Veteran TV host Art Linkletter dead at 97

http://www.reuters.com/resources/r/m=02&d=20100526&t=2&i=113440961&w=320&r=2010-...
Television personality Art Linkletter walks through the Hollywood Pictures Backlot at the opening of Disney's California Adventure in Anaheim, California in this February 8, 2001 file photo. Linkletter, the genial television host who specialized in getting kids to say ''the darndest things,'' died on May 26, 2010 at the age of 97, his assistant said.

Credit: Reuters/Sam Mircovich/Files

Tue, May 4 2010 LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Art Linkletter, the genial television host who specialized in getting kids to say "the darndest things," died on Wednesday at the age of 97, his assistant said.

Linkletter, a mainstay of American broadcasting in the 1950s and '60s with shows like "People Are Funny" and "Art Linkletter's House Party," died of natural causes at his home in Los Angeles' upscale Bel Air community, assistant Jennifer Kramer told Reuters.

Linkletter's shows sometimes featured conversations with celebrities but emphasized man-in-the-street interviews and comic conversations with children.

At one time in the 1960s, he was host of the Emmy Award-winning daily show "House Party" while also serving as emcee on the weekly shows "People Are Funny" and "Linkletter and the Kids."

One of his shows featured a regular spot called "Kids Say the Darndest Things," in which Linkletter elicited funny comments from children on topics ranging from history to their families.

The segment became wildly popular, thanks to spontaneous responses like the 8-year-old boy who said, "My mom is going to have a baby but my father doesn't know."

"My art," Linkletter once said, "is getting other people to perform ... People are more interesting to me than anything else."

DAUGHTER'S SUICIDE

In 1969, after the suicide of his daughter Diane was linked to LSD use, Linkletter campaigned against drug abuse. He also traveled the world on behalf of World Vision, a Christian charity, and served as a leader of Goodwill Industries, the Arthritis Foundation and the Los Angeles Orphanage.

He was born Arthur Gordon Kelley on July 17, 1912, in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, but was abandoned by his biological family and adopted by the Linkletter family. His new father was an evangelist who moved the family to California.

He attended San Diego State College with the intention of becoming a teacher but drifted into radio. In 1942, Linkletter moved to Hollywood and launched "People Are Funny," a talk show that aired for 15 years on radio before moving to television.

Soon after, Linkletter started another of his most popular programs, "House Party," which aired for more than a dozen years on both radio and television.

He also found wealth as a businessman and investor, becoming involved in oil drilling, copper mining, an Australian sheep ranch and the Hula Hoop toy.

Linkletter wrote several books, and at age 94 published "How to Make the Rest of Your Life the Best of Your Life," which he said was his most important book because it was about the most powerful people in the world -- "old people."

With his wife Lois, whom he married in 1935, Linkletter also had two other daughters and a son, Jack, who produced TV programs, and a son Robert, who died in a 1980 automobile accident.

(Editing by Bill Trott and Cynthia Osterman)

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64P61M20100526

ART WAS COOL...........MY MOM LOVED HIM INTERESTINGLY HE DIED ON HER BIRTHDAY, SHE WOULD HAVE BEEN 83.
RIP IN PEACE ART AND MOM.

I remember him from TV in the late 60's early 70's...just glimpes of him on game/talk shows w/ a mic in his hand...honestly thought he was dead already...

RIP Art!! You and your daughter are reunited again!!!