Scope and Contents
Arrangement Note
Conditions Governing Access
Conditions Governing Use
Source of Acquisition
Preferred Citation
Biographical Note
Accruals
Contributing Institution:
Special Collections & University Archives
Title: Art Linkletter Collection
Creator:
Linkletter, Art (Arthur Gordon Linkletter)
Identifier/Call Number: MS-0391
Physical Description:
16.78 Linear Feet
Date (inclusive): 1940-2005
Date (bulk): 1960-1979
Language of Material:
English
.
Scope and Contents
The
Linkletter Collection documents Linkletter's professional career as a radio and television personality, author, and public figure. The papers date
from approximately 1940-2005, with the bulk of documents created in the 1960s and 1970s. The collection consists of subject
files, scrapbooks, photographs, and memorabilia, and includes items in several differing media. The collection is divided
into five series:
Subject Files,
Scrapbooks,
Photographs,
Memorabilia, and
Media. The
Memorabilia series includes three sub-series:
General,
Keys to Cities, and
Plaques and Certificates. Aside from select recordings and highlight reels, the collection does not include the recordings of Linkletter's
House Party radio and television series. Inquiries regarding the recordings of these programs should be addressed to the original production
company or distributor: CBS (1952-1969), NBC (1969-1970), Screen Gems Television (1952-1970), or John Guedel Productions.
The
Subject Files are arranged alphabetically by file title, and date from 1939-2005. These files document numerous television and radio programs
that Art Linkletter was involved with, including
The Art of Positive Thinking,
House Party, and
People are Funny, as well as other projects he involved himself in throughout his career. The series contains few records from Linkletter's
very early career, or from his very late career, but is strong in documenting the middle of his career. The series includes
scripts, teleplays, all correspondence in the collection, some marketing and promotional materials, and press clippings.
The
Scrapbooks document Linkletter's advertising career, and the interaction between Linkletter, his family, and the media. One scrapbook
documents Linkletter's anti-drug work, consisting of letters written to Mr. Linkletter from elementary school children in
Appleton, Wisconsin, thanking Mr. Linkletter for speaking at their school. The scrapbooks are arranged numerically by scrapbook
number.
The
Photographs document Mr. Linkletter's varied career, including images of him shooting television specials with children, with Ronald
Reagan, or Richard Nixon, and appearing on
Great American Game Show. Most of the images are undated, and most individuals are unidentified.
The
Memorabilia are arranged in three separate sub-series:
General,
Keys to Cities, and
Plaques and Certificates. The
General Memorabilia sub-series documents Linkletter's involvement in numerous community events, including the Pasadena Tournament of Roses and
Friars Club. The
Keys to Cities sub-series includes keys Linkletter was gifted from large and small cities and towns across the United States, and the
Plaques and Certificates subseries includes numerous awards, certificates, plaques, honorary degrees, and other special recognition Linkletter received
over his long career.
The
Media series includes materials in various non-paper-based media. Several LPs, as well as books on tape and DVD's are included
which document several of Linkletter's television, radio, and film performances throughout his career, as well as his subsequent
career as a writer.
Arrangement Note
I. Subject Files, 1939-2005
II. Scrapbooks
III. Photographs
IV. Memorabilia
1. General
2. Keys to Cities
3. Plaques and Certificates
V. Media
Conditions Governing Access
This collection is open for research.
Conditions Governing Use
The copyright interests in these materials have not been transferred to San Diego State University. Copyright resides with
the creators of materials contained in the collection or their heirs. The nature of historical archival and manuscript collections
is such that copyright status may be difficult or even impossible to determine. Requests for permission to publish must be
submitted to the Head of Special Collections, San Diego State University, Library and Information Access. When granted, permission
is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical item and is not intended to include or imply permission
of the copyright holder(s), which must also be obtained in order to publish. Materials from our collections are made available
for use in research, teaching, and private study. The user must assume full responsibility for any use of the materials, including
but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials.
Source of Acquisition
Art Linkletter
Preferred Citation
Identification of item, folder title, box number, Art Linkletter Collection, Special Collections and University Archives,
San Diego State University Library.
Biographical Note
Arthur Gordon Linkletter was born July 17, 1912, in Moosejaw, Saskatchewan. He was abandoned by his parents immediately after
his birth, and adopted as an infant. He moved to Lowell, Massachusetts with his adoptive parents, and then migrated to California
at the age of three. Linkletter 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, working as a bus boy, meatpacker, and
sailor until he was 18 years old. 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. During
the 1930s he participated in hundreds of radio programs, including one of the nation's first man-in-the-street programs, which
in turn led to one of the first live audience shows in radio. He was eventually promoted to Chief Announcer at KGB, and in
1942 decided to move to Hollywood and explore other opportunities in the radio and entertainment industries. 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. Throughout these years he created several hare-brained audience participation shows, including
Inside Beverly Hills (1955) and
The Art Linkletter Show (1961). He was especially adept at interviewing children, whose unrehearsed and sometimes painfully honest remarks formed
the basis of several popular shows including the television adaptations of
House Party and
People are Funny. These long-standing stints on radio and television have given Linkletter a trustworthy, easygoing, and honest image, which
has 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 published books, articles, websites, and speeches on various subjects. He has written
over 26 different books, the first of which appeared in 1947 and is eponymous with his most popular show,
People Are Funny. His more recent interest in senior health and well-being prompted the book,
Old Age is Not For Sissies, which was published in 1988. He has published two autobiographies,
Confessions of a Happy Man (1960) and
I Didn't Do It Alone (1980). Linkletter's most popular book,
Kids Say the Darndest Things, has illustrations drawn by Charles Schultz, the creator of the Peanuts cartoons.
Art Linkletter is often referred to as "America's Grandfather" and is renowned and trusted for his work with children because
of the carefully constructed questions and lighthearted interviewing style that endeared him to many Americans during his
long career in show business. His own family began with his marriage to Lois Foerster in 1935. Linkletter always credits his
family (which now includes 8 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren) as the primary joy of his life. He and his family have
borne tragedy with the premature deaths of two of his children. His daughter's death in 1969 prompted him to begin national
and international dialog about the reasons for drug use and abuse in our everyday lives.
Linkletter sat on the boards of directors for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Western Airlines, and Kaiser Hospitals. In 1979 he served
on the President's National Advisory Council for Drug Abuse Prevention, the Presidential Commission to Improve Reading in
the US, the National Coordinating Council on Drug Abuse Education and Information, was the Ambassador of Goodwill Abroad for
the US Department of Commerce, and a member of the US National Commission for UNESCO.
Later in life, Linkletter owned and ran at least eight businesses, built and managed public storehouses, office buildings,
livestock operations, real estate development, and cattle and sheep stations in Australia. Linkletter Oil Enterprises has
operated throughout South America and the US. He sat on the YMCA's board of directors, the Boy Scouts of America's public
relations committee, chaired the John Douglas French Foundation for Alzheimer's Disease board, and served as the United Seniors
Association's National Spokesman. He passed away in 2010.
Accruals
2005-020
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Audio Recordings
Personal Papers
Photographs
Video Recordings
Entertainers--United States--Biography--Sources
Radio programs--United States
Television programs--United States
Cable, John Rufus--Mental health
Linkletter, Art, 1912--Archives
San Diego State University--Alumni and alumnae--Biography--Sources