LOS ANGELES (AP) 鈥� Wink Martindale, the genial host of such hit game shows as 鈥淕ambit鈥� and 鈥淭ic-Tac-Dough鈥� who also did one of the first recorded interviews with a young Elvis Presley, has died. He was 91.
Martindale died Tuesday at Eisenhower Health in Rancho Mirage, California, according to his publicist Brian Mayes. Martindale had been battling lymphoma for a year.
鈥淗e was doing pretty well up until a couple weeks ago,鈥� Mayes said by phone from Nashville.
鈥淕ambit鈥� debuted on the same day in September 1972 as 鈥淭he Price is Right鈥� with Bob Barker and 鈥淭he Joker鈥檚 Wild鈥� with Jack Barry.
鈥淔rom the day it hit the air, 鈥楪ambit鈥� spelled winner, and it taught me a basic tenant of any truly successful game show: KISS! Keep It Simple Stupid,鈥� Martindale wrote in his 2000 memoir 鈥淲inking at Life.鈥� 鈥淟ike playing Old Maids as a kid, everybody knows how to play 21, i.e. blackjack.鈥�
鈥淕ambit鈥� had been beating its competition on NBC and ABC for over two years. But a new show debuted in 1975 on NBC called 鈥淲heel of Fortune.鈥� By December 1976, 鈥淕ambit鈥� was off the air and 鈥淲heel of Fortune鈥� became an institution that is still going strong today.
Martindale bounced back in 1978 with 鈥淭ic-Tac-Dough,鈥� the classic X鈥檚 and O鈥檚 game on CBS that ran until 1985.
鈥淥vernight I had gone from the outhouse to the penthouse,鈥� he wrote.
He presided over the 88-game winning streak of Navy Lt. Thom McKee, who earned over $300,000 in cash and prizes that included eight cars, three sailboats and 16 vacation trips. At the time, McKee鈥檚 winnings were a record for a game show contestant.
鈥淚 love working with contestants, interacting with the audience and to a degree, watching lives change,鈥� Martindale wrote. 鈥淲inning a lot of cash can cause that to happen.鈥�
Martindale wrote that producer Dan Enright once told him that in the seven years he hosted 鈥淭ic-Tac-Dough鈥� he gave away over $7 million in cash and prizes.
Martindale said his many years as a radio DJ were helpful to him as a game show host because radio calls for constant ad-libs and he learned to handle almost any situation in the spur of the moment. He estimated that he hosted nearly two dozen game shows during his career.
Martindale wrote in his memoir that the question he got asked most often was 鈥淚s Wink your real name?鈥� The second was 鈥淗ow did you get into game shows?鈥�
He got his nickname from a childhood friend. Martindale is no relation to University of Michigan defensive coordinator Don Martindale, whose college teammates nicknamed him Wink because of their shared last name.
Born Winston Conrad Martindale on Dec. 4, 1933, in Jackson, Tennessee, he loved radio since childhood and at age 6 would read aloud the contents of advertisements in Life magazine.
He began his career as a disc jockey at age 17 at WPLI in his hometown, earning $25 a week.
After moving to WTJS, he was hired away for double the salary by Jackson鈥檚 only other station, WDXI. He next hosted mornings at WHBQ in Memphis while attending Memphis State. He was married and the father of two girls when he graduated in 1957.
Martindale was in the studio, although not working on-air that night, when the first Presley record 鈥淭hat鈥檚 All Right鈥� was played on WHBQ on July 8, 1954.
Martindale approached fellow DJ Dewey Phillips, who had given Presley an early break by playing his song, to ask him and Presley to do a joint interview on Martindale鈥檚 TV show 鈥淭op Ten Dance Party鈥� in 1956. By then, Presley had become a major star and agreed to the appearance.
Martindale and Presley stayed in touch on occasion through the years, and in 1959 he did a trans-Atlantic telephone interview with Presley, who was in the Army in Germany. Martindale鈥檚 second wife, Sandy, briefly dated Presley after meeting him on the set of 鈥淕.I. Blues鈥� in 1960.
In 1959, Martindale moved to Los Angeles to host a morning show on KHJ. That same year he reached No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart with a cover version of 鈥淒eck of Cards,鈥� which sold over 1 million copies. He performed the spoken word wartime story with religious overtones on 鈥淭he Ed Sullivan Show.鈥�
鈥淚 could easily have thought, 鈥橶ow, this is easy! I come out here, go on radio and TV, make a record and everybody wants to buy it!鈥� he wrote. 鈥淓ven if I entertained such thoughts, they soon dissipated. I learned in due time that what had happened to me was far from the ordinary.鈥�
A year later he moved to the morning show at KRLA and to KFWB in 1962. Among his many other radio gigs were two separate stints at KMPC, owned by actor Gene Autry.
His first network hosting job was on NBC鈥檚 鈥淲hat鈥檚 This Song?鈥� where he was credited as Win Martindale from 1964-65.
He later hosted two Chuck Barris-produced shows on ABC: 鈥淒ream Girl 鈥�67鈥� and 鈥淗ow鈥檚 Your Mother-in-Law?鈥� The latter lasted just 13 weeks before being canceled.
鈥淚鈥檝e jokingly said it came and went so fast, it seemed more like 13 minutes!鈥� Martindale wrote, explaining that it was the worst show of his career.
Martindale later hosted a Las Vegas-based revival of 鈥淕ambit鈥� from 1980-81.
He formed his own production company, Wink Martindale Enterprises, to develop and produce his own game shows. His first venture was 鈥淗eadline Chasers,鈥� a coproduction with Merv Griffin that debuted in 1985 and was canceled after one season. His next show, 鈥淏umper Stumpers,鈥� ran on U.S. and Canadian television from 1987-1990.
He hosted 鈥淒ebt鈥� from 1996-98 on Lifetime cable and 鈥淚nstant Recall鈥� on GSN in 2010.
Martindale returned to his radio roots in 2012 as host of the nationally syndicated 鈥淭he 100 Greatest Christmas Hits of All Time.鈥� In 2021, he hosted syndicated program 鈥淭he History of Rock 鈥榥鈥� Roll.鈥�
In 2017, Martindale appeared in a KFC ad campaign with actor Rob Lowe.
He is survived by Sandy, his second wife of 49 years, and children Lisa, Madelyn ad Laura and numerous grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his son, Wink Jr. Martindale's children are from his first marriage which ended in divorce in 1972.
Beth Harris, The Associated Press
