“House Party” ran five days a
week on radio from 1945 to 1967 and on television from 1952 to 1969. The highlight of the show was a segment in
which five children between the ages of 5 and 10 sat down to be interviewed by Art
Linkletter.
One boy told Linkletter that his
father was a policeman who arrested lots of burglars. Linkletter asked if his mother ever worried
about the risks. “Naw, she thinks it’s great.
He brings home rings and bracelets and jewelry almost every week.”
Linkletter once asked a child, “Did
you see Santa this year?” The child answered,
“See him? I fixed him a bourbon and water.”
Linkletter’s obit in The New York Times noted that his
interviews with the children who would “say the darndest things” made their
parents wish television had never been invented.
