Arthur Gordon Kelly

[Pappy]

Posts were made about the deaths of Gary Coleman (who had 15 minutes of fame and a lifetime of noteriety), and Dennis Hopper (who had a reputation of problems working with others in the business).

Surprising to me that no one mentioned the death of Arthur Gordon Kelly last Wenesday. Better known to the world as Art Linkletter, he died peacefully in his home at the age of 97. He will be fondly remembered by many for his interviews with kids, especially by a lot of then embarrassed parents.

[herb fellows]

You said 3 things that shocked me:
1) Art Linkletter is dead.
2) he was 79?? I would have sworn he would be near 100 now! It seems to me he was a middle aged guy when I was a kid of 10, and I'm 62 now.
3) Art Linkletter wasn't his real name. I mean, I never thought about it, but what agent would advise you to change to the show business name 'Art Linkletter"?
aha! He was adopted, and Linkletter was the name of his adoptive father.

Sorry to hear he's gone though; as you said, he brought a lot of laughs to a lot of people in his day. Kids do say the darndest things!
I knew he was older than that. I just googled it, he was 97. Although he came here at the age of 5, he was born in Canada, didn't know that either.

[cabinetman]

I'm surprised to hear that he died. I saw nothing on the news. As with other celebrities, there may be a few days to a week that something comes up on TV commemorating the life of a famous person. It's sad that's all they get.

He was a mainstay on TV viewing when I was a kid. He was also one of the top announcers and product spokesmen of those times. In reading his bio, I like one of his quotes: "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."
.

[jhart]

He was one of the better ones!!

[Uncle Cracker]

Actually, at the time of his death, he was 97...

He was a good one, and unlike so many celebrities of today's era, he wisely invested his money during his "heyday", so he didn't need to work later on.

I remember watching him religiously as a kid on the old round B/W TV at my grandma's house...

[Pappy]

Corrected the age. Sometimes I hate this lisdexia.......

[germdoc]

He spoke at my medical center about 7-8 years ago on the subject of aging and staying active. He was sharp as a tack and humorous. He made me think I might want to live into my 90's, if I could be as vital as he was.

[ironhat]

They just don't make 'em like that anymore. Although a different a genere, he was cut from the same cloth as Red Skelton. They will be missed.

[Richard in Smithville]

Not mentioned yet was Art was born in Moosejaw, Saskatchewan.

[BobSch]

It always seem to happen in threes, doesn't it?

[Pappy]

It always seem to happen in threes, doesn't it?

Actually there were 4 in the last week. The other one was a member of a rock band.

[Uncle Cracker]

The other one was a member of a rock band.

That seems to happen pretty much every week...

[eccentrictinkerer]

Fifteen years ago I lucked into a first class seat aboard a flight from Minneapolis to Los Angeles. My seat-mate happened to be Art Linkletter. On the way to airport that morning I had listened to a speech that Linkletter had given the previous night to a conservative group.

Being a conservative late middle-age guy I thanked him for his thoughts and presentation. We had a wonderful conversation and he was interested to know about my family!

We both went back to our newspapers and paperwork, but before we landed I asked him if he had a busy weekend planned. He said that he had to get home to pack for a trip, the next day, to Paris. He and his wife had maintained an apartment in central Paris for many years.

He was just like a kid, talking about how exciting Paris was and how he and his "lovely bride" could relax and enjoy themselves for a few days. He would have been about 82 years old at that time, but I would have sworn he was in his early 70's.

I can only hope that I have a fraction of his energy when I'm his age.

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I've been keeping my own "Kid's Say the Darnedest Things List" ever since my grandkids started arriving.

The latest was from my 5 year old grandson, Ethan, who stayed over night a few weeks ago. Ethan's normally an early riser, but this time he didn't come down 'til 8:30.

I asked if he decided to sleep-in that morning and he said, "No, I was having a dream and I wanted to finish it. It was a good one!".

[scmhogg]

I was one of the kids on his House Party show, when I was in the 3rd grade. He asked me how much money my dad earned. I replied $10.00. They gave us an elaborate woodburning set for our appearance. I still have the scars from it.

I learned recently, that all the kids were selected from Los Angeles Schools. The criteria was, "pick a student that you would like to have out of your classroom for a couple of hours." Ouch!

Steve