Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast - 163. Wink Martindale

Episode Date: July 10, 2017

Disc jockey, recording artist, radio/TV personality and longtime game show host Wink Martindale shares six decades of show business memories, including performing for Ed Sullivan, interviewing Jan and Dean, cutting a Top Ten single ("Deck of Cards") and befriending the King of Rock 'n' Roll. Also, Dickie Dawson laughs it up, Bobby Darin orders off the menu, Sam Cooke experiences technical difficulties and Wink pitches a show to Merv Griffin. PLUS: Sam Phillips! Barry & Enright stage a comeback! Paul Lynde brings down the house! Gilbert sings "Mack the Knife"! And Wink remembers Chuck Barris! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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We're once again recording at Nutmeg with our engineer, Frank Verterosa. Our guest this week is a disc jockey, radio personality, recording artist, TV producer, and game show host who's been working pretty much non-stop in show business for over six decades. He began his radio career at the ripe old age of 17 and went on to host dozens of radio programs, helping to introduce the world to a new format called rock and Roll and interviewing artists such as Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins, Jan and Dean, and even a local boy named Elvis Aaron Bresley. He later ventured into performing himself and in 1959 recorded the platinum-selling single Deck of Cards, which landed in the Billboard Top Ten and led to a memorable appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show.

He's also hosted kid shows, appeared in soap operas and sitcoms, and lent his voice to animated series like Hercules, The Jetsons. But he's best known as the host of over 20 different game shows, including Watch This Song, Can You Top This?, How's Your Mother-in-Law?, Trivial Pursuit, Deft, High Rollers, and the long-running programs Gambit and Tic-Tac-Dough. In a long, varied, and busy career, he's worked with Paul Anka, Gene Autry, Milton Berle,

Ernest Bognine, Bobby Darin, Betty White, Chuck Barris, Merv Griffin, and Jerry Lee Lewis, to just name a few. Please welcome to the show the pride of Jackson, Tennessee, and our only guest to have both a restaurant and a soda flavor named after him, the legendary Wink Martindale. Gilbert, my God, I'm exhausted just listening to that. I am so tired, and I don't know any of those people that you mentioned there. I never met any of those people. Never met any of them. And who the hell is Ed Sullivan?

Just kidding, just kidding. Good to be with you both, Frank Gilbert. Gilbert, I have been a fan of yours longer than you or I care to remember. I really enjoy your comedy. You're a tremendously talented guy, and it's an honor to be here on the show with you. Oh, thank you. How about that? And I got paid to say that.

Now give me $5. This has been a paid endorsement. A paid endorsement is right. I can't believe I'm hearing Wink Martindale's voice. This is a voice I've heard my entire life. Well, thank you. You know, the amazing thing about it, somebody, I was being interviewed a week or so ago, and somebody said to me, the interviewer said,

you know, your voice is the same as it was when I first heard you in the 1960s doing tic-tac-toe. And it's an amazing thing, but as you age, as you get older, usually your voice starts to waver a little bit and not sound as good. But I can take a piece of tape, honestly, that I did across the street here in Los Angeles on Sunset. I worked for Gene Autry at KMPC for 12 years right across the street from where I am right now. And I can take a piece of tape that was done during those days in 1970s and match it up with a piece of tape today, and I defy you to tell the difference. So my voice is, I guess I'm blessed in that regard in that my voice is, I guess I'm blessed in that regard,

in that my voice is still the same as it always was. And you knew you wanted to make a living with your voice right off the bat. I mean, you say you're one of those guys that never wondered what he wanted to do with his life. Frank, I was lucky because I knew from the time I was old enough to know what a microphone was or what a radio speaker was, that I wanted to be quote unquote on the radio. And I guess I was seven or eight years old that I wanted to be, quote, unquote, on the radio. And I guess I was seven or eight years old and always wanted to be on the radio. And finally, my Sunday school teacher, when I was 17 years old and just out of high school, also was the manager of the local radio station in my hometown, as you mentioned, Jackson, Tennessee.

And I kept bugging him. When are you going to get me on the radio, Chick? Chick Wingate was his name. He was my mentor. And I said, come on, Chick. Well, he was so bugged that one night he had a weak spot in his brain. And he took me upstairs to the fourth floor of the First National Bank building where this little 250 water was located. And he sat me in front of a microphone, ripped some Associated Press copy off the newswire, gave me a couple of commercials to read. Little did he know I'd been practicing for years for this moment. Man, I went through that news and those commercials like Grant going through Richmond.

He was floored. He said, you come down here tomorrow and the mayor will be here. The mayor owned the radio station and he'll be be here. And you do the same thing. And I think you'll have a job. So I came down after school the next day, did the same thing, knocked him out. And he gave me a job, $25 a week. And that was my start in radio. And now I'm up to $30.

You would have paid him. You know what? You're exactly right. Just to be on the radio. When did you realize you had this voice? What age? I never really thought much about my voice. My mom was the first one to notice that I had a voice that might be perfect for the ministry.

And I kept telling my mother when I was a teenager, I said, Mom, you don't just wake up one day and decide to be a preacher. You have to be called to the ministry. But she never understood until the day she died that I came to Hollywood to be in show business. She always wanted me to be a minister. As a matter of fact, last year, I played a minister for four episodes of The Bold and the Beautiful. And right now, I'm playing a minister on a new faith-based soap titled Hilton Head Island for Pure Flix. And I am enjoying that because I never thought about myself as being an actor, but I've really enjoyed this. But getting back to your original question, notice I have long answers to very simple questions. Have you got three or four hours?

We got unlimited time, Wink. But I hope that answers your question. Yeah, I mean, it's fascinating because you both started your careers very early. Gilbert got on stage when he was 15 and you were behind him, Mike, at 17. That's correct. Now, I found out you not only worked with but were good friends with Elvis Presley. Yeah, that's a long story, so I'll try to cut that down. Let me go back to Jackson, Tennessee, to get to Memphis, Tennessee, where I met Elvis. After I'd been in Jackson and on radio for two years doing high school football and basketball and doing everything, including sweeping out the station at night

if they needed it. This is a WPLI. WPLI, and then WTJS and WDXI. I went from the 250 water in town to the 1,000 water to the 5,000 water. And after two years in Jackson, I sent in, surreptitiously, I made an audition for WHBQ in Memphis, which was my dream station. 5,000 Water came into Jackson, Tennessee like a local, and all us kids listened to WHBQ because they played music almost constantly.

So I wanted to do the morning show called Clock Watchers. So I sent an audition to WHBQ after being in Jackson a couple of years, never thinking I'd hear from them. But sure enough, two weeks after that, I got a call to come over there for an audition. So my dad drove me over to Memphis. I auditioned, got the job, got my dream job, Clock Watchers, the morning show. And it was while I was doing Clock Watchers that first year, one night in the summer of 1954, July 54, I happened to be at the radio station that night

showing some of my Jackson, Tennessee high school football playing buddies around the station when I heard a commotion in Dewey Phillips' studio. Dewey Phillips was a disc jockey who did a show called Red Hot and Blue. He played black music for white kids in those days. That was before, well, rhythm and blues was really big, but the term rock and roll hadn't even taken over, wouldn't take over for another year to rock around the clock and Blackboard Jungle. But I went into the control room, and Sam Phillips, who founded Sun Records, had walked in with an acetate of a recording by a truck-driving singer by the name of Elvis Presley.

