By Rita Spiegel, Guest Columnist, Image from the Linda Roddick Collection
TITLE: LAKE ARROWHEAD ELEMENTARY SCHOOL VISIT TO ART LINKLETTER
Museum patrons may recall the exhibit documenting Lake Arrowhead’s many appearances on the big screen, but did you know it was also featured on the small screen? “Art Linkletter’s House Party” ran on CBS television from 1952-1969, and its most popular segment was “Kids Say the Darndest Things.” Early on, some six and seven-year-olds from Lake Arrowhead Elementary, in their Sunday best, appeared on the show. This week’s image shows Gary Martincek and Linda Shafe talking with Art Linkletter. Host Linkletter had lots of questions for the children about living in “a great big beautiful resort area called Lake Arrowhead.” Steve Holstein was asked what he would do if he ever got lost in the mountains. He stated he would look for a stream to follow down the mountain. If that didn’t work, he would follow his footprints back. If that was unsuccessful, he admitted, “I’d be done for!” If she encountered a mountain lion, Karen Smith said she would “shoot him in the belly button.” To much laughter, Linkletter confessed he never stopped long enough to see if a lion actually had a belly button. As to hunting in the mountains, Gary Martincek reported his favorite target was dinosaurs, who look like “a turtle only with a longer neck.” Linda Shafe was congratulated on her close connection to Santa Claus, since her father ran the train in Santa’s Village. In preparing for her television appearance, her mother warned her, “Not to say any bad words!” After much prodding from Linkletter, she whispered one of those very bad words into his ear. The audience roared when he loudly repeated, “Stinker!” Parting gifts included shoes, a table-mounted radio for the school, and Radio Flyer wagons for the boys. The girls were each given a Toodles doll, which Linda Shafe (now Roddick) recalls was “as big as me!” Now isn’t that the darndest thing?