MOOSE JAW, Sask. — A new plaque outside the Moose Jaw Police Service headquarters is bringing one of the city’s most remarkable success stories back to the place where it began.
The marker, installed last week near the building’s main entrance on Fairford Street West, honours Art Linkletter, the Moose Jaw-born broadcaster and author who became a familiar voice and face in homes across North America.
Mayor James Murdock, his wife, Bev, and their family donated the plaque to the community after receiving permission from the city.
“I’ve been mulling this over for about 10 years,” Murdock said. “My wife and family went ahead with it after receiving the city’s permission, and we took care of all the expenses. It’s something we’ve donated to the community just to share his story.”
Murdock said the project is meant to do more than recognize a celebrity. It also helps tell a local story of hardship, success and a lasting connection to Moose Jaw.
“It’s just a way of giving back to the community, because I want the story to be told and shared,” he said.
The location carries much of the plaque’s meaning.
According to its inscription, Linkletter was born Gordon Arthur Kelly in Moose Jaw on July 17, 1912, and abandoned when he was only weeks old on the steps of Mary and Fulton John Linkletter’s home and shoemaking business.
The property is now the site of the police headquarters. The couple adopted the infant and gave him the name by which generations of radio listeners, television viewers and readers would later know him.
The plaque says Fulton was a travelling evangelical minister as well as a shoemaker. The family left Moose Jaw when Linkletter was six, travelled across Canada and the United States, and eventually settled in San Diego, Calif.
Linkletter graduated from San Diego State Teachers College in 1934. San Diego State University records say he earned a bachelor’s degree in English and psychology before taking a better-paying job in radio instead of pursuing teaching.
That decision led to a broadcasting career spanning more than six decades.
Linkletter became best known as the host of “House Party” and “People Are Funny.” His interviews with schoolchildren on “House Party” produced the candid observations collected in his 1957 bestseller, “Kids Say the Darndest Things!”
The Television Academy says “House Party” ran on radio and television for 25 years, while “People Are Funny” lasted 19 years. The academy’s archive credits Linkletter with interviewing more than 27,000 children during his career.
His reach extended beyond the studio. Linkletter was the principal host of the live television broadcast marking Disneyland’s opening on July 17, 1955 — his 43rd birthday — and returned to host the park’s 50th-anniversary ceremony in 2005.
Among his honours were a lifetime achievement award at the 2003 Daytime Emmy Awards, two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and recognition as a Disney Legend. He also wrote nearly two dozen books.
Linkletter died at his home in the Bel Air neighbourhood of Los Angeles on May 26, 2010. He was 97.
Moose Jaw previously recognized the entertainer with its Medal of Merit, commemorated by a plaque erected in Crescent Park in May 2003. The new marker adds a more detailed account at the site most closely connected with the first chapter of his life.
Murdock described Linkletter’s journey from an abandoned infant in Moose Jaw to a Hollywood household name as “just a warm, feel-good story.”
Another reminder of that connection hangs in the mayor’s office. The photograph, taken in Palm Springs, Calif., in February 2004, shows Linkletter with Paul and Carol Hill, whose family owns Harvard Media, the parent company of MooseJawToday.com. Murdock said Linkletter dedicated it to the Hills and “all the people of Moose Jaw,” then drew a heart.
“Even though Art Linkletter made it to Hollywood and had a successful entertainment career, he never forgot Moose Jaw,” Murdock said. “This is where he was born and where he came from, and that was always near and dear to him.”
