Los Angeles-Wink Martindale, the excellent presenter of games of games as successful as “Gambit” and “Tic-Tac-Dough”, who also made one of the first television interviews recorded with a young Elvis Presley, has died. I was 91 years old.
Martindale died Tuesday at Eisenhower Health in Rancho Mirage, California, according to his publicist Brian Mayes. Martindale had been fighting the lymphoma for a year.
“I was doing quite well until a couple of weeks ago,” Mayes said by phone from Nashville.
“Gambit” debuted the same day in September 1972 as “the price is correct” with Bob Barker and “The Joker’s Wild” with Jack Barry.
“From the day he arrived on the air, ‘Gambit’ spelling, and taught me a basic tenant of any truly successful games program: Kiss! Follow Simple Stupid,” Martindale wrote in his 2000 memories “Winking at Life.” “How to play old maidens as a child, everyone knows how to play 21, that is, Blackjack.”
“Gambit” had been overcoming its competition in NBC and ABC for more than two years. But a new program debuted in 1975 in NBC called “Wheel of Fortune”. By December 1976, “Gambit” was out of the air and “Wheel of Fortune” became an institution that is still being strengthened today.
Martindale recovered in 1978 with “Tic-Tac-Dough”, the classic X and O Gam in CBS that extended until 1985.
“During the night he had passed from the latrine to the attic,” he wrote.
He chaired the winning streak of 88 games of the Lieutenant of the Marina Thom McKee, who won more than $ 300,000 in cash and awards that included eight cars, three sailboats and 16 holiday trips. At that time, McKee’s profits were a record for a game contestant.
“I love working with contestants, interacting with the audience and, to some extent, seeing life change,” Martindale wrote. “Winning a lot of effective can make that happen.”
Martindale wrote that producer Dan Enright once told him that in the seven years he received “Tic-Tac-Dough” who gave more than $ 7 million in cash and awards.
Martindale said that his many years as Radio DJ were useful for him as a presenter of game programs because Radio calls constant advertising and learned to handle almost any situation at the time. He estimated that he organized almost two dozen games programs during his career.
Martindale wrote in his memoirs that the question that was asked most frequently was “Is your real name a wink?” The second was “How did you get to game shows?”
He obtained his nickname from a childhood friend. Martindale is not a relationship with the defensive coordinator of the University of Michigan, Don Martindale, whose colleagues from the University nicknamed him wink due to his shared last name.
Born Winston Conrad Martindale on December 4, 1933 in Jackson, Tennessee, he loved the radio from childhood and 6 years would read aloud the content of the ads in the magazine Life.
He began his career as Disc Jockey at age 17 at WPLI in his hometown, winning $ 25 per week.
After moving to WTJS, he was hired for twice the salary for the only other Jackson station, WDXI. He then organized mornings in Whbq in Memphis while attending the state of Memphis. He was married and the father of two girls when he graduated in 1957.
Martindale was in the studio, although he didn’t work in the air that night, when the first Presley album “That’s All’s Bight” reproduced on Whbq on July 8, 1954.
Martindale approached his partner Dj Dewey Phillips, who had given Presley an early break when playing his song, to ask him already Presley to do a joint interview in the Martindale television program “Top Ten Dance Party” in 1956. By then, Presley had become a great star and agreed the appearance.
Martindale and Presley remained in contact sometimes over the years, and in 1959 he did a transatlantic telephone interview with Presley, which was in the army in Germany. Martindale’s second wife, Sandy, briefly came out in Presley after meeting him on the set of “Gi Blues” in 1960.
In 1959, Martindale moved to Los Angeles to organize a morning program in KHJ. That same year it reached number 7 in the Billboard Hot 100 list with a cover version of “Deck of Cards”, which sold more than 1 million copies. He made the war of war of words spoken with religious nuances in “The Ed Sullivan Show”.
“I could have easily thought: ‘Wow, this is easy! I come here, I go to radio and television, I make an album and everyone wants to buy it!” He wrote. “Even if I entertained such thoughts, they soon dissipated. I learned in due time that what had happened to me was far from the ordinary.”
A year later, he moved to the morning program in Krla already KFWB in 1962. Among his many other radio concerts were two separate periods in KMPC, owned by actor gene Autry.
His first network accommodation work was in “What is this song” by NBC? where he was accredited as Win Martindale of 1964-65.
He was later host of two shows produced by Chuck Barris in ABC: “Dream Girl ’67” and “How is your mother -in -law?” The latter lasted only 13 weeks before being canceled.
“I said jokingly that it came and it was so fast that it seemed more like 13 minutes!” Martindale wrote, explaining that it was the worst show of his career.
Later, Martindale organized a “gambit” rebirth based in Las Vegas of 1980-81.
He formed his own production company, Wink Martindale Enterprises, to develop and produce their own games programs. His first company was “Chasers of headlines”, a co -production with Merv Griffin that debuted in 1985 and was canceled after a season. His next program, “Bumper Stumpers”, was presented on the American and Canadian television of 1987-1990.
Organized “debt” of 1996-98 in cable for life and “instant withdrawal” in GSN in 2010.
Martindale returned to its radio roots in 2012 as presenter of the national syndicates “the 100 best Christmas successes of all time.” In 2021, he organized a syndicated program “The history of rock ‘N’ Roll”.
In 2017, Martindale appeared in a KFC advertising campaign with actor Rob Lowe.
He is survived by Sandy, his second 49 -year -old wife, and Lisa’s children, Madelyn Ad Laura and numerous grandchildren. His son preceded him in death, the children of Wink Jr. Martindale are from his first marriage that ended in divorce in 1972.
