Wink Martindale, who had success as a DJ, radio personality, game show host and TV producer, died in Rancho Mirage, California, on Tuesday (April 15). He was 91.
Martindale was best-known for hosting Gambit from 1972 to 1976 (and again from 1980 to 1981), Tic-Tac-Dough from 1978 to 1985, High Rollers from 1987 to 1988 and Debt from 1996 to 1998.
He also had a short-lived career as a recording artist. His spoken-word hit “Deck of Cards” reached No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1959. The song had been a No. 2 hit for “T” Texas Tyler in 1948 on Billboard’s Best-Selling Retail Folk Records chart, a forerunner to Hot Country Songs.
Martindale landed just one other Hot 100 hit, “Black Land Farmer,” which reached No. 85 in 1961.
The future broadcaster was born Winston Conrad Martindale in Jackson, Tennessee. He began his career as a DJ at age 17 at WPLI in Jackson, earning $25 a week. After moving to WTJS, he was hired away for double the salary by Jackson’s only other station, WDXI. He next hosted mornings at WHBQ in Memphis while attending college at Memphis State University.
In 1959, he became morning man at KHJ in Los Angeles, moving a year later to the morning show at KRLA and finally to KFWB in 1962. He was a regular presence on Los Angeles radio into the 1990s. He had lengthy stays at KGIL (AM) from 1968 to 1971, KKGO-FM/KJQI and Gene Autry‘s KMPC (now KSPN-AM) from 1971 to 1979 and again from 1983 to 1987, a brief stint on KABC during 1989, and KJQI from 1993 to 1994.
Martindale’s first break into television was at WHBQ-TV in Memphis, as the host of Mars Patrol, a children’s series. While at that station, Martindale became the host of the TV show Teenage Dance Party, where Elvis Presley (who would become a friend) made an appearance in June 1956.
Martindale’s first game-show hosting job was What’s This Song?, which he hosted for NBC (credited as “Win Martindale”) in 1964-65. In 1970-71, he hosted a similar song-recognition game show, Words and Music, again on NBC.
While Martindale’s greatest claim to fame is as a game-show host, he periodically returned to music programming. Martin filled in as guest host for Casey Kasem on American Top 40 in October 1975.
In the 2000s, Martindale had a daily three-hour show on the syndicated Music of Your Life format. In 2012, Martindale hosted the nationally-syndicated The 100 Greatest Christmas Hits of All Time.
On June 6, 2021, Martindale began hosting the syndicated The History of Rock ‘n’ Roll, a two-hour weekend review of music from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. The production was created by Martindale, producer/engineer Peter Jay Gould of The Intervale Group, and writer/producer Gary Theroux.
Martindale was one of the hosts featured in the 2002 NBC special Most Outrageous Game Show Moments, alongside four other game show mainstays – Bob Eubanks, Jim Lange, Ben Stein, and Peter Marshall.
Martindale’s last program was the GSN original series Instant Recall, which premiered on March 4, 2010.
On June 2, 2006, Martindale received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It is located at 7018 Hollywood Boulevard, adjacent to the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel – site of the first Academy Awards ceremony. On Oct. 13, 2007, Martindale was one of the first inductees into the American TV Game Show Hall of Fame in Las Vegas.
Martindale married Madelyn Leech in 1954, with whom he had four children; the couple divorced in 1972. He married his second wife, Sandy (née Ferra), on Aug. 2, 1975.
