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A Chapel Hill Tribute to Art Linkletter
by Charly Mann
Today, May 26 2010, Art Linkletter, one of the kindest and most gracious individuals I ever met died at 97. In 1957, at the age of seven, I was fortunate enough to be one of the children he talked to on his very popular CBS television show, Art Linkletter's House Party.
I remember the interview process to be selected to appear on the show was quite a challenge. It seemed to me they were looking for kids who were either quite charming or very funny. I did not think I was charming, but thought I could ad-lib funny responses to questions that would make people laugh. A woman interviewed me for an hour asking me several dozen off the wall questions that I knew were similar to what Art Linkletter would ask the kids on his program. I tried my best to come up with answers that an adult audience would find amusing, and was selected to be one of the children on his show on July 19, 1957.
My invitation to appear on Art Linkletter's CBS televsion show HOUSE PARTY on July 19, 1957
On the day of the show I went to make-up, and then was led out into a bright studio in the CBS building in downtown Los Angles next to the Farmer's Market. I had no hint of what Mr. Linkletter might ask me, but knew I better be able to think quickly of an amusing response. You can listen to my conversation with Art Linkletter here to see if you think I did a good job. Years later Linkletter repackaged many of what he considered the funniest responses to his questions in a television program called Kid's Say The Darndest Things in which my appearance was featured. I was most happy getting to say I was from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and then latter finding out that most of my friends had actually seen me on national television.
Charly Mann and a "Police Officer" in Disneyland several hours after he finished appearing on the Art Linkletter House Party television program
Art Linkletter was one of the last surviving adults I looked up to when I was young, and now he is gone. There was so much to admire in him. He never swore or said anything negative about anyone in public. Even in the segregated 1950s, he had black children on his show, and he knew how to make entertaining television that was not only wholesome, but could be enjoyed by everyone. The world has lost a true gentleman.
One funny part of this story was that after the show I was loaded up with gifts for being a guest on the program. My mother parked in the reserved loading area for CBS personnel as I made several trips back and forth to carry items out to her car. Behind her in a Mercedes convertible was a very upset Liberace who was waiting to unload some items for the taping of his television show later that day. By my third trip Liberace had began honking his horn at my mother and his face had turned red. Years later I would learn that was the start of very bad day for him. He was about to give a deposition in his $25 million libel suit against Confidential magazine saying he was a homosexual, and that evening, two men broke into his home in Sherman Oaks and beat his mother.
In 1957 no one in the entertainment business would admit to being gay, and the fact that Liberace was "outed" could have ended his career if it proved to be true. Liberace actually won his lawsuit in 1958 proving he was not a homosexual, even though today it is widely known that he was.
Comments:
Walter Newton
2:58 PM Fri 5/28/2010
I love the eclectic nature of this site. I never know what to expect when I check in every couple of weeks. Great macro photos of Chapel Hill's smallest residents, and a tribute to Art Linkletter because there is a Chapel Hill connection. Good Job!
Andrew Ray
10:52 AM Thu 5/27/2010
This show was a few decades before my time, but I must say you certainly were funny in your encounter with Art Linkletter. I became interested in Linkletter because he was a good friend of Walt Disney and I have read two biographies of Disney that talk a lot about him.
Since there is a photo of you in Disneyland, you may interested to know Linkletter hosted the opening of Disneyland in 1955 - and it's 50th anniversary in 2005!
S. Hilton
9:19 AM Thu 5/27/2010
The best thing for me about Chapel Hill Memories is how well it brings back the full dimension of a time and place. I wish we had people like Art Linkletter today hosting television shows. Now everything is sex and sensationalism.
Gail Young
8:46 PM Wed 5/26/2010
You seem to be the Forest Gump of Chapel Hill. The exploits in your life are so amazing and diverse. I look forward to reading about more of the interesting people you have been connected to.