He had made this record that day called That's All Right, Mama. And Dewey Phillips took That's All Right, Mama, put it on the turntable, played it once, twice, three times, played it seven times in a row. The audience couldn't get enough of it. And it so happens that Sam Phillips had brought Elvis' mom and dad's telephone number with him, and I was the one designated to call them to ask where Elvis was because Dewey wanted him to come down to the station with all this excitement going on over that's-all-right-mama. So I called, and Gladys Presley answered the phone.

And, of course, they were listening to Red Hot and Blue. And I said, Ms. Presley, where is Elvis? And she said, well, he was so nervous about his record being played tonight, he went to see a double feature. He's at the Suzor's Theater over on Decatur Street. And so they got in their truck, and they went down, walked up and down this dark aisle. There was Elvis sitting all by himself in the middle of the theater, whispered to him about the excitement. He was so thrilled. They got in the truck, went down to WHBQ Radio Studios in the old Chisco Hotel on South Main Street. We were on the mezzanine floor, and he walked with his mom and dad into the control room, and that's the night I met Elvis. That was the night that Presley Mania began,

and he was my friend till the day he died. As a matter of fact, when he first sat down, Dewey Phillips, of course, started asking him all these questions about how this record came to be and blah, blah, blah. And after it was all over, after he stopped asking the questions, Elvis said, I thought you were going to interview me. And Dewey Phillips said, son, I just did. That's fun. And for years after that, he said he had no idea he was speaking into a live mic, because if he had known that, he would have been so nervous,

he wouldn't have been able to do the interview. That's interesting. But that was a great night, and as I said, he became my friend until the day he died. And he's one of the fondest friendships I ever had. And now while Gilbert heads into the nutmeg kitchen to steal more Perrier, a word from our sponsor. This episode is brought to you by FX's The Bear on Disney+. In Season 3, Carmi and his crew are aiming for the ultimate restaurant accolade, a Michelin star. With Golden Globe and Emmy wins,

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now back to gilbert and frank it's them that you soon will thank and now the plot thickens your Your wife dated Elvis Presley. Oh, and Sandy, we should just tell our listeners that Sandy is here with us. Wink is in the Earwolf studio in L.A., and his lovely wife Sandy is sitting right next to him. And, yeah, Sandy, you want to tell us a little bit about that? By the way, Sandy and I have been married for 43 years, so before she tells this story, I want you to know I'm the one who won.

I won her over. You aced out Elvis. You stole the girl from Elvis Presley. That's right. But it took a while. Go ahead, Sandy. I got a Tennessee gentleman. What would you like to know?

How I met him? That's interesting. Okay. Well, my dad had nightclubs in Los Angeles. He had one called the Crossbow, one called the Red Velvet on Sunset, where we started the Righteous Brothers, Glen Campbell. I mean, everybody in the early 60s worked for my dad. We had one up the street, which was the Melody Room,

which became the Viper Room after we sold it to one of the bartenders who, I guess he took enough money that he was able to buy the club from my dad. That's called stole enough money. Oh, well, I guess he took enough money that he was able to buy the club from my dad. That's called stole enough money. Oh, well, I didn't want to say that. So anyway, I was 14 years old and I was at home and the phone rang one evening and it was Elvis. He said, hi, this is Elvis Presley. And I saw your picture in your dad's office and I'd like to meet you.

Can you come up to the club? And I asked my mom and she said, no, I can you come up to the club and i asked my mom and she said no i'm not driving you to the club it's a school night and you have to get up tomorrow no way by the way she was only 14 years old i said that daddy did you say that i said that yeah you guys have a nice repartee going i like this oh thank you very much yeah well that's where that's how you get to being married this many years. You've got to have a good rapaté between the two of you. Anyway, so he called again the next week, and in the meantime, my dad came home and said,

what a gentleman, what a good-looking guy, blah, blah, blah. So I had my mom drive me to the club, and I had a little frilly dress on, and I had a ponytail, and he was with a gorgeous actress, and he sat there and held my hand, kissed me on the club and I had a little frilly dress on and I had a ponytail and he was with a gorgeous actress and he sat there and held my hand kissed me on the cheek and I thought oh my gosh she's the best looking thing I've ever seen so then he called again and said he wanted to date me and my mom said I don't care if you're King Farouk my daughter's only 14 she can't date you and he said well Mrs. Farah you can come on the date. So my mother said, well, in that case. Were you just 14? I didn't know that.

You did too. Sorry. I couldn't resist. I love it. I love it. He's editorializing. We color each other's life. And so my mom came on the first date.

He was staying at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel at the time because he came here to do GI Blues. And the reason he used to come to my dad's nightclub is Red West, who was one of the Memphis Mafia, was our bouncer when he got out of the Army. So he worked for my dad. And our house band was Lance LaGault, who was also in a lot of Elvis's movies and a good friend of his as well. So he felt very safe at my dad's nightclub so anyway so we started dating and my mom came on the first three dates he promised her he'd be a gentleman and take good care of me and he dated me for the next six years and he was a gentleman and he did take good care of me and he was a wonderful part of my life well how and how did you wind up in the movies how did you wind up are you in girls girls girls i'm in a them, you know, and they all have girls in the title.

Trouble with Girls, Girls, Girls, Girls, Girl Happy. I mean, everything had to do with girls. He and I used to dance, and I grew up dancing. And when I was really little at my dad's nightclub called the Ragdoll, they used to have a jitterbug contest every Monday night. And these people would come in, and they'd do the jitterbugging and they would i was a little girl that throw me up in the air and oh i just love dancing so then i started taking ballet and then i went into modern jazz and david winters was my dancing teacher and david winters um terry gar

was in my class oh wow basil was in my class and uh ann wow. Tony Basil was in my class. And Ann-Margaret, who also studied with David, when Viva Las Vegas came to be, she wanted David Winters to get the choreography job, which, of course, he did. And that was the first movie that he choreographed. And David Winters came from West Side Story. He was one of the originals in the Broadway show and the movie of West Side Story. Incredible dancer. So I took classes with him and I actually didn't even tell Elvis. I went on the audition by myself, got the audition. And so then there I was on the set and it was me, Elvis and Ann-Margaret on the

roulette wheel that went around when we did the What I Say song. And it became, you know, it's kind of like iconic history, this movie. And who knew at the time we did that? In fact, recently at Joe Esposito, who was one of Elvis's Memphis Mafia, passed away. We all went to the funeral and Ann-Margaret was there. And she said, wasn't it wonderful to be a part of a movie that brought so much happiness for all these years to so many people? And I didn't really stop to think about it until she said it. And I thought, yeah, you're absolutely right. And then, of course, you know, we just lost her husband.

Oh, yeah, Roger Smith just passed. Yeah. And they were just the most wonderful couple. Anyway, so what else would you like to know? That is very cool. I'm going to go. I have Viva Las Vegas at home. I'm going to go. I have Viva Las Vegas at home. I'm going to go put that on and check out that.

