The Art of Art

Live long enough and become known to millions of people and your passing will likely be noted with respect and fondness. This certainly applied to Art Linkletter, who passed away the other day at 97.

It wasn't that long ago when either the WSJ, or The Times had a story about Art Linkletter. It was a bit of an interview and it found him quite with it, and belying his age. I realized then that I hadn't heard anything much about him, and that I really hadn't even been sure he was still with us. Despite being an avid reader of obituaries, if you go on the day I didn't buy the paper (and that can happen) then I might not learn of your passing.

The story revealed something I didn't know. Art was Canadian. Lorne Greene was Canadian. Alan Thicke is Canadian. Lots of people who aren't hockey players are Canadian, but it still surprises me when I hear of someone who I just assumed was born in the U.S. was really from Canada.

There's a certain newspaper hierarchy of where your obituary will appear, or, where it will be announced as appearing. For the Times, this can mean starting the obituary below the fold. This is somewhat like achieving the rank of a full-bird Colonel. You're up there in recognition, but you're not above the fold. Above the fold is rare. It is a 21 gun salute. It is world-wide news.

But you can still make the front page in another way, with a capsule headline at the bottom that announces your passing, and that the full obituary news story appears inside on a certain page. This is an Inspector's funeral. It's newsworthy, but you've probably been out of the public eye for a number of years. There are millions of people who know who you are, but you haven't recently done Saturday Night Live or collapsed while dancing with youngsters. I suspect Liz Taylor and Shirley Temple will rate a capsule headline. A headstone tombstone.

So, there's the news of Art Linkletter on Thursday morning. I really anticipate a HUGE text that will take me into the weekend at the rate I read. I'm excited by the prospect.

Not so in the size department. Six columns, yes. But the octogenarian owner of the tony men's store Paul Stuart, Clifford Grodd, got six columns on the opposite page, albeit not as many inches. They also closed the store for the day.

Never mind. Art is in good hands (and it turns out in the same hands that does Cliff, William Grimes). He doesn't get the short shrift.

We delightfully learn that Art grew up in true hardscrabble fashion. And while resourceful people are usually described as ones who make lemonade from lemons, Art sold discarded lemons as lemons and made some change. No wonder he did direct mail life insurance later. If he hadn't been diverted to radio he might have become the most famous car salesman of all time. Certainly a plaque somewhere in LA under some flapping pennants. Maybe a statue.

But Art does go into radio, which leads to television, which leads to what he did best: listen and talk. I remember as a kid watching 'House Party' on our television in the 50s when it wasn't being lugged through the front door and down the steps because it had to "go to the shop" to be repaired. The worst news you could hear as a kid. A death in the family.

I remember parents talking about what some little kid said on Art's show, and how by the time I got into high school we were skeptically believing the kids were fed answers, just like those quiz show people, as they sat there wiggling in their seats, adorably groomed like it was Easter Sunday.

People will say they don't make them like that anymore. But they're wrong. There are still some television people who have Art's durability and affability, if not the same type of show. Pat Sajak, Vanna White, Alex Trebek (another Canadian!), all, as they say, "icons."

No, Art didn't get short-changed, and he didn't short-change us. I'll only be mad if Phil Donahue gets more space.

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