Winston Conrad “Wink” Martindale (December 4, 1933 – April 15, 2025) was an American disc jockey, radio personality, game show host, and television producer. He 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 started his career as a disc jockey when he was 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. Next, he hosted mornings at WHBQ in Memphis while a college student at Memphis State University, before graduating with a bachelor of science degree in 1957.
. . . On the evening of July 10, 1954, Martindale was showing the WHBQ studio to some friends when he realized that his colleague on the 9 p.m. to midnight shift, Dewey Phillips, was getting a large number of reactions from listeners after airing a new song. The song was Elvis Presley’s first record, “That’s All Right.” The song was recorded at Sam Phillips’ recording studio on the evening of July 5, 1954. Sam, who had brought the record on July 6, was in the WHBQ studio on the first airing night and had Elvis’ telephone number. DJ Dewey Phillips wanted to interview Elvis during his program, so Wink endeavored to contact Elvis, but Gladys Presley, Elvis’s mother, answered the phone and said Elvis was so nervous that he had gone to a movie theater. Gladys and her husband Vernon brought Elvis to WHBQ and Dewey interviewed Elvis without his knowing that he was on the air (Martindale reported that Elvis later admitted that he would have been unable to talk otherwise).
Martindale’s rendition of the spoken-word song “Deck of Cards” went to No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and sold over a million copies in 1959.[6] In Canada it reached No. 3. It also peaked at no. 5 in the UK Singles Chart in April 1963, one of four visits to that chart. It was followed by “Black Land Farmer.”
In 1959, he became morning man at KHJ in Los Angeles, California, moving a year later to the morning show at KRLA and finally to KFWB in 1962. He also 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, the short-lived Wink and Bill Show on KABC during 1989, and KJQI from 1993 to 1994. In 1967, Martindale acted in a short futuristic documentary film about home life in the year 1999 produced by the Philco-Ford Corporation which predicted, among other things, Internet commerce.
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Martindale’s first break into television was at WHBQ-TV in Memphis, as the host of Mars Patrol, a science-fiction themed children’s television series. At his tenure with WHBQ, Martindale became the host of the TV show Teenage Dance Party, where his friend Elvis Presley made an appearance on June 16, 1956. Following Presley’s death in 1977, Martindale aired a nationwide tribute radio special in his honor.
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Martindale married Madelyn Leech, in 1954 and they had four children. The couple divorced in 1972. He later married his second wife, Sandy (née Ferra), on August 2, 1975. He had a few dogs named after the various game shows he hosted.
His wife, Sandy, previously dated Elvis Presley. Both he and Sandy were friends with Presley. They appeared on Sirius’ Elvis Radio and shared stories about Presley.
Martindale died from lymphoma at a hospital in Rancho Mirage, California, on April 15, 2025, at the age of 91.
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Go here to read more of Mr. Martindale’s bio:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wink_Martindale
Photo: Publicity photo of game show host Wink Martindale from the NBC television program What’s This Song?
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OTHER NOTABLE MUSICIANS’ DEATHS
Warning Signs of Suicide – National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or if you want to discuss, call the old numbers at 800-273-TALK or 800-273-8255 for English and 888-628-9454 for Spanish. Learn the signs of someone who may be contemplating suicide.
If you want to know more about any of the musicians we lost, please check them out at http://www.wikipedia.com
APRIL
16: Patrick Adiarte, 81, Filipino-American actor (The King and I, High Time, Flower Drum Song); Nora Aunor, 71, Filipino actress (Tatlong Taong Walang Diyos, Trap, Hustisya) and singer; Joel Krosnick, 84, American cellist.
15: Wink Martindale, 91, American disc jockey, game show host (Gambit, Tic-Tac-Dough) and singer (“Deck of Cards”), lymphoma.
14: Jed the Fish, 69, American radio DJ (KROQ), lung cancer; Peter Seiffert, 71, German operatic tenor.
12: Pilita Corrales, 85, Filipino singer and actress (Mars Ravelo’s Darna! Ang Pagbabalik, Bride for Rent, My Illegal Wife); Clairelise Ann Young, cancer.
11: Mike Berry, 82, English singer (“The Sunshine of Your Smile”) and actor (Are You Being Served?, Worzel Gummidge); Max Romeo, 80, Jamaican reggae musician (“Wet Dream”, “Chase the Devil”), heart complications.
10: Titiek Puspa, 87, Indonesian singer and songwriter, intracerebral hemorrhage; Nino Tempo, 90, American singer (Nino Tempo & April Stevens, “Deep Purple”) and saxophonist (The Wrecking Crew); Drew Zingg, 68, American guitarist.
9: Roberto Cani, 57, Italian violinist; Terje Venaas, 78, Norwegian jazz bass player.
8: Lenny Welch, 86, American pop singer; Notable Dominicans killed in the Jet Set nightclub roof collapse: Rubby Pérez, 69, merengue singer. [His saxophone player also died in the roof collapse]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deaths_in_2025
Photo: Wink Martindale