I have long, dark hair, and I'm in lavender, and Elvis and I are butt-to-butt on the roulette table. I love that. Let me tell you about the last time we saw Elvis alive. For my birthday in December of 76, Sandy took me to Las Vegas to see Elvis. And, of course, he knew we were there. And that was when he was doing two shows a night. So between shows, we went back. He wants to come back to his dressing room. So we went back. And of course, as you can imagine, the dressing room was packed with people. That was when his flavor of the moment was Ginger Alden. Oh, sure. When he was,

yeah. And the place was just packed with people. But Elvis was behind the bar and he only wanted to talk to Sandy and me. And everybody was quiet as a mouse. You could hear a pin drop because everybody wanted to hear what we were talking about. And Elvis had seen us that day, Sandy,

on a show called Tattletales, right? Right. With Bert Condie on CBS. How much do you know about your spouse? Oh, I remember that show. We won the game that day because we knew so much about him. And he couldn't get over how much we knew. I'm going to let you pick it up.

And he said, I raised Sandy in California and knew you in Tennessee and what a small world it is that you two are together. And I said, well, Elvis, you're responsible because when Wink said he was from Tennessee, first of all, I knew he had to be a gentleman and he scored points immediately with me because I love the state and everybody in it. This was before I scored. Because Elvis was such a great part of my growing up. But he was talking to us and he was telling Elvis, Elvis was telling Wink how proud he was of him and how well he said, Look at you, Wink. Look how well your career is.

Look how well you've done. And I thought, Wink said, What's wrong with this picture? Elvis is telling me how well I've done. That's cool. And then he also told Wink that my mom came on the dates, and Wink said, Well, Sandy told me that, but I didn't believe her. But if you're telling me that, then I have to believe her. And he said, I was one of the nicest girls from one of the nicest families that he ever knew. So that was our last time with Elvis.

And of course, he was bloated by then. And he did not look good. He wasn't healthy. This is 76, a year before he passed. Correct. Yeah. Right. So we left the dressing room that night. We saw his second show. And when we got back to our hotel room that night, we closed the door behind us and both of us broke down and cried. Wow. We just sobbed because it was so sad, you know, and sure enough, a year later,

he was gone. He was, he was my, you know, idol. And I looked up to him, and he used to tell me when I was young, you know, Sandy, you have an Italian heritage, so you have to be careful. You have to watch your weight, and so I did. I've watched my weight all of my life. I've tried to stay trim and watch what I eat, and then to see somebody that I looked up to not healthy, it was just heartbreaking. And, you know, the truth of the matter is, I've thought about this a lot. There were six people in the control room at WHBQ that night in July of 1954, the night Elvis was so-called discovered. Sam Phillips, Dewey Phillips, Gladys and Vernon, Elvis and me.

And of all the six, I'm the only one who's still living. How about that? And I feel so blessed, guys, to have been a part of that evening because I got in at my age. I got in on the tail end of the big band era in the early 50s, late 40s. I lived through Presley Mania in the 50s, Beatle Mania in the 60s, again across the street at Gene Autry's radio station. And, of course, disco in the 50s, Beatlemania in the 60s, again across the street at Gene Autry's radio station, and of course disco in the 70s, and then to the 80s.

And I feel so lucky to have lived through so much of radio history, and especially the Presleymania era. People don't know that about you. They think of Wink Martindale as the game show guru, but they don't realize that you were there through all of these musical changes. I've often said that. Decade after decade. You were spinning records and interviewing these people for four decades.

I've often said that if I had my life to live over and if I only had one choice to make between radio and TV, although TV pays more, I would probably select radio because radio is immediate. It's of the moment. And I don't know. It's just in my blood. And I still – that's why I enjoy doing what we're doing right now. I love talking to you guys.

Well, it's like radio for the internet. That's correct. Podcasting. Yeah. And you must have had some dealings with the colonel. have had some dealings with the colonel the only dealing i ever had with a colonel was uh in 1956 when i was still at whbq and doing a television dance party i was sort of the dick clark of memphis when everybody every city had its dick clarker the halcyon days of american bandstand and every saturday for coca-cola i did an hour and a half dance party on channel 13 and thanks

to my early friendship with Elvis he came on my show I I have the it's in my book which you have uh I am the first person who ever did an interview with Elvis that was recorded on uh on film and it happened one day in 1956 he came as a guest on my show. We did a half-hour interview. And the colonel never forgave me for doing that or forgave Elvis because the colonel thought that Elvis should be paid for everything. And Elvis came on my show because he was a friend of mine. Plus, he was doing a charitable benefit at one of the outlets, one of the – Cynthia Milk Fund. Cynthia Milk Fund at Russwood Park there in Memphis.

And he wanted to promote that charitable benefit. But the colonel never forgave me. I remember I ran into him one time at the RCA Studios in Memphis, and he walked right past me. He wouldn't even talk to me. That was my only dealing with Colonel Parker. at the RCA Studios in Memphis, and he walked right past me. He wouldn't even talk to me. That was my only dealing with Colonel Parker. Well, he had kind of a strange personality anyway. Yeah, Mr. Cool.

When he'd walk into the room at Elvis' house, he'd come in unannounced, and Elvis would drop everything, and he was so respectful to this man until the end of their relationship. He had so much respect for him that he dropped everything when he saw the crime. A colonel came first at all times. But then at the end of their relationship, at the end of Elvis's life, the colonel owed the casinos a lot of money and a lot of Elvis's performances were just paying off the colonel's gambling debts. I didn't know that. We had Steve Bender on the show. You guys know Steve Binder? Very well.

Yeah, Steve was here with us, and he had some difficulties and some challenges with the colonel as well. He produced that great 68 comeback special. The colonel was an interesting man, but Elvis was such a sweet human being that the only thing he did to get back at the colonel at the end was when the colonel would be out in the casino gambling, Elvis would be on stage, and he'd sing the songs that he knew the colonel didn't want him to sing. That was all he did. It's like a marriage.

By the way, this is a fact you may or may not be aware of. The colonel never had anything to do with selecting songs for Elvis. Elvis selected his own songs, and his A&R man, of course, helped with that, too. But Elvis had a great ear. But the one song that the colonel picked or suggested that Elvis record turned out to be one of his biggest sellers. You know what it was? Couldn't guess. Are You Lonesome Tonight.

Oh, there you go. Cool. Yeah. I didn't know that. Where he talks in the middle. First time he'd ever made a record where you heard Elvis talking. And that was quite something in its day and age. Let me tell our listeners about two things, Wink.

Since you brought the book up, we have it here, Winking at Life, Wink Martindale, with unpublished Elvis photos. It's kind of fun. Is it in print still, this book? Yeah, it's still in print. They'd have to go to your website. Okay, what's a good opportunity to plug the website? Yeah, thank you very much. Okay, my website is, since you mentioned it, it's winkmartindale.org. That's my website. And also, I do Twitter every day, and I do Facebook, Wink Martindale Games. And, you know,

that's it. But if anybody's interested in the book, it's WinkMartindale.org. And it's reasonably priced. Yes, it is. I got my hands on one of these. That's a commercial. That's a real commercial, isn't it? And the Elvis interview you're talking about, it's the kinescope, the one from and it's there's there's you you told you said much of it was lost yeah i made the mistake of learning loaning out the master to a to a dear friend and uh as you might imagine the only part of it i got back about six or eight months later was the last eight or ten minutes of that interview i could could kick myself. It's my own fault.

