Prolific game show host and media personality Wink Martindale, known for popular programs like Tic-Tac-Dough , Gambit , and Teenage Dance Party and for his stylish, affable onscreen persona, has died at 91. Martindale, who had been suffering from lymphoma, died on Tuesday at Eisenhower Health in Rancho Mirage, California, according to his publicist Brian Mayes. Born Winston Conrad Martindale, the veteran host was born in Jackson, Tennessee on December 4, 1933.
He began his career as a disc jockey in Jackson at the age of 17, and soon moved on to WHBQ in Memphis. That station notably played Elvis Presley’s first record, “That’s All Right,” on the radio for the first time on July 10, 1954, leading Martindale to call Presley’s mother and invite the singer in for a chat. “Elvis soon arrived at WHBQ for his first interview, and music was changed forever,” a press release notes.
“Wink was the last living witness to ‘Presleymania’ and the birth of rock & roll.” “I think that I was born with a desire to be a radio announcer,” Martindale once said, according to the New York Times . “I always had that great desire to sit behind a microphone.
My first ‘mic’ was two paper cups attached to a string. It wasn’t long before I was sitting behind the real thing.” Martindale worked at numerous radio stations over the years and broke into television as the host of Mars Patrol , a science-fiction themed children’s television series.
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