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WINK MARTINDALE

“DECK OF CARDS“

(T. Texas Tyler)

Dot 15968

No. 7    November 2. 1959

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Winston Conrad was born on December 4, 1934, in Bells,Tennessee.  As early as 16 years of age, Wink,

as  he became  known to his  school  churns,  began  making money  with  his mouth–first as a  radio

announcer,  then as host of Los Angeles’  “Teenage Dance Party”  on KHJ-TV in 1959.  That year Dot

Records’  Randy Wood spotted  the young lad’s face,  heard that Wink  voice,  and placed  him  in a

recording studio to recite his way into pop history.

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“Deck of Cards,” a remake of T. Texas Tyler’s 1949 spoken·word tale (#21) of a lonely soldier’s peculiar

relationship with a pack of cards,  was not Wink’s first  effort at singing  (or talking) his  way onto the

charts.  In 1954, Martindale had waxed a few sides for OJ Recordings.  Nothing much  happened with

those, or with Wink’s follow-ups to “Deck.”  Only “Black Land Farmer” (#85, 1961), a cover version of

Frankie Miller’s C & W hit, made the Hot 100.

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While Wink’s voice is no longer heard on pop radio gobs of idiot box viewers have seen him since 1978

as the host of the syndicated game show “Tic Tac Dough.”  In the fall of 1989, Martindale shifted to the

Fox Network to host another game show, “Last Word,” followed in the mid-’90s by “Debt,” where

contestants play to unload their debts.