You never give a master, you know, the original to anybody. He's learning that, the long, slow part. But I will tell our listeners, there's a little snippet of it on, you can get it on YouTube. Yes. And he's having the time of his life. I've never seen him so relaxed during an interview. The two of you.

So casual, the two of you. That was really something. The day he came in, somebody just suggested, because we at Channel 13 in 56, we didn't yet have videotape machines. Video Ampex had just come out with video machines, but we didn't have any in our control room yet. So somebody suggested, said, you know, this guy's getting bigger and bigger. You better get somebody to come in and film that interview. So Bob Zimmerman, a local photographer, came in and set up a 16 millimeter camera right in front of the jukebox where I did all my interviews and recorded. That was about 25 minutes. And I had so many questions. Remember, this is right at the beginning of

Presley Mania. This is right after that first Million Cellar Heartbreak Hotel. Flip side, I was the one. And there was so much I wanted to ask him. And there was so much security around the television station that day on Madison Avenue in Memphis. And all the people at the station who worked there, although it was Saturday, everybody came back to the station. The place was packed, and policemen outside to keep people out. And I had questions all over the studio. I had made cue cards, and I had slapped these cue cards all over the walls of the station because I didn't have anybody to hold cue cards for me. We didn't have that kind of budget. So I would be looking around, and I got to one point in the interview, I asked Elvis a question, and he even looked at one of the cards,

and he said, well, that's what it says on that card there. I remember one time, one of the questions I asked him, I said, Elvis, when you were just getting started and you were going to Humes High School, did you ever have any idea, even though you had dreams of being a star? He broke in and he said, Wink, I didn't expect to get out of Humes High School. How about that? Where'd you get that guitar? I got it in Mississippi. It cost $12, I think. $12 guitar.

It was a Gene Autry guitar. Well, what did you do? Yeah, Roy Rogers now. What did you do with that first guitar? What happened to it? Well, I had some uncles that picked the guitar a little bit, and I sat down and watched them all the time. I just picked it up, watched them,

but I never thought I would make anything doing it, you know? Uh-huh. And, you know? Well, now, when you were graduated from Humes High School, did you expect to pursue singing and... I didn't even expect to get out of Humes High School. Now, did you have a sense, Wink, because you had seen some people come and go,

and you always had a good ear for music. You always had an eye for stardom, too. Did you have any idea that this guy, even though you admired his singing, you admired the first couple of records, was there any way of knowing that this guy was going to become the king of rock and roll? No, I can remember so well. That night in 1954, even though the switchboard lit up and all this excitement was breaking loose about, that's all right, mama, this new record by this truck-driving singer for Crown Electric Company.

There was no way of knowing. I mean, he was just another singer. It was a different sound. It was an amalgam of what he had heard growing up as a child in Tupelo, Mississippi. A little rock, a little rhythm and blues, a little black. He loved black music. He loved the rhythm and blues artists out of Chicago and LA. And he loved gospel, religious music. And his sound was sort of a combination of all of those. So all I knew that night and all any of us knew, including Sam Phillips, he didn't really know what he had. He hoped he had always said,

if I can find a white man who can sing like a Negro, I'll make a million dollars. That was a famous quote by Sam Phillips. And this turned out to be that man. But that night in 54, no way, you know, any of us had any idea. It wasn't until 56 and into 57 and 58 when he kept turning out hit after hit after hit. And after Sam had sold his contract to RCA for $35,000, RCA for $35,000. Only then did we realize we have got a tiger by the tail here, and his name is Elvis Aaron Presley. And you worked with Jack Barry and Dan Enright.

There's a jump. Yeah. Yeah. I told you we don't go in any order. And they were, like, prominent in the quiz show scandal. They had legendary Barry and Enright. Yeah, they were. Actually, they had to get out of the business because they were involved in the game show quiz scandals in the late 50s when it was common and ordinary habit, if you will, to give answers to contestants, to make them stay on the shows longer, to build up

more interest and ratings for the advertisers. As dramatized in the movie Quiz Show. Exactly. And of course, Charles Van Doren was the one who was most famous for that. But that's just the way it was in the late 50s. But because of that, Jack Barry and Dan Enright literally got run out of the business, and they went to Canada, and they were in the business up there for a number of years until finally all was forgiven, and they came back to L.A. and got back into the business. And I remember Jack Barry did a local version of a show called Joker's Wild on KTLA, right across the street from where I'm talking right now, here on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.

He did a show called Joker's Wild on KTLA, Channel 5. And he did it three nights a week. And it became so popular that they decided to do it as a series five nights a week. And that became successful. And that's when he and Dan Enright got together again and got the rights to Tic-Tac-Dough. And that's when I was called in to host that show. And the rest is history, as they say. So isn't that what started Standards and Practices?

Then they started... Well, long after, after 1959, they did begin what was called Standards and Practices at the network level, sort of an FBI of the game show world to guarantee that that sort of thing that had happened in the late 50s could not possibly ever happen again. How long was the run on Tic-Tac-Toe? That was a good run. Yeah, it was on for like 13 years, and I did it for about 10 years. And I left simply because I asked for my release, and they were nice enough to give it to me because

I was I had a show that I sold to Merv Griffin first time Merv had ever bought a show outside his own company was that headline chasers headline chasers yeah and it was filling in headlines past sure I remember and it was it was always thought a. Of course, I would say that. But it was distributed by King World, Michael and Roger King, and produced by Merv Griffin Productions. And I was the host, and it was my idea. And I guess it never found its audience because I think it was kind of like Jeopardy. It was tough. You know, you really had to be up on your headlines

in order to play that game right. But I remember we were down, Sandy and I went down to, we were trying to save the show. The ratings weren't coming in like they should. What was the premise of Headline Chasers? You gave them a portion of a headline and they had to fill in the... Well, you had two teams of players, husbands and wives, and they competed against each other to fill in.

Think about Wheel of Fortune. Right, right. That's what it was. Except here we're filling in headlines. Right, right. And we would give clues as to what the headline was. And with every correct answer by the contestants, we would put in another letter until we had enough letters there for, let's say it was Japs bomb Pearl Harbor. We kept adding letters until somebody could tell Japs bomb Pearl Harbor. And the original idea was to use the mastheads of famous newspapers like the New York Times and

the LA Times. But that was one of the things that hurt the shows because it turned out when we got on the air that the newspapers would not allow us. I don't know why because it seemed like good promotion for newspapers. Oh, I see. But they would not let us use their mastheads. So we had to make up mastheads. So that took away from some of the realism of the show. Yeah. And I think that hurt it.

And I remember Sandy and I were down in Florida sitting across from a program director in Miami, and he said something that we never forgot. He said, can you dumb it down a little bit? Can you dumb it down? Something in your book you say, keep it simple, stupid, that you found that the most popular game shows are the ones that are most easily grasped. Absolutely.

If they get too complicated. Somebody just asked me the other day, you know, what makes a game show the most popular? And it's the game shows that are the simplest to understand. If it's KISS, keep it simple. If it's simple and people at home can understand it, when you get involved with a lot of rules of the game, it's just tough. Yeah, I'm sure. Before we turned the mics on, we were talking about another game show in Presario, the late, great Chuck Barris, who just left us a couple of months ago.

And you worked with Chuck on two. Yeah, I worked with Chuck on a couple of shows, Dream Girl 67. Dream Girl 67. Which was a daily beauty contest. It was tough having to deal with all those girls every day, I'll tell you. But it was like a Daily Beauty Contest. It was on ABC, and it did pretty well. And I left that show in the middle of its run that year in 1967.

