Winston Conrad Martindale — nicknamed “Wink” by a neighbourhood pal — was probably best known for hosting Tic-Tac-Dough. The Tennessee native, however, also hosted around 20 other TV game shows, including Boggle, Gambit, Shuffle, Headline Chasers, High Rollers, Debt, Can You Top This? and the TV version of Trivial Pursuit.
Martindale died from lymphoma April 15 at Rancho Mirage, CA. He was 91.
He was part of an all-American generation of game show hosts who emerged on the original three networks in the ’50s and ’60s. Jack Barry, Bill Cullen, Art Linkletter, Allen Ludden, Gary Moore and others were already well established when Martindale began his TV career in 1964 with NBC’s short-lived What’s This Song? A few years later, Gambit lasted four years at CBS before Martindale found a solid hit at the same network in 1978 with Tic-Tac Dough. Martindale eventually hosted game shows at all three networks as well as in syndication and cable.
Prior to his TV success he worked in radio, first as a disc jockey at the age of 17 in his hometown of Jackson, Tennessee. Switching to a station in Memphis put him in the same orbit as Elvis Presley. Martindale set up one of Presley’s first radio interviews in ’54 after the station started playing his first single, “That’s All Right.” The two remained friends for many years.
It’s all in his 2000 autobiography Winking at Life, which is packed with photos of family friends and career highlights. Hollywood Squares producer Merrill Heater is quoted in the book as saying Martindale “gives you kind of a Music Man approach,” which was exactly right.
I met and interviewed Martindale many years ago in Los Angeles at a Game Show convention. He had that radio hustle, working right up to the end of his life curating a YouTube channel that featured clips from past shows such as Debt. He clung to that over-teased, game show hair, but in person was charming, easy going and self effacing. He had four children and was married 45 years to second wife Sandy — a former girlfriend of Elvis.
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Back in the mid-1980s, he was an executive producer on a Canadian game show I appeared on as a contestant — Bumper Stumpers. The Toronto based Barry & Enright series, which aired on Global, challenged players to unscramble the meaning behind various vanity licence plates. The idea for the series apparently came to Martindale after seeing an Avis ad in a magazine while on a flight. The ad showed photos of licence plates in all 50 states.
We’ve all guessed at what these vanity plates spelled out while driving on a highway. Doing it live in a studio under the lights is harder than you’d think. A contestant who is a TV critic, you would figure, would quickly deduce that ICNSIDPLN was Tattoo’s catch phrase from Fantasy Island: “I can see de plane!” Time ran out, and so did our shot at a thousand bucks.
The series was hosted by a Canadian, the genial Al Dubois. Martindale co-created another series hosted by a Canuck, 2nd Honeymoon. BC weatherman Wayne Cox drew that assignment.
Bumper Stumpers ran three seasons on Global and on the USA cable network. Martindale and his wife Sandy celebrated by naming their two Chihuahuas Bumper (the male) and Stumper (the female).
Some things you just can not make up. Condolences to Martindale’s four children, family and friends.
