The Cincinnati Enquirer from Cincinnati, Ohio • Page 170

Introducing a new feature: America's top social historian talks about celebrities Headli AMORY'S CLEVELAND ners AMORY ANSWERS THE ART OF ART The Art of conversation is a man who, born in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, has oarlaved a talent In California I hear talk of running Gregory Peck for the 11' 1 I T1 1 senaie. aircauy nave ivonaia 9 Reagan and George Murphy. Honestly, I should think the rest of the country thinks we're crazy. What do you think? T.N., San Jose A I recall Mr. Peck saying, "I can honestly say that in 20 years of making movies I never had a part that came close to being the real me." In any case, politics, they say, makes strange bedfellows.

We can only hope this new mixture of Hollywood and politics won't make bad fellows. What has Ed Sullivan got? Fxl goes on and on, and yet when 1 'I t' 'v ly I I I if if 1 r- I 'f -1 I others ate aammy uavis, jerry 9 Lewis and Steve Lawrence try variety shows, nine out of ten don't last a year. How come? N.B.L., Newark A Personally I've always felt that the secret of Mr. Sullivan's success is that he has no style to go out of. His show, on the other hand, has always kept up with the times and presented all styles.

LINKLETTER ror drawing out children and an ability to put business people together into one of the country's largest one-man empires. The owner of several million acres of land ranging from Hollywood to Australia, he has directorships in 1 5 corporations, half a dozen partnerships and 12 children, five of his own and seven adopted. "My maiden name was Kelly. I was born Gordon Arthur Kelly. I was adopted by a Baptist lay minister named Fulton John Linkletter.

He and his wife were in their fifties. I le went from place to place preaching in any pulpit where anybody would let him in. And if they wouldn't, he'd preach on a street corner. "He had lost his leg breaking wild horses. He was not a father who was a buddy or who was in the children's world at all.

But he was a kindly man who would laugh and cry with you, and he believed we were all God's children. He read the Bible from four to six hours a day, and, if there was no rent money, we would kneel and pray. And I must say it worked. "In high school I used to stand in the unfinished auditorium and talk to imaginary audiences. In the Year Book, I wrote that what I wanted to be was a speaker on the Chautauqua Circuit.

And then Chautauqua was over. My career was ended before it began. I worked my way through San Diego State University doing everything. And besides, I did public speaking and dramatics and debating, and I wrote a humor column for the paper and a musical comedy. I had a schedule just like I have now.

Even in high school I wrote out my schedules. Right now I know exactly what I'm going to do until next November 25th. I think the management of time is the most valuable thing there is in life. It's the only thing, you know, you can't get more of. How he met his wife "I always had a trade.

I could type 75 words a minute. When I worked on boats, instead of scrubbing the decks, I'd type the captain's letters. That's true security. Whatever you have like money they can take away. But your trade they can't.

"I met my wife when I was a junior in college. She was a senior in high sclxol. We loved to dance, and we still do. I came up slowly. Nothing ever happened to me like a light turning on.

First I was local, then I was regional, then I was network. My How terrible to read of well- to-do teen-agers taking dope Art Linkletter is one oj he country's largest and best-loved "empires'' and wrecking other people's houses. With all those advantages, why can't they act mature? P.B., Chicago Perhaps because those "advantages" were already taken advantage of by their parents. I remember reading that, at the Palm Beach School, they don't have much juvenile delinquency. "The parents are the ones who," says author John Ney, "drink the booze, wreck the cars, take the drugs, sniff the glue, smoke the pot, burn up the discotheques." This, he concludes, "tends to stunt the youngsters emotionally." THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK Manners and morals canH go down jorever or long ago we'd have hit rock bottom.

first national network show was for a winery. So my father went through the Bible and copied down every favorable reference to wine. "I've always felt that I was in show business but not of it. I was never in vaudeville or in burlesque or even in the Catskills. So I felt I had to go to Friars' dinners and do routines and prove that I could do more than look into ladies' purses and ask children what they wanted to be when they grew up.

"Nowadays a lot of interviewers want to appeal to the hostile, the morbid and the sadistic. They're the cutters and slashers. And there's a lot of appeal around for them. If you don't believe it, just get out in a car and don't start up quickly when the light changes. I'm not really very religious, but I believe in doing good for good's sake.

What else is there?" As we left Mr. Linkletter, we had the feeling that not only was Art's art in the right place communicating with millions but so was his heart. Cleveland Amory has risen to fame as author of such books as "Who Killed Society?" and "The Proper Boslonians." He is also editor -in-chief of "Celebrity Register" and a well-known columnist February 1967 Bi G. Wircin Wciihk I THIS WEEK J. OComuu, Editor Ciailei Roii, Ezseiix Eiiitr Ntuos Cttrro, Art Director Stalc Horm.

Editor 1967 United Newspaperi Mogarine Corporation, 485 Lexington New York, N. Y. 10017. Thit Week All right reierved kinder International and Pan American CopyrigM Convention, leorodoetion in whole or In part without pernuulon ii prohibited) Th National Sunday Magazine For A Better America cmd Lt.Uir-M Chrnlor 2.