Paul Peterson took it over for me because Chuck had another show he wanted me to host, and he thought it was going to be a huge hit. And it was called, are you ready for this? Oh, yeah. How's Your Mother-in-law little red red god country mom and apple pie tell us the premise of how's your mother-in-law well that was a problem it had no premise uh you know the idea was 13 weeks out of it yeah i know I know. More like 13 minutes. But I thought it was a cute idea, and we thought it was going to – we had a terrific pilot. But it was three comedians, and with each comic was a mother-in-law.

And let's say, Gilbert, let's say you were one of the comics. You'd stand up, and you'd talk about how great your mother-in-law and let's say Gilbert let's say you were one of the comics you'd stand up and you'd talk about how great your mother-in-law this is this is Mrs. Joe Blow and she's she's a wonderful mother-in-law because she blah blah blah and then you both would sit down and then the other another one of the three comics would stand up and he would defend his mother-in-law. But what was wrong with the show, I think, is that the comic would then knock the other mother-in-law. Bring her down. Talk about what a terrible mother-in-law she was.

So that was not too cool. And I think that was one of the reasons it wasn't successful. It just was sort of a downer. Yeah. What kind of a character was he? Did you ever buy the whole? He was that he was a character. Yeah I mean what an eccentric and did you ever buy this idea that he was a hit man for the CIA? No I think that was just you know that was baloney. That was not true at all and I think it was proven not to be true. But Chuck was a great guy to work for. He was so much fun.

I mean, his offices were nothing. There was a period of time there, as you know, with Dating Game and Newlyweds. Oh, sure. And even Bob Barker did an early show for him called The Parent Game. Yeah. And he had one called the baby game. And everything, he was married to a gal at that time whose father was one of the head honchos at ABC in New York, so that kind of helped him.

Didn't hurt. Everything he did, everything he piloted seemed to get on the air. Oh. Even his failures were fun, like the Buck 98 beauty contest hosted by Rip Taylor. And how about the gong show? Of course, the gong show. And it's coming back on the back on the air i know they're doing a new gong show and and speaking of bologna and salami and other cold cuts i heard he when he'd have a dog act he would stuff his pants with cold cuts. Oh, on the gun show. The crotch of his pants, he'd fill with cold cuts to get the dog's snout immediately.

Well, that's news to me. You told me something today I had no idea. I was one of the, when the dating game first went on the air, I was a contestant on the dating game. Oh, that's cool. Chuck used to go to my dad's nightclub, the Red Velvet. So that's before they did any trips. I mean, you didn't get to go anywhere really neat, but he would run around the offices in his bare feet and he'd be running from office to office and let's do this and let's do that. And he, just funny all the time and it was it was the first real casual atmosphere in a production office I mean they just everything was very casual with him and when I did the dating game he said

I said oh please whatever you give me because one of the prizes was a night at my dad's nightclub. I said, please, I don't want to win a night at the Red Velvet. And he said, no, no, no, it won't be the Red Velvet. I said, okay, great. So I got to go to the Coconut Grove and see Phyllis Diller. And my dating game date was Lenny Ross, his name was. And Lenny Ross is an entrepreneur, became extremely successful. And the house where they shot all the Godfather movies, he just sold it for like $125 million a few years ago.

Lenny has done very well in life. But when we did the show then, it was before they were going for the ratings. So they ask you real questions like, what's your favorite food? What kind of restaurants do you like? What kind of cologne do you wear? And so it was people that you had things in common with. And I swear to God, to this day, Wink and I will go somewhere and we run into my dating date everywhere. Who's now worth about $10 zillion. There's Lenny Ross. That's great.

Oh, yeah. The dating game with Jim Lang. Yes. God bless him. He was a great one yeah wink worked with him for many years as well at kmpc yeah he worked with me at kmpc radio wink let's ask about a game show that i know is near and dear to gilbert's heart because we love comedians and a lot of a lot of the people that we've had will jordan on this show we've had rich little on this show i've never heard of any of those people. Larry Storch. You hosted Can You Top This?

Yes. Yeah, that was in 1970. It was one of those shows that started in radio years before. Right, yeah. It was a popular radio show, Can You Top This? And we went on the air on television in 1970. Morrie Amsterdam. Sure.

That's who I was trying to think of. Oh, Morrie Amsterdam. He bought the rights to it. And I was chosen to be the host. And that's when home viewers would send in a joke. And Richard Dawson, even before he was on Hogan's Heroes and before Family Feud, he was on Can You Top This With Me? He told the home viewers joke. And then the panel of celebrity comedians, like, because it was Maury Amsterdam, he could get all the big guys.

We had Jack Benny on the show. Oh, yeah. We had Danny Thomas. You name it. You had buttons. Red buttons. You had Milton Berle. You had Jack Carter. Exactly. right. Well, you know more about this than I do. George Goebel. But they would get up and they would tell a joke. They would tell a joke. And in the same

category as the one Richard had told from the home viewer, and it was old-fashioned, whoever got the biggest applause from the audience, that would be the winner of that, of that joke. But it was just a very simple show, but I love that show. And I've always thought that it was, it would be a candidate to,

as a show that could be brought back to television again today. I remember watching it. You remember, can you top this? Oh yeah. Hello, ladies and gentlemen, I'm Wink Martindale. We'll have some laughs together for the next half hour on a show called Can You Top This? Thank you. Thank you very much.

Welcome to our show once again, a show where you at home send the jokes and our panel of comedians try to top your stories. And, of course, without your stories, we'd be in bad shape. We get a lot of good jokes from you and a gentleman who does a great job of telling your story, relaying it to our audience, Mr. Richard Dawson. Here he is. Nice to meet you here on the joke show. You joker, you. How are you? Look at my hand right there watching. Poetry Day Wings.

Is it? A poem. They sat on the porch at midnight, but his love was not to her taste. His reach was 36 inches, and she had a 44 waist. Now, what was it like? What were those comics like off camera? They were all delightful, you know.

And, of course, I was just a redneck at the time. I hadn't been in the business all that long, hadn't been out here all that long. And I got such a kick out of working with them. I learned so much because I had to interview them. And to be able to banter back and forth, it taught me a lot about how to interview. And they were so much fun to work with. I mean, getting to work with some of the best comics in the business that you had grown up admiring was, you know, it was like an out-of-body experience. Yeah.

And I heard on the game shows where they would use celebrities, they'd keep them pretty well liquidated. How do you mean that? You mean lubricated. Lubricated. They'd be wheeling up brown like alcoholic beverages i'll tell you where that really happened a lot was when on hollywood squares when they were taping especially in las vegas for a number of years and between shows they would literally uh you know drink and drink and drink

so between show by the first show was you know okay show, they'd had a few, you know, corkers. And then things started getting to be a little bit more fun. By the third show and the fourth show taping, everybody was loop-de-loop, and they were really fun. That's why some of the best shows you ever saw were Hollywood Squares with Paul Lynde. Oh, sure. Paul Lynde and remember Charlie Weaver? Oh, sure.

Cliff Arquette. Those were great shows, but they were all pretty well lubricated, like you said, Gilbert. Gilbert did it in the 90s. There was no booze there. Yeah, I was in a bad time to be there. You had to try to have fun without alcohol. Maybe there was no budget for booze in those days. Yeah, craft services got stingy.

