When Extortionists Targeted Hollywood’s Art Linkletter

Art Linkletter had a long career in radio and TV as a show host, comedian, and pitch man. Before his death in 2010, Linkletter and I had a complicated relationship. In 1967 I was a kid featured on one of his popular and nationally broadcast House Party TV episodes — the part of the show in which Linkletter asked children questions and made them unwittingly say funny — or “the darndest” — things in response.

My encounter with Linkletter upset me, and I afterward followed his career. I grew to regard him as a man needy of attention whose…