Art Linkletter
Art Linkletter, now 94, is a remarkable humanitarian and entertainer. He hosted two of the biggest success stories in history. ''House Party,'' ran on CBS -- radio and then television -- for a quarter of a century. ''People are Funny'' entertained millions through both media for 19 years. He has written a seemingly endless array of books, the most famous of which was probably ''Kids Say the Darndest Things.''
Art and his wife of many years, Lois, became good friends with Walt and Lilly over the course of time, and his memories of Walt are both acute and insightful. Following are excerpts from a lengthy interview with Art about Walt, focusing in on his comments about Disneyland (for which he hosted the opening day television show).
Q: When did you first meet Walt?
Art: When I was a young local radio announcer, he came up to introduce a new picture. I was doing a show called ''The Gump Gallery of Celebrities: Who is in San Francisco Tonight?'' And he was there to do ''Fantasia.'' And so I got to the place where the seats were. There was going to be the press conference. And nobody was there but me, I was always early. And there was a man adjusting the chairs. And I said, ''When do you think Walt Disney is going to arrive?'' And he says, ''I’m Walt Disney.'' ''Well,'' I said, ''What are you doing rearranging and arranging the chairs?'' And he says, ''I like to see things the way I want them to be.'' So that was my very first time I ever set eyes on Walt. And it was a wonderful insight into his character. And that is that he was not a big shot in his own eyes. He did the job that needed to be done, whether anybody was there or not.
Q: And when did your friendship begin?
Art: I remember that my wife and I taking one of our early European holidays and discovered to our delight that onboard the ship, Lil and Walt Disney were on their way to Denmark. And of course we became acquainted, being in show business . . . and we had a wonderful time together talking about show business and one thing and another. And then when we got to Denmark, we decided we’d meet together at the Tivoli Gardens, which is perhaps one of the oldest and most famous of all the playground resorts areas in this heart of the town. And when we went through the Tivoli Gardens, I had my first look at Walt Disney’s childlike delight in the enjoyment of families and in the cleanliness of affairs and the orderliness of everything and he was making notes all the time, about the lights, the chairs, and the seats, and the food. And I said, ''What are you doing?'' And he says, ''I’m just making notes about something that I’ve always dreamed about and that is someday, having a great, great center playground for the children and the families of America.'' And I didn’t think much of that but we went on and years later, I found myself introducing Disneyland, on the Air.
Q: When did you first visit the Disneyland location?
Art: One day Walt called me up and he said, ''Art would you like to take a ride down to Orange County and see where Disneyland is going to be?'' Says,''You know, it’s a deep secret. You can’t tell anybody anything you see or anything you hear, because Stanford Research has been deciding where the next place for big growth in Southern California will center where there’s plenty of land.'' So I said, ''Sure.'' Because I loved adventure and Walt was a good friend and we liked to talk and so we rode down together and I couldn’t believe my eyes. We were going through little villages I’d never heard of because L.A. Basin is filled with about 67 tiny communities, which have all grown into cities now. But we were down there in orange groves and dirt roads and he said, ''This is the place.'' And I’ve never been one to be a discouragement guy and so I didn’t tell him what I thought, which was ''You’re out of your mind. This is 45 minutes from where people live, really in numbers and besides, there’s nothing here!'' And I just said, ''Well, Walt, good luck.'' And when I told him about that later after it had been a big success, he said to me, ''I didn’t think you were as enthusiastic as I had ordinarily seen you but you didn’t have the vision of what I had in my mind when I looked at those orange groves and saw Matterhorn and saw the beautiful big buildings and things we were going to build.''
Q: How did it come to pass that you were the master of ceremonies for this historic television program?
Art: I was at a birthday party at Walt’s house one night, and he said, ''Art,'' he said, ''You know that I’ve been building Disneyland now for the last year or so and I’m getting ready to open it in another month or two.'' He says, ''And I wonder if you’d consider being one of the hosts. You and me and we’ll pick a couple of your friends and the four of us ought to be able to cover Disneyland. There’ll be no rehearsals, because it’ll be done once only and we’ll have about 12 or 14 or 18 cameras for ABC.'' And I said to him, ''Well, Ronald Reagan and Bob Cummings are two very dear friends of mine and they’re good talkers and they’re a lot of fun.'' And so we got a hold of them and they agreed to do it.
But Walt came down to the fact that I was going to be more or less in charge of the TV end of it because of my experience. And he said, ''What about your payment?'' he said, ''You know Art,'' he says, ''I’ve spent all my family’s money and my insurance money and I’ve borrowed money from ABC and we’ve had cost overruns and strikes and problems,'' and he says, ''I don’t think I can afford to pay you what you’re worth.'' And I said, ''Well how about scale? That’s $210.'' He was kind of surprised, being used to dealing with other Hollywood types of a different type. He said, ''Really? You’d do that?'' And I said, ''Of course, this is a community affair, this is a national affair, this is a moment of great history and I’d like to be a part of it. And besides,'' I said, ''I’d like to have a little favor from you.'' He said, ''Well yes, what?'' And I said, ''You’re going to have concessions, you’re going to concede the foods, the parking, and you’re going to run the main entertainment. And you’re going to have film and cameras for sale and I have a company, a business which sells film development and cameras in Los Angeles. Royal Tone, it’s called. And I’d like to have the concession for the sale of all the film and camera and pay you your concession fee.'' And I had it for 10 years and so I estimate that my two hours of work, opening Disneyland, was worth to me at the end of ten years, probably three million dollars. That’s a pretty good fee for two hours.
Q: Let’s jump ahead to the opening day of Disneyland.
Art: Disneyland was... a great mishmash of last minute things that hadn’t been done. The cement wasn’t hardened in some places. Piles of lumber were here and there. Trees that had died had been repainted green, instead of watered. And all the things that went on when a big World’s Fair was opening. And Walt Disney was moving into all this confusion like a general directing an army, as the tourists began to arrive. He had asked me to MC the opening and asked me to pick a couple of my friends to work with him because the four of us would be divided in the various venues. And I asked my dear friend, Ronald Reagan and Bob Cummings, the comic actor that I’d traveled with all over the world, to be with me and Walt. And so there we were and I was standing on the platform of the Disney train which had originally been running around Disney’s house out in the neighborhood, when he had it as a hobby. And then the show opened and history was made although the first reviews were not too kind because, it was a hot day, there was a certain amount of disorganization. Disorganized effort I mean. And I was a little worried myself because, one time I went over to one of the places where I was supposed to pick up a microphone and I couldn’t find it and it was going to be transferred to me at any second and I couldn’t find my microphone. I found it under a pile of lumber, just in time to start broadcasting my end of that broadcast. It was a very exciting day.
Q: How did Walt react to the chaos?
Art: He didn’t seem to be bothered by it. He was alert to it and he was always trying to get things fixed, and I remember we had to move from place to place while the other ones were covering us -- either Ronnie Reagan or Bob Cummings was talking and we’d be moving. And Walt told me later he tried to go down an alley to go to his next spot, over at Tomorrowland and there was a newly hired guard there. And he said, ''You can’t go through here.'' And Walt stopped and he laughed and says, ''Do you know who I am? I’m Walt Disney.'' He says, ''Mr. Disney, I know who you are, but I’m sorry I have orders. You can’t go through here, nobody can go through here they told me.'' And Walt said to him, ''Either you let me through here or I’m going to hit you right in the face and walk over your body.'' And the fellow moved over and Walt went on his way. So he took things in stride as I’ve seen him later on, at other times. But he always had a feeling that things were going to work right.
