Wink Martindale is viewed as one of the pioneers of game show hosting, and throughout his longstanding career, he’s crossed paths with many, including Elvis Presley, who later became his good friend
Elvis Presley’s good friend Wink Martindale has died at the age of 91
Elvis Presley’s good friend, rock-n-roll DJ and TV game show host pioneer Wink Martindale, has died at the age of 91.
Wink’s calling card during his time on in the public eye was his distinct voice, bold sport coats, and his very unique and peculiar first name. “When I was a kid in Jackson, Tennessee, one of my playmates, Jimmy McCord, couldn’t say ‘Winston,’ which is my given name. He had a speech impediment, and it came out sounding like ‘Winky,’ he told ABC News in 2014. “So Winston turned into Winky, and then I got into the business and Wink it was! It served me well.”
Wink recorded for Dot Records, a label artist Pat Boone was also on, and in 1959 his narrative Deck of Cards was released, selling over 1 million copies.
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Also, he sang All Love Broke Loose during the 1958 film Let’s Rock. Wink married his second wife Sandy, who dated Elvis on-and-off before he married his wife Priscilla Wagner in 1967, in 1975.
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Sandy had a appearance as a dancer in the 1964 film Viva Las Vegas, and other Elvis films.
“Elvis is responsible for me marrying Wink,” Sandy confessed in a 2015 interview. “When [Martindale] said he was from Tennessee, I said, ‘He must be a nice guy,’ because I loved the state, I loved all the guys, I loved everything in the state of Tennessee because Elvis was such a wonderful part of my life.”
Born in 1933 as Winston Conrad Martindale in Jackson, he was given his first radio job in 1951 when he was senior in high school by his former Sunday school teacher who happened to manage WPLI, a 250-watt radio station.
At the time, then-17-year-old Wink made $25 a week. A few years later, he traveled to WHBQ in Memphis, which is about 90 miles away from home, to host a radio show in the morning and the popular kids TV show, Wink Martindale of Mars Patrol, in the afternoon, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
“All of a sudden I became a radio personality that everyone knew and respected to a television ‘star,’ and the kids loved me!” he revealed in a 2010 interview.
Wink was at a WHBQ one night in July 1954 when he helped arrange to get Elvis to the station for his debut radio interview, not too long after the debut of his song That’s All Right.
Wink went on to host the American Bandstand-esque show Top Ten Dance Party in Memphis, Elvis was a big name he was able to get on the show, and then after he asked for and was granted a transfer to Los Angeles’ KHJ (radio and television) in 1959.
The game show Gambit, which Wink hosted, debuted on the same day as The Price is Right and The Joker’s Wild in 1972.
“From the day it hit the air, ‘Gambit’ spelled winner, and it taught me a basic tenant of any truly successful game show: KISS! Keep It Simple Stupid,” Wink wrote in his 2000 memoir “Winking at Life.” “Like playing Old Maids as a kid, everybody knows how to play 21, i.e. blackjack.”
It’s safe to say that Wink had a very successful career in media. Wink’s publicist Brian Mayes revealed that the TV star had been battling lymphoma for a year.
“He was doing pretty well up until a couple weeks ago,” Brian divulged in an interview.
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