One of the fun things in Wink's book are some of those great game show stories from Hollywood Square. Some of those Paul Lind answers. You have a chapter in the book where you compile those. Like Peter asking Charlie Weaver how many balls there are on a billiard table. How many people are playing. Right. How many people are playing? Right. How many people are playing? Yeah, the outtakes.

In fact, I have a video of the outtakes from Hollywood Squares, a whole montage of them, and they are just hilarious. Like you say, I do mention some of those in the book. Yeah, there's the other one where Peter, and as I said, we had Peter here on the show, where he asked Paul Lynn, what's the best reason for pounding meat? Yeah.

And Paul says, I'll give you the punch. I forget. He said loneliness. That's right. Tell us a little bit, too, about some of your, I mean, you knew these guys and uh the great bill cullen uh a game show uh a giant was was your mentor was one of your mentors in the game i'll tell you i had the pleasure of getting to know him after admiring him from afar for so long

in my way of thinking or as wayne newton to say, in my humble opinion, which I do respect, I think that Bill Cullen is by far the best game show host that God ever put on this planet. He was so good, and people said, well, why was he so special? He had a terrific sense of humor. He loved people, and I think that's another prerequisite of a good game show host. A game show has to be simple and to the point with not a lot of rules. A good game show host has to be a person who is a people person. I've always thought that the best time for being a game show host, and Bill Cullen used to prove this day after day after day, that moment when a new contestant walks out there and you've got about 30 seconds to introduce that person, bring out

that personality, the better you do that, the better contestant he or she is going to be and the better show they're going to give you. And nobody was better at doing that than Bill Cullen. And I had the pleasure of sharing a dressing room with him when both of us were doing a Barry and Enright show. He was doing one, I think, called Hot Potato, and I was still doing Tic-Tac-Dough. But, yeah, he was the best. I remember we had dinner with him at Tom Kennedy's house one night. Oh, there's another name, Tom Kennedy. And he smoked, what was it, unfiltered camels.

He filtered. One right after another. Three packs of Luckys a day, unfiltered. Bill Cullen. Of course, that's what killed him, Bill Cullen. Took his life, yeah. I remember Bill Cullen hosting I Guess in New York. Yeah, that was a great, I think a terrific game show.

Yeah, I'm dating myself. Those days were so good because, you know, daytime television as well as access time periods in the evening were filled with game shows. Yeah, sure. And, you know, I think we're seeing a period now where some of those classic games are coming back

and enjoying renewed popularity. Yeah, Gil and I watch, what did you watch? Concentration with you, Downs? Oh, I used to watch Hollywood Squares. Hollywood Squares. And there was also a game show called, I think it was called The Movie Game. With Armie Archer.

Yeah. And they asked questions about movies, so I loved that. I think there's been a game show on just about every subject you could imagine at one time or another. I think Sonny Fox was the host of the movie game. You are dating yourself now. You're dating yourself now, Sonny Fox. Sure, we had

him on this show. I forget which one was the one that Alan Sherman invented. Oh, that's... Was that What's My Line? I forget now. Alan Sherman. Hello Mudder, Hello Fox. Yes, Alan Sherman invented. Oh, that's... Was that What's My Line? I forget now. Alan Sherman. Yeah. Hello, Mudder.

Hello, Father. Yeah, Alan Sherman. Hello, Father. Yeah, he definitely invented a game show, but I'm not sure. Here I am in Camp Granada. That's it. Camp is very entertaining. You know, Gilbert, I think you're right.

I think it was What's My Line. It may be. It may be. What did you say? What's My Line? Yeah, What's My Line. I think you're right. Wow. Ding, ding, ding, ding. I think you're right. Wink. What did you say? What's my line? Yeah, what's my line? I think you're right. Wow, ding, ding, ding, ding.

I think you're right. Wink. What do I win? You do not win a brand new car. Sorry. All right, I'll freak you guys out. This is how deep I get with my research. The episode of Tattletales that you were both on,

you remember who you were playing against? Well, we were on more than one week. Okay. The one I found. Orson Bean. Oh, yeah. I was just going to say one of our guests, Orson Bean. Orson Bean and his not current wife, but last wife.

And then it was the black artist. I think his last name was Mayo. Whitman Mayo from Sanford. Oh, geez. No Alzheimer's for daddy. I think his last name was Mayo. Whitman Mayo from Sanford. No Alzheimer's for daddy. I'm so proud of myself. Wow. Well, who else, who else do you have there? That's what I had. Whitman Mayo and Orson Bean. We had Orson on this show too. Let me tell you about a quick, uh, I've been asked often, uh, and you might ask me this later, but I'll beat you to the punch. Go ahead. The funniest thing that ever happened to me on any game show, the funniest thing certainly happened on Tic-Tac-Dough.

Every September during sweeps week, we did what was called an over 80s tournament. Now we can never get by with this because now, you know, if you're over 21 or 22, they don't want you as a contestant. But in those days, we did an over 80s tournament. All the players were over the age of 80. And I interviewed one of the ladies who was one of the contestants, and she was in her 90s, Dr. Reba Kelly. And during the interview segment, I just happened to say, I said, Dr. Kelly, at your advanced age and as a widower, do you ever think about dating anymore? And she looked at me without batting an eyelash and she said, wink, yes, I have four boyfriends. I said, really?

Four boyfriends? She said, yes. I get up with Will Power. I take a walk with Arthur Itis. Will Power. I take a walk with Arthur Itis. I come home with Charlie Horse, and I go to bed at night with Ben Gay. And I had no idea that was coming my way. I never knew whether they planted that question with her or whether she just came up with that, but we had to stop tape for about 20 minutes. She sucked you in. Yes. Yeah.

What about some of those other guys? I mean, some of the other hosts. I know you were friends with Tom Kennedy, Jim Lang. We talked about Jeff Edwards from Jackpot. He was a guy I loved. Yeah, Jeff worked with me across the street. Again, he was one of the jocks at KMPC with Gene Autry during my days, along with Jim Lang. And then he was our neighbor, and he put a note in our mailbox

when he moved into Century Hill when we used to live there, and it said, where's my tuna casserole? And we didn't know he moved in. That was his way of telling us he was going to be our neighbor. Funny guy, Jeff Edwards. Yeah. And Bob Barker, of course, is a dear friend. Bob's in his 90s now, and, you know, he's still doing great.

He feels great. Of course, with his money, he should feel great. But there have been so many people I've had the opportunity to know in this business. And Alex is a dear friend. Pat Sajak. It's funny. I've been asked. Bob Eubanks.

Bob Eubanks is a dear dear friend who was a former dj on radio so many of us came out of radio right into television well i'll say one thing you guys you game show hosts live forever peter is nine in his 90s monty hall's 95 or your mouth to god if we get old we can't get work. We have to stay young. Is it a dying breed, Wink? I've heard you say that the game show host, as we know it, as we grew up with, is a dying breed. Because you have comics hosting game shows more and more these days, like Drew Carey. We're good friends with Drew.

