Nonagenarians say the darnedest things!
Art Linkletter? Dead, isn’t he? Nope, the man who began his radio career in 1933 and made interviewing children a TV sensation in the 1950s and ’60s, is very much alive, and lively.
Linkletter, who turns 94 on July 17, won three Emmys, wrote two best sellers, “Kids Say the Darndest Things” and “Old Age Is Not for Sissies,” and now spends his days giving talks on cruise ships like the new Queen Mary 2, which is where Denver talk-show host Pierre Wolfe caught up with him for his Internet radio show, “America’s Dining and Travel Guide.”
Linkletter proved he’s lost none of his wit or his way with words. He opens the live interview by telling Wolfe, “I’m unaccustomed to this kind of program. I generally don’t work for nothing.”
He regaled a rapt audience, namely Pierre, with stories of his early life as an adoptee, his days in radio and the fun he’s had along the way.
He realized early on, he said, that he had no real talent. He couldn’t sing, dance, tell jokes, act or play a musical instrument, but he could talk. “One day I heard a young man in Denver (probably the late Gene Amole) talking to people who walked down the street. When I heard that, I said, ‘That’s what I do best!’ I took a microphone and started interviewing people.” It launched a 60-year career.
Linkletter’s two radio/television shows, “House Party” and “People Are Funny,” ran for 25 and 19 years. By his estimate, he did more than 27,000 interviews, most of them with children.
Wolfe, no kid himself, interviewed Linkletter in Wolfe’s cabin, which he called “my boudoir,” leading Linkletter to quip, “I’ve had a lot activity in boudoirs but never broadcast them.”
He’s still working, looking forward to a career that includes 75 speaking engagements a year. “I found him totally charming,” said Wolfe, who met Linkletter “cold” on QM2 and asked if he would appear on his show.
Wolfe’s interview with Linkletter can be heard on pierrewolfe.com at “Internet Broadcast.”
Around the dial M
Funeral services were held Saturday for John Wolfe, former program director at classical station KVOD 90.1-FM, who died Tuesday. Wolfe, 76, who also hosted the lunchtime program “In the Square” from Larimer Square in the 1970s and ’80s, had been suffering from Alzheimer’s. … All in agreement raise your hands: Congressman Tom Tancredo and Steve Moore of The Wall Street Journal discuss immigration with host Jon Caldara on “Independent Thinking” (8:30 p.m. Friday, KBDI-Channel 12). … KEZW 1430-AM sponsoring jazz singer Dianne Reeves’ appearance for The Kempe Foundation at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House on April 6. Tix at 303-864-5307. … Quotable: “As far as sex is concerned, I can still talk about it for hours.” Art Linkletter
Dick Kreck’s column appears Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. He may be reached at 303-820-1456 or dkreck@denverpost.com.
