Wink Martindale, Prolific Game Show Host, Dies at 91
Wink Martindale, a rock 'n' roll disc jockey and good friend of Elvis Presley who gained fame as the host of such TV game shows as Tic-Tac-Dough, Gambit and High Rollers, died Tuesday in Rancho Mirage, California, a publicist announced. He was 91.
The friendly Martindale, who had a 74-year career, was known for his resonate voice, vivid sport coats and, especially, his curious first name.
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'When I was a kid in Jackson, Tennessee, one of my playmates, Jimmy McCord, couldn't say 'Winston,' which is my given name. He had a speech impediment, and it came out sounding like 'Winky,' ' Martindale explained to ABC News in 2014. 'So Winston turned into Winky, and then I got into the business and Wink it was! It served me well.'
Martindale recorded for Dot Records — Pat Boone was another artist on that label — and his Deck of Cards, a narrative release from 1959, sold more than 1 million copies. He also sang 'All Love Broke Loose' during the 1958 film Let's Rock.
His second wife, Sandy, whom he married in 1975, dated Presley on and off until shortly before the singer wed Priscilla Wagner in 1967, and she appeared as a dancer in Viva Las Vegas (1964) and other Elvis movies.
'Elvis is responsible for me marrying Wink,' she said in a 2015 interview. 'When [Martindale] said he was from Tennessee, I said, 'He must be a nice guy,' because I loved the state, I loved all the guys, I loved everything in the state of Tennessee because Elvis was such a wonderful part of my life.'
Winston Conrad Martindale was born on Dec. 4, 1933, in Jackson. His former Sunday school teacher managed WPLI, a 250-watt radio station, and gave him his first job in radio at $25 a week in 1951. He was 17 and a senior in high school.
A few years later, he made the big move to WHBQ in Memphis, about 90 miles away from home, where he hosted a radio show in the morning and a popular kids TV show, Wink Martindale of Mars Patrol, in the afternoon.
'All of a sudden I became a radio personality that everyone knew and respected to a television 'star,' and the kids loved me!' he said in a 2010 interview.
Martindale happened to be back at WHBQ on one evening in July 1954 when he helped arrange to get Presley to the station for his first-ever radio interview, shortly after the debut of his song 'That's All Right.'
Martindale hosted the American Bandstand-like show Top Ten Dance Party in Memphis — Elvis was a big get for him on that show — then asked for and was granted a transfer to Los Angeles' KHJ (radio and television) in 1959.
He hosted another local Dance Party program, this one from Pacific Ocean Park in Santa Monica, and later had a 12-year run as the midday personality on the Gene Autry-owned station KMPC beginning in 1971.
Martindale said he became interested in hosting a TV game show in 1965 when he learned that Password's Allen Ludden would 'go in two days a week and tape five shows one day and five shows the next and the other five days play golf. I went to my agent and said, 'How about sending me on a game-show hosting interview?''
He eventually landed at NBC's What's That Song? (billed as Win Martindale) and worked for a year on that, the first of the 20 game shows that he hosted (only Bill Cullen did more). He was on Tic-Tac-Dough for a decade, did two shows for producer Chuck Barris (How's Your Mother-in-Law? and Dream Girl of '67) and produced game shows as well.
Martindale co-hosted and helped produce a cerebral palsy telethon in his hometown for more than a decade and published an autobiography, Winking at Life, in 2000. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame six years later.
In addition to his wife, survivors include his daughters, Lisa, Lyn and Laura; his sister, Geraldine; and his 'honorary son,' Eric.
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