In a room filled with pre-baby boomers, Art Linkletter took pride in the fact he was the oldest of the bunch.

“You’d think I’d be home, watching the sunset and looking at the Pacific Ocean,” Linkletter said Thursday during a program at the Westin Hotel in Lombard.

Instead, the 96-year-old is out traveling the country, and talking to seniors about the secrets of aging.

“Be curious, be active, make your life meaningful,” Linkletter said.

The former host of “House Party,” “Kids Say the Darndest Things,” and more than 10 other television and radio shows was at the Westin as part of Park Place of Elmhurst’s “The Art of Aging Well” event.

Without a notecard or script, he made the audience of nearly 200 laugh with stories from his 96 years.

He treated the audience like an old friend, telling them that he was persuaded to have a colonoscopy by his friend, former President Ronald Reagan, and that early in life he studied typing because “that’s where the girls were.”

He added that he gets family to his house by telling them “there may be a reading of the will.”
After the event, staff writer Adam Rosen sat down with the broadcasting legend.

Q How does it feel to be able to help people and make them laugh at the same time?
A  It’s marvelous. Laughter is the enemy of loneliness, despair, despondency, depression, disappointment. All the bumps of life can be smoothed out if you laugh at it. Life plays tricks. 
When I was fired one time, I went home and my wife asked, “What are we going to do now?” I said, “Now we’re going to start. I’m never going to work for anyone again. I’m not going to let these bastards tell me they know better than me. I’ve always been my own boss from then on.

Q You’ve been married for 73 years. What’s the secret?
A The real secret is communication. You talk things through, you don’t go to sleep mad, and you don’t be faithless. I’ve been living in Hollywood for 55 years. When I (was) interviewed by Larry King, I told him “We have something in common. I’ve been married 73 years, you’ve been married seven times.” In Hollywood, there’s a lot of toy wives.  Don’t marry hastily, and don’t marry too young.

Q How did you get from an orphan to a multimillionaire?
A I have always lived under my means. On the way up, I never had a car I couldn’t afford, I now can afford anything I want so it’s a different thing. I wasn’t given it by any lottery or any rich relative; I made it dollar by dollar. I was always there first in any endeavor or meeting. I came prepared and rehearsed. I come ready. I know the whole script, and I know my lines as well as I know your lines. Some people are born with so much talent, and they just get by. But they don’t get by me. I’m willing to work for it.

Q Who is one person you have known that you are still amazed by?
A Walt Disney. He was child-like even in his older age. He was enthusiastic, and he would talk to everyone. He would go down in the park and sit down on the bench and talk to the gardeners, see how they were, and have dinner with them.