Bob Jurgensen
6:52 PM Wed 5/26/2010
It is indeed a great loss and a very sad day - I remember watching his shows back then and they were so much fun but I never knew you were on his show Charly - that is so great! I bet you got to ride an airplane to CA too! He sure had a way with kids and seemed to know exactly what to say and how to react to get the audience howling with laughter. We will miss Art Linkletter and all he represented. Thanks for sharing this with us Charly.
Check out our other website:
Investment strategies and advice about Apple Inc. and related technology companies by Charly Mann. www.appleinvesting.com
Investment strategies and advice about Apple Inc. and related technology companies by Charly Mann. www.appleinvesting.com
Chapel Hill is located on a hill whose only distinguishing feature in the 18th century was a small chapel on top called New Hope Chapel. This church was built in 1752 and is currently the location of The Carolina Inn. The town was founded in 1819, and chartered in 1851.
What is it that binds us to this place as to no other? It is not the well or the bell or the stone walls. or the crisp October nights. No, our love for this place is based upon the fact that it is as it was meant to be, The University of the People.
-- Charles Kuralt
Dark Side of the Hill -- Pink Floyd, the creators of the most popular album in history, Dark Side of the Moon, took the second half of their name from Floyd Council, a Chapel Hill native, and great blues singer and guitarist. He once belonged to a group called "The Chapel Hillbillies".
Check out Charly Mann's other website:
Oklahoma Birds and Butterflies
http://oklahomabirdsandbutterflies.com
Oklahoma Birds and Butterflies
http://oklahomabirdsandbutterflies.com
There would probably be no Chapel Hill if the University of North Carolina Board of Trustees in 1793 had not chosen land across from New Hope Chapel for the location of the university. By 1800 there were about 100 people living in thirty houses surrounding the campus.
The University North Carolina's first student was Hinton James, who enrolled in February, 1795. There is now a dormitory on the campus named in his honor.
The University of North Carolina was closed from 1870 to 1875 because of lack of state funding.
William Ackland left his art collection and $1.25 million to Duke University in 1940 on the condition that he would be buried in the art museum that the University was to build with his bequest. Duke rejected this condition even though members of the Duke Family are buried in Duke Chapel. What followed was a long and acrimonious legal battle between Ackland relatives who now wanted the inheritance, Rollins College, and the University of North Carolina, each attempting to receive the funds. The case went all the way to the United States Supreme Court, and in 1949 UNC was awarded the money for the museum. Ackland is buried near the museum's entrance. When the museum first opened, in the early sixties, there were rumors that his remains were leaking out of the mausoleum.
The official name of the Arboretum on the University of North Carolina campus is the Coker Arboretum. It is named after Dr. William Cocker, the University's first botany professor. It occupies a little more than five acres. It was founded in 1903.
Chapel Hill's main street has always been called Franklin Street. It was named after Benjamin Franklin in the early 1790s.
Chapel Hill High School and Chapel Hill Junior High were on Franklin Street in the same location as University Square until the mid 1960s.
The Colonial Drug Store at 450 West Franklin Street was owned and operated by John Carswell. It was famous for a fresh-squeezed carbonated orange beverage called a "Big O". In the early 1970s, I managed the Record and Tape Center next door, and must have had over 100 of those drinks. The Colonial Drug Store closed in 1996.
Sutton's Drugstore, which opened in 1923, has one of the last soda fountains in the South. It is one of the few businesses remaining on Franklin Street that was in operation when I was growing up in the 1950s.
Future President Gerald Ford lived in Chapel Hill twice. First when he was 24, in 1938, he took a law couse in summer school at UNC. He lived in the Carr Building, which was a law school dormitory. At the same time, Richard Nixon, the man he served under as Vice President, was attending law school at Duke. In 1942, Ford returned to Chapel Hill to attend the U.S. Navy's Pre-Flight School training program. He lived in a rental house on Hidden Hills Drive.
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Thanks for bringing back some wonderful childhood memories. My sister and I used to watch Art Linkletter with my grandparents in the late 1950s when we all lived in Dogwood Acres.