LINKLETTER2002TRANS

Interview with Art Linkletter, transcript, 2002

 

2002-01-14

 

Interviewer: Olsson, Lyn

Arthur Gordon Linkletter was born July 17, 1912, in Moosejaw, Saskatchewan. He attended high school in San Diego, where he was a star basketball player and swimmer. He graduated when he was 15, and subsequently spent 3 years drifting from state to state taking various odd jobs. In 1930 he returned to California to attend San Diego State College. He participated in a wide number of extracurricular and athletic activities while at State, and graduated in 1934 with degrees in English and Psychology.

KGB, a local radio station, offered Linkletter a job as a radio announcer during his junior year at San Diego State. While there he met John Guedal, with whom he partnered to create two of radio's most memorable and popular productions -- House Party and People Are Funny. In the early 1950s Art Linkletter adapted both House Party and People Are Funny to the small screen, thus embracing the new medium of television, while continuing to air the programs on the radio. House Party ran on CBS for 25 years, and People Are Funny aired on NBC for 19 years. These long-standing stints on radio and television gave Linkletter a trustworthy, easygoing, and honest image, which made him an ideal spokesman for a variety of consumer products including breakfast cereals, canned foods, tobacco, and even new neighborhoods in suburbs across America.

Throughout his career, Linkletter has also published over 26 books, as well as numerous articles, websites, and speeches on various subjects. He sat on the boards of directors for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Western Airlines, and Kaiser Hospitals, and was also very active in community outreach and diplomatic positions. Later in life, Linkletter owned and ran at least eight businesses. He passed away in 2010 at the age of 97.

Art Linkletter; Lyn Olsson; Interviews; Oral histories; San Diego State University alumni; Typists; Shorthand; Stenographers; Hobos; Electric typewriters; Manual typewriters; Deckhands; Cadets; Lois Foerster Linkletter; San Diego State Teacher's College; YMCA secretaries; Young Men's Christian Association; Camp Marston; Pine Hills; Circuit Chautauqua; Lecturers; Speakers; Charles E. Peterson; Florence Smith; Public speaking; Time management; Tau Delta Chi; Alpha Tau Omega; Football players; Adobe Falls; Old Man Young's Caves; Denver Colorado Fox; Move to Montezuma Mesa; Mission Palisades campus; San Diego State Teacher's College cafeteria; Caf; Clarence and Andy Randeques; Alvena Suhl Storm; Harry Steinmetz; Gordon Samuels; Lifeguards; Body surfing; Board surfing; Oceanside Roughwater Swims; Pacific Coast backstroke champions; Basketball players; Paperboys; Streetcars; Dave Bauberger; Woodrow Wilson Junior High; Aztec Follies; The Aztec (student newspaper); KGB; El Cortez (hotel)

 

 

© San Diego State University. All rights reserved.

 

 

English

 

Text

25 pages

No

LINKLETTER2002

more keywords from transcript: Agua Caliente Casino Resort; MGM Grand Hotel (Las Vegas); California Pacific International Exposition (1935); Herbert Hoover; Sally Rand; Texas Centennial Exposition; San Francisco World's Fair (1939); Cavalcade of Texas (show); Cavalcade of the Golden West (show); Edward L. Hardy; Employment discrimination; Blue Key Society; Del Sudoeste (yearbook); Joseph Van Eisdale France; Lewis B. Lesley; People Are Funny (radio and television show)

 

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