LOS ANGELES — Art Linkletter, the radio and television talk-show pioneer who was best known for eliciting hilarious remarks from the mouths of babes and who late in life was a popular motivational speaker and author, challenging seniors to live as zestfully as he did, died Wednesday at his home in Bel-Air, his family said. He was 97.
He was an accomplished businessman whose Linkletter Enterprises controlled more than 70 businesses. He became a well-known anti-drug crusader after a daughter committed suicide in 1969. He wrote three autobiographies and a 1988 best-seller called “Old Age Is Not for Sissies” and released the latest of more than 20 books — about making the most of life’s later years — on his 94th birthday.
To many baby boomers and their parents who watched his daytime television show “House Party,” Linkletter would always be the perfect straight man who could ask a grade-schooler a simple question like “What does your mommy do?” and elicit this response: “She does a little housework, then sits around all day reading the Racing Form.” That popular segment from the television show that aired from 1952 to 1970 led to his 1957 best-selling book, “Kids Say the Darndest Things,” and several sequels.
The idea to showcase children’s unrehearsed comments came to him during a conversation with his oldest child, Jack, after the boy’s first day in kindergarten. Informed by Jack that he would never go back to school, his father asked why. Jack responded: “Because I can’t read, I can’t write and they won’t let me talk.” The segment debuted in 1945 on the CBS radio version of “House Party.”
Linkletter hosted “People are Funny” and the Emmy-winning “House Party” for more than 25 years. He last regularly appeared on TV as a contributor on “Kids Say the Darndest Things,” a show Bill Cosby hosted from 1998 to 2000.
A prolific author, Linkletter wrote at least six books featuring cute quotes from kids, but he also tackled drug abuse, salesmanship and public speaking.
“Retire?” he said in 1988, when he paused for an interview between skiing in Vail and scuba diving off Brisbane, Australia. “If you retire, you can’t ever have a day off.”
Linkletter was born Arthur Gordon Kelly in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, on July 17, 1912. Abandoned as an infant, he was adopted by an elderly itinerant evangelist, Fulton Link letter, and his wife, Mary. The Linkletters moved to California when he was 3.
After graduating from high school at 16, Linkletter did odd jobs around the U.S. He worked as a busboy in Chicago, a stevedore in New Orleans and a meatpacker in Minneapolis.
Eventually, he enrolled in what is now San Diego State University, intending to become an English professor. In his junior year, Linkletter was hired as an announcer at San Diego radio station KGB.
After earning his bachelor’s degree in 1934, Linkletter turned down a teaching job to stick with announcing — it paid more.
In 1942, Linkletter moved to Hollywood, where he excelled in creating and starring in audience-participation shows.
The nonagenarian told anyone who asked that he watched his diet, swam or biked and lifted weights five times a week and slept eight hours a night. He skied until he was 92.
He also gave credit for his vigor and longevity to his wife, Lois, whom he married in 1935. She survives him, along with two daughters, seven grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren.
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