LOS ANGELES — Wink Martindale, the genial host of such hit sport reveals as “Gambit” and “Tic-Tac-Dough” who additionally did one of many first recorded tv interviews with a younger Elvis Presley, has died. He was 91.
Martindale died Tuesday at Eisenhower Well being in Rancho Mirage, California, in response to his publicist Brian Mayes. Martindale had been battling lymphoma for a 12 months.
“He was doing fairly nicely up till a pair weeks in the past,” Mayes stated by telephone from Nashville.
“Gambit” debuted on the identical day in September 1972 as “The Worth is Proper” with Bob Barker and “The Joker’s Wild” with Jack Barry.
“From the day it hit the air, ‘Gambit’ spelled winner, and it taught me a primary tenant of any actually profitable sport present: KISS! Hold It Easy Silly,” Martindale wrote in his 2000 memoir “Winking at Life.” “Like enjoying Previous Maids as a child, all people is aware of easy methods to play 21, i.e. blackjack.”
“Gambit” had been beating its competitors on NBC and ABC for over two years. However a brand new present debuted in 1975 on NBC known as “Wheel of Fortune.” By December 1976, “Gambit” was off the air and “Wheel of Fortune” grew to become an establishment that’s nonetheless going sturdy immediately.
Martindale bounced again in 1978 with “Tic-Tac-Dough,” the basic X’s and O’s sport on CBS that ran till 1985.
“In a single day I had gone from the outhouse to the penthouse,” he wrote.
He presided over the 88-game successful streak of Navy Lt. Thom McKee, who earned over $300,000 in money and prizes that included eight vehicles, three sailboats and 16 trip journeys. On the time, McKee’s winnings have been a file for a sport present contestant.
“I like working with contestants, interacting with the viewers and to a level, watching lives change,” Martindale wrote. “Profitable lots of money could cause that to occur.”
Martindale wrote that producer Dan Enright as soon as informed him that within the seven years he hosted “Tic-Tac-Dough” he gave away over $7 million in money and prizes.
Martindale stated his a few years as a radio DJ have been useful to him as a sport present host as a result of radio requires fixed ad-libs and he discovered to deal with virtually any scenario within the spur of the second. He estimated that he hosted practically two dozen sport reveals throughout his profession.
Martindale wrote in his memoir that the query he bought requested most frequently was “Is Wink your actual title?” The second was “How did you get into sport reveals?”
He bought his nickname from a childhood good friend. Martindale isn’t any relation to College of Michigan defensive coordinator Don Martindale, whose school teammates nicknamed him Wink due to their shared final title.
Born Winston Conrad Martindale on Dec. 4, 1933, in Jackson, Tennessee, he liked radio since childhood and at age 6 would learn aloud the contents of ads in Life journal.
He started his profession as a disc jockey at age 17 at WPLI in his hometown, incomes $25 per week.
After transferring to WTJS, he was employed away for double the wage by Jackson’s solely different station, WDXI. He subsequent hosted mornings at WHBQ in Memphis whereas attending Memphis State. He was married and the daddy of two women when he graduated in 1957.
Martindale was within the studio, though not working on-air that evening, when the primary Presley file “That’s All Proper” was performed on WHBQ on July 8, 1954.
Martindale approached fellow DJ Dewey Phillips, who had given Presley an early break by enjoying his tune, to ask him and Presley to do a joint interview on Martindale’s TV present “Prime Ten Dance Celebration” in 1956. By then, Presley had change into a serious star and agreed to the looks.
Martindale and Presley stayed in contact from time to time by way of the years, and in 1959 he did a trans-Atlantic phone interview with Presley, who was within the Military in Germany. Martindale’s second spouse, Sandy, briefly dated Presley after assembly him on the set of “G.I. Blues” in 1960.
In 1959, Martindale moved to Los Angeles to host a morning present on KHJ. That very same 12 months he reached No. 7 on the Billboard Scorching 100 chart with a canopy model of “Deck of Playing cards,” which offered over 1 million copies. He carried out the spoken phrase wartime story with spiritual overtones on “The Ed Sullivan Present.”
“I may simply have thought, ’Wow, that is simple! I come out right here, go on radio and TV, make a file and all people desires to purchase it!” he wrote. “Even when I entertained such ideas, they quickly dissipated. I discovered in due time that what had occurred to me was removed from the extraordinary.”
A 12 months later he moved to the morning present at KRLA and to KFWB in 1962. Amongst his many different radio gigs have been two separate stints at KMPC, owned by actor Gene Autry.
His first community internet hosting job was on NBC’s “What’s This Track?” the place he was credited as Win Martindale from 1964-65.
He later hosted two Chuck Barris-produced reveals on ABC: “Dream Lady ’67” and “How’s Your Mom-in-Regulation?” The latter lasted simply 13 weeks earlier than being canceled.
“I’ve jokingly stated it got here and went so quick, it appeared extra like 13 minutes!” Martindale wrote, explaining that it was the worst present of his profession.
Martindale later hosted a Las Vegas-based revival of “Gambit” from 1980-81.
He fashioned his personal manufacturing firm, Wink Martindale Enterprises, to develop and produce his personal sport reveals. His first enterprise was “Headline Chasers,” a coproduction with Merv Griffin that debuted in 1985 and was canceled after one season. His subsequent present, “Bumper Stumpers,” ran on U.S. and Canadian tv from 1987-1990.
He hosted “Debt” from 1996-98 on Lifetime cable and “Prompt Recall” on GSN in 2010.
Martindale returned to his radio roots in 2012 as host of the nationally syndicated “The 100 Best Christmas Hits of All Time.” In 2021, he hosted syndicated program “The Historical past of Rock ‘n’ Roll.”
In 2017, Martindale appeared in a KFC advert marketing campaign with actor Rob Lowe.
He’s survived by Sandy, his second spouse of 49 years, and youngsters Lisa, Madelyn advert Laura and quite a few grandchildren. He was preceded in dying by his son, Wink Jr. Martindale’s kids are from his first marriage which led to divorce in 1972.
