Month-of-July's Art Linkletter

Art Linkletter  (Arthur Gordon "Art" Linkletter) was known as the man who interviews children from the TV show "House Party."  I blog about him since he is my favorite celebrity born on July (born on July 17, 1912 – died on May 26, 2010).

If you wish to read a full article about him, you may find him in your encyclopedia by searching "Linkletter, Art" or simply click to this Wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Linkletter.

On the beginning of this blog entry, I attached a video of a clip from "House Party" filmed on 1959.  It was released again on the late 1990's by Bill Cosby.  I hope you enjoy watching this as much as I have.  Did these children follow a script, or did they answer spontaneously?  Watch the video, and find out.

I first saw his entertaining interviews with children (filmed somewhere between 1945-1969) when Bill Cosby hosted "Kids Say the Darndest Things" in the late 1990's.  Sometimes I wonder if the children had a fixed script, or if they had spontaneous answers.  The children may come in different colors, shapes, and sizes.  But, what they all have in common is they have the darndest things to say.

One of my favorite dialogues was when Mr. Linkletter asked a little boy what was Adam's punishment from eating the forbidden fruit (from Genesis in the Old Testament Bible).  The boy said, "God told him to sit down and write the Bible."  The next question was what's Eve's punishment.  The boy said, "She became a housewife."  If thoughts are like dots you can connect with a pen, I wonder where he got his dots. :-)

Mr. Linkletter has quotable quotes that are just as charming.  I found them from http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/a/art_linkletter.html.

• "I like what I'm doing. Today at 88, I wouldn't think of quitting because I can't think of anything else I would rather do. And now with my lectures on all the charitable things that I do,  just as you do, I think that what I'm doing matters."

• "I've learned it's always better to have a small percentage of a big success, than a hundred percent of nothing."

• "In the Top 40, half the songs are secret messages to the teen world to drop out, turn on, and groove with the chemicals and light shows at discotheques."

• "My philosophy is to do the best you can for somebody. Help. It's not just what do you for yourself. It's how you treat people decently. The golden rule. There isn't big anything better than the golden rule. It's in every major religion in one language or another."        

• "The depths of the Depression. You didn't ask what the job was, what the pay was, you didn't ask about stock options, or - you said yes."

• "Things turn out best for the people who make the best out of the way things turn out."

• "A finished product is one that has already seen its better days."

Thank you for letting the little lights of the bright children shine with joy and humor, Mr. Art Linkletter.  Now I know why Jesus of Nazareth (from the New Testament Bible) didn't want His apostles to forbid the children to come to Him. 

:-( -> :-| -> :-)
DL

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"If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day, so I never have to live without you."

--A.A. Milne
Winnie the Pooh