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Art Linkletter, whose "People Are Funny"
and "House Party" shows entertained millions of TV viewers in the
1950s and '60s with the funny side of ordinary folks and who
remained active as a writer and speaker through his ninth decade,
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.


      "He lived a long, full, pure life, and the Lord had need for
him," Hershey said.


      Linkletter had been ill "in the last few weeks time, but bear
in mind he was 97 years old. He wasn't eating well, and the aging
process took him," Hershey said.


      Linkletter hadn't been diagnosed with any life-threatening
disease, he said.


   Linkletter was known on TV for his funny interviews with
children and ordinary folks. He also collected their comments in a
number of best-selling books.


      "Art Linkletter's House Party," one of television's
longest-running variety shows, debuted on radio in 1944 and was
seen on CBS-TV from 1952 to 1969.


      Though it had many features, the best known was the daily
interviews with schoolchildren.


      "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," Linkletter
wrote.


      "All the while, without your knowledge, your boss would be
sitting a few feet away listening, and at the appropriate moment, I
would bring you together," he said. "Now, that's funny, because
the laugh arises out of a real situation."


      Linkletter collected sayings from the children into "Kids Say
The Darndest Things," and it sold in the millions. The book "70
Years of Best Sellers 1895-1965" ranked "Kids Say the Darndest
Things" as the 15th top seller among nonfiction books in that
period.


      The primetime "People Are Funny," which began on radio in 1942
and ran on TV from 1954 to 1961, emphasized slapstick humor and
audience participation -- things like throwing a pie in the face of
a contestant who couldn't tell his Social Security number in five
seconds, or asking him to go out and cash a check written on the
side of a watermelon.


      The down-to-earth charm of Linkletter's broadcast persona seemed
to be mirrored by his private life with his wife of more than a
half-century, Lois. They had five children, whom he wrote about in
his books and called the "Links."


      In 1969, his 20-year-old daughter, Diane, jumped to her
death from her sixth-floor Hollywood apartment. He blamed her death
on LSD use, but toxicology tests found no LSD in her body after she
died.


      Still, the tragedy prompted him to become a crusader against
drugs. A son, Robert, died in a car accident in 1980. Another son,
Jack Linkletter, was 70 when he died of lymphoma in 2007.

      Art Linkletter got his first taste of broadcasting with a
part-time job while attending San Diego State College in the early
1930s. He graduated in 1934.


      "I was studying to be an English professor," Linkletter once
said. "But as they say, life is what happens to you while you're
making other plans."


      He held a series of radio and promotion jobs in California and
Texas, experimenting with audience participation and remote
broadcasts, before forming his own production company in the 1940s
and striking it big with "People Are Funny" and "House Party."


      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 United States, eventually settling in San
Diego.


      He recalled his preacher-father forced him to take odd jobs to
help the family. So Linkletter left and became a hobo, hopping
trains across the West, working where he could. He recalled later
that he felt the religious faith instilled by his father had been a
great gift.


      After leaving daily broadcasting in 1969, Linkletter continued
to write, lecture and appear in television commercials.


      Among his other books were, "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."


      A recording Linkletter made with his daughter Diane not long
before she died, "We Love You, Call Collect," was issued after
her death and won a Grammy award for best spoken word recording.


      "Life is not fair ... not easy," Linkletter said in a 1990
interview by The Associated Press. "Outside, peer pressure can
wreak havoc with the nicest families. So that's the part that's a
gamble.


      "But I'm an optimist. Even though I've had tragedies in my
life, and I've seen a lot of difficult things, I still am an
optimist."


      Linkletter had extensive business interests. He headed a company
involved in real estate development and management and operation of
cattle ranches in Montana, New Mexico and California. He held
interests in oil and gas wells, owned livestock in Australia and
was involved in a solar energy firm.


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

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Arts and Culture

Art Linkletter, who hosted the popular TV
shows "People Are Funny" and "House Party" in the 1950s and 1960s, has died. He was 97.

Popular '50s and '60s TV host Art Linkletter dies

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