Wink Martindale passed away yesterday at the age of 91. Most tributes are acknowledging his career as a game show icon so Balladeer’s Blog will look at his roles outside of that sphere.
MARS PATROL (1953-1955) – At age 19 – and already smiling like somebody just broke his jaw – the go-getting Winston Conrad “Wink” Martindale was the star of 514 episodes of Memphis’ weekday show Mars Patrol. (Ignore the incorrect IMDb entry which lists him as the star of just 1 episode. Memphis newspapers and Martindale himself recount how he starred in the entire series.)
Wink starred as Mars Patrol Captain Martindale and with six Mars Guard children aged 6 to 10 he would blast off in his cheap-looking spaceship. After he and the kids did their live ad for Bosco, that is.
Martindale and the diminutive Mars Guard members wielded ray-guns in their adventures and also hosted episodes of old Flash Gordon and other space serials of the past, making Wink a kind of movie host variant as well. The young fans of Mars Patrol could write in and join the show’s Star Dodgers Club, complete with Captain Martindale photos and other merchandise.
LET’S ROCK (1958) – After his stellar performance on Mars Patrol, Wink was promoted in 1955 to host of Memphis’ televised Top 10 Dance Party on the same station. In 1956 Martindale talked Elvis Presley himself into appearing on the show for free, but hadn’t gone through Elvis’ notoriously autocratic manager Colonel Tom Parker. Wink said Parker never spoke to him again.
At any rate, Martindale’s reign as host of that rock’n’roll program got him a role as himself in the 1958 rock movie Let’s Rock. The flimsy plot – a young singer’s girlfriend gets him to stop singing “square” songs and embrace rock’n’roll – was just an excuse for another Caravan of Stars-style production from the 50s.
Julius LaRosa stars as the square singer and Phyllis Newman plays his songwriting gal pal. The real stars, as usual in these things, are the big-name musical acts, in this case Paul Anka, Della Reese, the Tyrones, Danny and the Juniors, the Royal Teens and others.
In the end, LaRosa performs Phyllis’ song Crazy Crazy Party and becomes a rock star.
1999 A.D. (1967) – Apparently determined to appear in as many kitsch culture items as possible, Wink co-starred with Marj Dusay and Kerry MacLane in this 25-minute corporate short hyping the kinds of products that would supposedly be available by the year 1999. Such works made up an entire sub-genre in the world of shorts.
Wink plays Mike, a scientist who deals with the drudgery of 1999’s three-day work week while his wife Karen (Dusay) enjoys the high-tech appliances provided by their House of Tomorrow.
His son Jamie (MacLane) gets educated by the home’s master computer.
Some of this short film’s promised technology eventually materialized, but much is still unrealized, adding to the fun of thinking we’d have them by 1999. Philco, the folks behind this flick, depicted model year 1999 vehicles having six wheels instead of four. And each home was powered by its own independent fuel cell.
Wink gets coached by the master computer about his weight, caloric intake, etc. when using the home gym. Marj is free to indulge in her pottery sculpting since the computer runs the smart home, to the point where clothes closets even clean the garments hanging in them. She selects each family member’s meal via computer, too.
The scene where Wink and a friend basically do a skype chat to discuss whether they want to go golfing at Pebble Beach or fly to Mexico for a good time the next day made me want to watch a sitcom featuring his zany antics in this fantasy version of 1999.
HILTON HEAD ISLAND (2017-2018) – This was a PureFlix version of a prime-time soap opera, which means it dealt more with how issues of conscience and faith affect the characters than with standard soap opera fare.
Wink Martindale played Pastor Simon Matthews in 15 of the program’s 32 episodes. He guided his flock through their business and personal battles over the future of their wealthy family’s media empire. Interesting departure for Martindale.
*** Rest in Peace, Wink! The world will certainly miss your indefatigable cheerfulness.
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Balladeer's Blog 
You’re right about the smile. I hope he was as happy as he looks.
Ha! Thanks! I hope so, too. He seemed like a nice guy.
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Logged, thank you sir!
I have seen some wonderful interviews with Wink over the years. He had a great friendship with Elvis.
Wow, I didn’t know they developed a full friendship. Thanks for the info!
Great posts as always. I have never heard about Wink Martindale before but he certainly seems like an interesting figure. He definitely made some very interesting series in his career. For instance, Mars Patrol sounded like a very fun show that I would enjoy. The plot of the show reminded me a lot of the film “The Martian”. It tells the story of an astronaut seeking to survive on Mars. Matt Damon gives one of his best performances. It is very similar to Mars Patrol. So, I will definitely try and check out this series when I have the time. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.
Here’s why I recommend “The Martian” if you haven’t already seen it:
Thank you. I need to see The Martian.
Appreciated
Thanks.
I remember him! I watched more than one of his shows, back in the day. I had no idea he had ever done anything else!
I know what you mean! Most of his career was spent doing game shows that it’s the only way most people remember him.