Wink Martindale, the popular TV and radio presenter known for hosting Tic-Tac-Dough and Gambit, has died. He was 91.
Born Winston Conrad Martindale on Dec. 4, 1933, in Jackson, Tennessee, Martindale is credited with setting up Elvis Presley's first interview after Memphis radio station WHBQ played his debut recording "That's All Right Mama" on July 10, 1954.
Martindale broke into television at WHBQ-TV in Memphis, where he hosted Mars Patrol, a science-fiction themed show for children, and Teenage Dance Party, where he interviewed Presley on June 16, 1956.
His first game show was NBC's What's This Song? (1964-1965), followed by NBC's Words and Music, CBS' Gambit, and his most famous game show, Tic-Tac-Dough.
Martindale also had success as a recording artist, selling more than one million copies of the spoken-word narrative song "Deck of Cards" in 1959.
He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2006.
Martindale was transferred to Los Angeles to host KHJ in 1959 and moved between different stations in the region for decades. He was a host on Gene Autry's KMPC (now KSPN) for 12 years.
Martindale got his start in show business as a teenaged disc jockey in his hometown of Jackson, Tennessee, earning just $25 a week, before moving up to WHBQ, where he met the King of Rock and Roll.
It was Martindale's WHBQ colleague, Dewey Phillips, who introduced Presley to listeners by playing "That's All Right, Mama" on his nighttime show Red, Hot, and Blue. As Martindale would later recall, it was his job to call Presley's mother to set up an interview. Elvis was so nervous about the excitement generated by the song that he had gone to the movie theater.
“They found him sitting there by himself and brought him to the station," Martindale recalled during an interview with Television Academy Foundation in 2018. "Dewey put him in front of a microphone and just started talking to him. So I met Elvis that night. He became my friend and he continued to be my friend until the day he died.”
Martindale and Presley became good friends, and one of the singer's former girlfriend's, Sandy, became Martindale's second wife in 1975. She was at his side when he died at his home in Rancho Mirage, Calif. on Tuesday.
Martindale also hosted annual telethons for Cerebral Palsy and St. Jude Children’s Hospital.
He is survived by his wife Sandra, his daughters Lisa, Lyn and Laura, his sister Geraldine, and his “honorary son,” Eric.
