I didn’t even realize Art Linkletter was still alive, and now he’s dead.

You young folks probably don’t even know who Art Linkletter was. But in his time, when I was a kid, he was a genuine phenomenon. On television and radio, in books, even in a couple movies, he combined personal charm and wit with a master pitchman’s instincts, to make himself one of the most recognized—and loved—personalities in America. He was like Oprah, except without pretension.

Born in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, he was abandoned by his natural parents when a few weeks old, and raised by an evangelical pastor, named Linkletter, and his wife. The family moved to California. He gravitated to radio, and from there to television. His popular quiz show, “People Are Funny,” made the transition to TV very successfully, and his afternoon TV program, “Art Linkletter’s House Party” became an institution, especially the segment where he interviewed young children, skillfully fishing for funny (but never humiliating) responses.

I know a fellow who told me he was once one of those kids. I was tremendously impressed.

This guy was everywhere in those days. He had two shows on TV. He had a radio show. He did guest appearances. He must have worked twenty hours a day.

In his later years, after the death of his daughter by suicide (a suicide he attributed to LSD use), Linkletter became an anti-drug activist. This, of course, made him a figure of fun to the left (because, after all, what’s funnier than a grieving father?).

I don’t know what his religious beliefs were. I saw an anti-drug film he did back around 1970, and in it he said that, in spite of being raised by a pastor, he’d never held any faith in religion until he’d observed the success of faith-based programs like Teen Challenge in dealing with drug addiction.

When I think back on the vacation days in the 1950s, when my brothers and I used to watch his programs, I remember a time that was kinder in many ways, a time when we all shared values and you could relax with the TV on, not worrying something would come on you didn’t want the kids to see. Art Linkletter outlived the world he belonged in. I miss them both.