We just had dinner with him recently. He's a very fun guy. About a week ago. Fun guy, yeah. But I think that because of the nature of the business, you know, I think that comics are more and more game show hosts because, you know, it just seems like if you're going to be, if you're funny, you'll bring out funny in contestants, you know. But I don't think necessarily that you you have to be a a comedian or a funny guy to be a game show host i was never funny but i uh i got a lot of laughs during my years as a game show host you're just naturally funny dear i don't know about that of course we

grew up on art fleming the old yeah the original Jeopardy. They used to have the wooden board and somebody would physically pull the slot behind the... Those were great days, yeah. What else did you watch, Gil? What other game shows did you watch? Oh, God, so many. Do you remember Sale of the Century with Joe Garagiola? Sure do, yeah.

And then somebody else did it after him. Jim Perry? Did he do Sale of the Century after him? That could be. Joe Gargiulo, I think so. Now, here's another jump. You worked with Jan and Dean. Yes.

Jan and Dean, I can't say that I worked with them, but the very first television dance party show that I did in Los Angeles in the summer of 1959, my first year out here, Jan and Dean were my first guests on that very first show. And they were managed at that time by a guy who went on to become one of the most famous producers of records over the years, Lou Adler. Oh, sure. He's still around. He was their manager at the time. And I just found out, somebody told me, a dear friend of ours, our adopted son, Eric Breslow, just told me recently that he discovered that Jan Barry thought so much of me that he tried to talk Dean Torrance into asking me to be their manager.

Wow. And I had no idea until recently, you know. But just a little fact. Well, everybody can. Fiction and fact from Wink's Almanac. There it is. What was the accident that one of them wound up brain-damaged? The dead men's curve. Yeah.

Yeah. What was it, Sandy? He was speeding and it was Pacific Coast Highway or Sunset down at the end of Sunset near the Palisades. And spun out of control and that was it. Yeah.

Dean Torrance is still around, though. though dean's still around we still see him and he did shows this past weekend yeah yeah he's still performing everybody came through there whether it was dance party or on the radio you interviewed johnny cash and johnny mathis and pat boone and neil sadaka and uh all those people it was it was Sadak and Sam Cook. It was so special. I remember you mentioned Sam Cook. In my second year out here in 1960, I did a teenage dance party from the old Pacific Ocean Park down in Santa Monica. It's no longer there. But it was an amusement park,

and we did this dance party outdoors there every afternoon for an hour. And, you know, like on American Bandstand, the artists would come on and they would lip sync their records, you know, whatever their hit was at the time. Sam Cooke came on one day and it was, you know, all the records were played in, quote unquote, the truck. And at that time, we didn't have cartridges yet. And they were, the records were played on 45 RPM records, you know, 45s go on the turntable. And that's, that's the way they were played. And they were held until the artists got ready to lip sync the record. They'd let it go and they would go. And Sam Cooke was on, and he was getting ready to – in fact, he was in the middle of lip-syncing You Send Me. And somebody in the truck hit the turntable, and right in the middle of his lip-syncing this record, it went –

And, you know – What are you going to do? I was a stickler for detail, and i just went out of my gourd i really lost my temper but they just said it back at the beginning and we started all over again and that's what i think about when i think of sam cook not a very good memory but again one of those artists we lost uh far too soon oh sure tell us what a great what a great one he he absolutely was tell us a little bit about your recording career, too. How did all this happen? How did you thought it was Moon Love?

And do I have this right, Bugabop? Yeah. Remember Bill Justice and Raunchy? I don't. Bill Justice was the record. He was in charge of music for Sam Phillips in the mid-1950s. But Bill used to be a friend of mine, and when I was doing radio and television in Memphis, he came up with the idea for the Bugabop. It was something we used to do on Dance Party where we pretended we'd throw a bug on each other. It's not very interesting to talk about now.

But in those days, in 1958, my minister in Memphis happened to be the same minister as Randy Wood when they both lived in Gallatin, Tennessee. And Randy had founded Dot Records and Pat Boone and the Hilltoppers and Billy Vaughn, people like that. And my minister called me one day and he said, would you like to have Randy Wood guest on your dance party show? And I thought, yeah, that'd be interesting. I'll talk to him about how he developed Pat Boone, how he found him and how he founded Dot Records. So he came on the show. And after the show was over that Saturday evening, we all went out to dinner. And I had made a local record called Thought It Was Moon Love. And I thought that was when we all thought we could be the

next Elvis Presley. And I was one of those. And I had made this local record. And it was doing fairly well, only because I was a local jock. And it sold a few records, but I thought, since Randy Wood's going to be on, I'll lip-sync my record on my show that day, and maybe he'll hear something in me. Well, sure enough, at dinner that night, he said, how would you like to be on Dot? And I said, wow, are you kidding? I was over the moon with the idea. He bought my contract for $25,000 from this little company, OJ Records, in Memphis. And he said, we won't be in a hurry to record anything, but I'll be on the lookout for something special for you. Well, fade to black and come up on March of 1959, and I come out to

Los Angeles. And I'm working on KHJ radio and TV. I was transferred by RKO. And I got off the air one morning, and it was a phone call I received from Randy Wood's secretary. He said, Randy wants you to come up to the office and listen to something. He's got an idea for making a record with you on Dot. So I was thrilled. And his offices were up the street from where KHJ was. So I ran up there, and I sat down in his office, this plush carpeting on the floor, I'll never forget it. And he takes out this old 78 RPM record by a country singer named T. Texas Tyler on Star Day Records. It had been a hit right after the war in 1946. And he put it on,

and it was real scratchy. And I get in the middle of it, and it wasn't a song, it was a narration about a soldier who used a deck of cards in church because he didn't have a Bible. And in the middle of this, I'm thinking to myself, wow, the number one record is Stagger Lee by Lloyd Price, and it was Venus by Frankie Avalon, and Mack the Knife by Bobby Darin. I said, kids buy records. Who's going to buy a semi-religious talking record? And my heart just dropped when I heard this. But I was determined, you know, if he wanted to record me on Dot Records, I was going to let him think that I love this. So sure enough, that was over. He took the needle. I said, well, Wink, what do you think? You like it? I said, Randy, I don't like it. I love it.

And so we went into his studio about two weeks later. And Billy Vaughn had taken it and put a choral group behind me. And we did this so-called pop version of this whole country hit called Deck of Cards. And we put it out in September of 59. And I thought, I didn't really think anything would happen with it, to tell you the honest truth. But a guy named Bob Clayton played it one morning on his number one radio show in Boston, and the switchboard lit up. It reminded me of that night in Memphis when we played That's All Right Mama, and the switchboard lit up.

I mean, he played it every day for a week after that, and it spread across the country like wildfire. And by November of that year, it had sold a million copies. And I got a call from Mickey Addy, who was the DOT representative in New York, saying that Ed Sullivan wanted me to do it on Toast of the Town. And of course, I had grown up watching Ed Sullivan's show, and I thought, wow, this is unbelievable. So I thought 1959 was so special. I got transferred to LA, had my own radio show, my own teenage show, and I had my own gold record. I said, I should have come out here sooner. During the North African campaign, a bunch of soldier boys had been on a long hike. They arrived in a little town called Casino.

