Art Linkletter, a television pioneer who paved the way for talk shows with his “House Party,” has died at 97. His son-in-law Art Hershey said he passed today (May 26) at his home in Los Angeles.
He was known for his down-to-earth charm and lived an unassuming private life. He lived with his wife Lois. They were married for more than half-century.
They had five children that often were the subject of his books. He called them the “Links.”
Linkletter’s most controversial period was during the 1960s when he became an outspoken opponent of the youth counterculture and its celebration of drug use.
His 20-year-old daughter, Diane, jumped to her death from her sixth-floor Hollywood apartment in 1969, and he quickly blamed the incident on her use of LSD. Later, toxicology tests found no LSD in her body.
Still, the tragedy prompted him to become a crusader against drugs.
A son, Robert, died in a car accident in 1980, and another son, Jack, died of lymphoma in 2007 at age 70.
Linkletter is survived by his wife, Lois, whom he married in 1935, and daughters Dawn and Sharon.
Linkletter was born on July 17, 1912, in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.
His unwed mother put him up for adoption when he was a baby; His adoptive parents moved to the United States, eventually settling in San Diego in 1919.
He is most fondly remembered for “Art Linkletter’s House Party.” It debuted on CBS at the dawn of commercial television in 1952 and stayed on the air for 17 years, making it one of television’s longest-running variety shows.
Art Linkletter on House Party
But his roots in broadcasting went back even further than that. His show debuted on radio in 1944.
Although an old Hollywood saying holds that you should never work with chimps or children, Linkletter was the king of the child interview.
Interviewing children was a regular feature on the show and Linkletter could get them to say the darnedest things.
Linkletter collected sayings from the children and put together a book, “Kids Say The Darndest Things,” that sold millions of copies.
His primetime show “People Are Funny” also began on radio in 1942 and ran on TV from 1954 to 1961.
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.”
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