At 94, Art Linkletter shows no signs of slowing down

The veteran broadcaster averages 60 speaking engagements per year.
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- During the past six weeks, Art Linkletter has sailed on the Queen Mary 2, flown to Washington, D.C., on business for two organizations and traveled to Rome for a cruise through the Mediterranean, making speeches everywhere he went.
When he sat for a recent interview in his office, he had spoken in Lincoln, Neb., the previous day and would be doing the same in Montreal the next day.
Linkletter turns 94 on Monday.
That same day he'll publish his 28th book, "How to Make the Rest of Your Life the Best of Your Life."
And, yes, he plans a nationwide tour to promote it.
Linkletter has been on the move ever since his teen years when he rode the rails in freight cars along with other Depression victims searching for jobs that didn't exist.
After graduating from San Diego State University, where he was captain of the basketball team, he found his niche by staging shows at the San Diego and San Francisco world's fairs in the late 1930s. That led to radio and then television.
He once had TV shows on NBC, CBS and ABC -- all at the same time. The weekday "House Party," which offered entertainment, household tips, interviews, etc., lasted on radio and television from 1945 to 1970. It also originated the memorable feature "Kids Say the Darnedest Things." Other shows included "Hollywood Talent Scouts," "Life With Linkletter" and "People Are Funny," one of broadcasting's first reality shows, debuting on radio in 1940 and on television in 1954.
So what does this reality pioneer think of the genre's current shows? "I don't particularly care for them," he replies curtly.
Never nasty
No wonder, notes media historian Leonard Maltin. Linkletter's shows "were always benign. There was no cutthroat competition, no putting down of contestants, no humiliating people. That was not his style," Maltin explained.
Linkletter, in fact, takes a dim view of much of today's television.
Among his dislikes: three-minute commercial breaks with as many as 10 spots in a row; announcers who promise an "inside scoop" that doesn't appear until the end of a newscast; talk shows with experts you can't hear because they're all talking over one another.
Linkletter speaks on three or four cruises a year, often accompanied by his wife, Lois. They've been married 70 years, which has to be a Hollywood record.
And when he's not on the high seas, Linkletter's often in an airplane, averaging 60 speaking engagements a year.
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