 97.
Linkletter died at his home in the Bel-Air section of Los Angeles, said his son-in-law, Art Hershey, the husband of Sharon Linkletter.
by Mondo Frazier
image: Wikimedia
