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Wink Martindale, Longtime Game Show Host, Dies at 91

BBG News

LOS ANGELES — Wink Martindale, the charismatic host of popular game shows like “Gambit” and “Tic-Tac-Dough,” and one of the first to interview a young Elvis Presley on television, has passed away at the age of 91.

According to Brian Mayes, Martindale passed away on Tuesday at Eisenhower Health in Rancho Mirage, California. For the past year, he had been fighting against lymphoma.

“He was doing pretty well up until a couple weeks ago,” Mayes said by phone from Nashville.

On the very same day in September 1972, “Gambit” made its first appearance alongside “The Price is Right” hosted by Bob Barker and “The Joker’s Wild” hosted by Jack Barry.

In his 2000 memoir “Winking at Life,” Martindale stated that from the moment it premiered, ‘Gambit’ was undeniably successful and taught him an essential rule for any effective game show: KISS – Keep It Simple, Silly. Playing Old Maid as a child is similar to understanding 21 (blackjack); everyone already knows how to play.

For more than two years, “Gambit” outperformed its opponents on NBC and ABC. However, a fresh show titled “Wheel of Fortune” premiered on NBC in 1975. By December 1976, “Gambit” had ceased production, and “Wheel of Fortune” has since become a lasting staple that continues to thrive today.

1978 saw a comeback for Martindale as he introduced “Tic-Tac-Dough,” the popular X’s and O’s game, which was broadcast on CBS until 1985.

“Overnight I had gone from the outhouse to the penthouse,” he wrote.

He oversaw the historic 88-game victory run of Navy Lt. Thom McKee, who accumulated more than $300,000 in cash and prizes, which included eight cars, three sailboats, and 16 vacation trips. During that period, McKee’s winnings set a new record for a contestant on a game show.

Martindale expressed his enjoyment for collaborating with contestants, engaging with the audience, and witnessing transformations in people’s lives, to some extent. He also mentioned that winning substantial amounts of money often leads to such changes.

According to Martindale, Dan Enright, who was the showrunner for “Tic-Tac-Dough” for seven years, shared that during his tenure, they distributed more than $7 million in both money and prizes.

Martindale found that his experience as a radio DJ served him well in hosting game shows, since radio work requires frequent improvisation and he honed his ability to manage unexpected situations quickly. Throughout his career, he hosted close to two dozen game shows.

In his autobiography, Martindale frequently encountered two questions: “Is ‘Wink’ actually your birth name?” and “What led you to participate in game shows?

Martindale received his nickname from an old friend during his childhood. Despite sharing the same last name with the University of Michigan’s defensive coordinator, Don Martindale, it’s important to note that they are not related. The defensive coordinator earned his nickname “Wink” from his college teammates due to their shared surname.

Winston Conrad Martindale was born on December 4, 1933, in Jackson, Tennessee. Since his youth, he had a deep affection for radio and at six years old, he would read out loud the advertisements found in Life magazine.

He began his career as a disc jockey at age 17 at WPLI in his hometown, earning $25 a week.

Upon settling into WTJS, I was enticingly poached by Jackson’s sole other station, WDXI, offering me twice my previous salary. Subsequently, I hosted mornings at WHBQ in the vibrant city of Memphis while simultaneously pursuing my education at Memphis State. By 1957, I had graduated and was a married man with two beautiful daughters to my name.

On July 8, 1954, while Martindale wasn’t hosting live, he was in the studio when the first Elvis Presley record, “That’s All Right,” was broadcasted on WHBQ for the very first time.

In 1956, DJ Dewey Phillips – who had initially helped Elvis Presley by playing his music – was approached by Martindale for a joint interview on his TV show “Top Ten Dance Party”. Since Presley had already achieved significant stardom, he accepted the invitation to appear.

Over time, Martindale and Presley would occasionally keep in contact, and it was in 1959 that they conducted a telephone conversation across the Atlantic, with Presley serving in the military in Germany at the time. Later on, in 1960, Martindale’s second wife, Sandy, had a brief romance with Presley after they met during the filming of “G.I. Blues.

1959 saw Martindale relocate to Los Angeles, where he began hosting a morning program on KHJ radio. That very year, his cover of “Deck of Cards” reached number 7 on the Billboard Hot 100, selling more than a million copies. On “The Ed Sullivan Show,” he delivered a spoken word rendition of a wartime story with spiritual undertones.

He might have thought something like, “I could have quickly assumed, ‘Wow, this is simple! I step out here, appear on radio and TV, record a track and everyone wants to purchase it!’ However, such thoughts quickly faded. In time, I realized that what had occurred to me was anything but usual.

A year on, he shifted to the morning slot at KRLA, and later in 1962, he moved to KFWB as well. Notably, he had two distinct periods of employment at KMPC, a station owned by actor Gene Autry.

In the year range of 1964 to 1965, his debut role in network hosting was for the show “What’s This Song?” on NBC, and during this period, he was recognized professionally as ‘Win Martindale’.

Later on, he went on to host two shows produced by Chuck Barris for ABC: “Dream Girl ’67” and “How’s Your Mother-in-Law?” Unfortunately, the latter didn’t last long, running only for 13 weeks before it was taken off the air.

Martindale humorously commented, “It felt like it had barely started and ended in just 13 minutes, such a whirlwind!”, expressing that it was undeniably the most disappointing performance of his career.

Martindale later hosted a Las Vegas-based revival of “Gambit” from 1980-81.

He established Wink Martindale Enterprises as his personal production company, where he created and broadcasted his own game shows. His initial project was “Headline Chasers,” a joint production with Merv Griffin that premiered in 1985 but only lasted one season. Following this, his next show titled “Bumper Stumpers” was aired on both American and Canadian TV from 1987 to 1990.

He hosted “Debt” from 1996-98 on Lifetime cable and “Instant Recall” on GSN in 2010.

In 2012, Martindale revisited his early passion for radio by becoming the host of the nationally broadcast show “The 100 Best Christmas Songs Ever Made.” Fast forward to 2021, he resumed his radio journey with another syndicated program titled “The Evolution of Rock ‘n’ Roll.

In 2017, Martindale appeared in a KFC ad campaign with actor Rob Lowe.

* Sandy, his longtime spouse of 49 years, and their daughters Lisa, Madelyn, and Laura, along with many grandchildren, remain after him. Regrettably, his son Wink Jr., who was from his previous marriage that ended in divorce in 1972, passed away before him.

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2025-04-16 05:06

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