The next morning being Sunday, several of the boys went to church. A sergeant commanded the boys in church, and after the chaplain had read the prayer, the text was taken up next. Those of the boys who had a prayer book took them out, but this one boy had only a deck of cards, and so he spread them out. A sergeant saw the cards and said, soldier put away those cards. After the service was over the soldier was taken prisoner and brought before the Provost Marshal. The Marshal said,

sergeant why have you brought this man here? For playing cards in church, sir. And what have you to say for yourself, son? Much, sir, replied the soldier. The marshal said, I hope so, for if not, I shall punish you more than any man was ever punished. I found out it wasn't that hard, it wasn't that easy to have another number one record or number seven record after that. I made several records and several albums after that,

and I enjoyed a minimal amount of success on Dot, but it was a thrilling thing for me. I still have my platinum record behind my bar at home, and it was an out-of-body experience to have a hit record. It's a great trivia question. And what do you remember about Ed Sullivan himself? Well, Ed Sullivan was very nice to me. It was one of those evenings. I remember Della Reese was on with me that night.

She had a big hit then called Don't You Know. And she was on the show. And the nutty professor, remember him? He was on the show that night. You mean Professor Irwin Corey? Yes. Ah. Yes.

The Nutty Professor. Just lost him too. Yes, that's correct. But I remembered, I'd always been told that after your performance on The Sullivan Show, he didn't always call you over to shake hands and say hello. But after I finished doing deck of cards, which I had to use cue cards for because I had never committed it to memory, and I think I'm probably the first person, I don't know about later, but I was the first person to

ever use cue cards on the Ed Sullivan show. But I got through it. And sure enough, he called me over. And I went over and I shook his hand. Of course, I was so thrilled. And I got through the cue cards. I did the performance perfectly, which I still have on video. But he said, your family in Memphis must be very proud of you. I said, yes, Mr. Sullivan, they really are. And he said, well, that's a wonderful recording. Congratulations. And he talked to me for a few seconds. And that's what I remember most about Ed Sullivan, the fact that he was so nice to me

and the fact that he did call me over after my performance. Deck of Cards was a smash. Number seven on the Billboard charts, number 11 on the country charts. Yeah. Sold a lot of records yeah and you know it's followed me my entire career to this day i still have people say are you the same wink martindale who recorded that song deck of cards how many wink martindales are there that's exactly what i say how many how many people do you think are walking the earth with a silly name like wink martindale who recorded a deck of cards recording?

Right. And you went, you guys, you both, you and Sandy, you went to, just to bring it back to Elvis, because as we wrap this up, you both went to Elvis' funeral. No, and neither one of us did. Oh, you didn't? No. I got bad information. No, we did not go. Well, we did go a week later.

Uh-huh. We were supposed to go, and I said, Wink, are we going not go we did go a week later uh-huh we were supposed to go and i said wink are we going to go and he said no mom it'll be like a circus and if just half of the people there actually or anybody there actually really cared about him he might still be with us so uh he said let's let's wait a week or so and go on our own and pay our respects privately. So we went and George Klein came over with us and we were at the house and had our own private goodbye. Yeah, we felt that it was much better to do it that way than to get involved with the circus atmosphere, which truly it was. I mean, so many people and it was hot summertime at the time. And so we waited, and I'm glad we did it the way we did.

And then you went on the air and you read a tribute. I wrote That Was Elvis to Me because after he passed in 1977, there were so many books that came out knocking him and talking about the bad side of Elvis Presley. And I wanted to point out all the good that we knew, that Sandy and I knew about this man, because he gave so much to so many people. And a lot of those people that wrote those books,

like Goldman, never even met Elvis. So how can they be the authorities on this man that they never met? So I was determined to sit down and write the positive side of Elvis. And that's what I did. And again, those words are in my book, Winking at Life. But I just wanted everybody to know that this man was very, very special. In fact, I just did. Sandy and I just attended the Elvis Music Festival, the first one in Nashville,

Tennessee, just about three months ago. And the producer, Tom Brown, asked me if I would do, perform, that was Elvis to me, with music. I have the music track, music background, everything. If I would perform, that was Elvis to me on the show that night, that Saturday night when the winner was chosen. And I did, and it really brought the house down because it's the positive side of this man who reinvented the world of popular music that we had known. Sure. And I think Gilbert and I would also love to know

about another music legend that you guys knew personally, Bobby Darin. Yeah, Bobby Darin is one of those people that I know Sandy met and knew, but I had the pleasure of knowing him while I was still a disc jockey in Memphis. Ahmed Erdogan and Jerry Wexler, two of the head honchos, the men who started Atlantic Records, had come to Memphis to visit with Dewey Phillips, the man who was the first to play an Elvis Presley record. I'm talking about 1957 or 58, I believe it was. And while they were there, they took me out to breakfast because I did the morning show. And they said, if you ever come to New York, we would love for you to come by our offices. And it just so happened that my ex-wife and I went to New York the following year. We stayed at the old Astor Hotel, which is no longer there on Times Square.

Right. It's gone. And while I was there, I called him up and Jerry Wexler said, yes, please do come by the office. So I went by Atlantic Records. And while I was there, So I went by Atlantic Records, and while I was there, Ahmet Ertegun, head of Atlantic, said, I want to play you a record. I'd like your opinion of this song. What do you think about it? And he played a thing called Splish Splash. I was taking a bath long about a Saturday night.

And of course, it was Bobby Darin's first record, Splish Splash. And I thought it was terrific. I thought, you know, in this age of rock and roll, which had just begun a couple of years prior, this is going to be a big hit. Turned out to be a number one record. And as I turned around, as they took the needle off the record, in walks Bobby Darin. And I met him that night, and he remained a friend until the day he died. In fact, he put me in a couple of movies that he was in. So Bobby Darin was very special.

And what another artist like Sam Cooke that we lost far too soon because he had a bad heart. And I met him in a totally different way because at the time I was going – well, he used to go to some of my dad's nightclubs. But I was dating Wayne Newton, and we were invited one night to go to dinner with Bobby Darin and Sandra Dee. So they took us to La Scala in Beverly Hills and Bobby Darin, to this day, I have never had a dinner to match that. He ordered an Italian and he ordered and ordered and they kept bringing dishes and dishes and food and food. And it was probably one of the best dinners I ever had in my whole life. He was really a good master when it came to dining.

He knew how to dine properly. He was amazing. That's a good story. And they said that Bobby Darin was always haunted by knowing he'd have an early death. Yes. He knew. He knew. He knew. There's no question about it.

Yeah, he had rheumatic fever as a child, and he had just gone to the dentist before he died. And there's something about, I don't know, there's something about when you go to the dentist and the bacteria from the teeth go into the heart, and it's just a whole. That's why you have so many cavities. You refuse to go to the dentist.

I don't have any cavities. And there was that other situation with Bobby Darin, too, where it was like the thing with Jack Nicholson. That he found out that his mother, his sister was actually his mother. His mother. Another heartbreaker. And his mother was his grandmother. I know.

It was the strangest story. It was like you're watching a movie and you think, can this possibly all be true? But it was true. And another part of him that was very special was they gave him Donkashane, and that was for him to record. And he had just taken Wayne Newton under his wing, and he said, no, I have somebody I want to record this song.

And they said, no, no, this is for you and you have to record this song. And he said, no, either you let Wayne Newton record this song or I'm leaving the label. So that became Wayne Newton's hit. Wow, I never knew. That's a great story. Oh, darling, we have millions of them.

In fact, they were in the studio recording Wayne Newton on Donkashane, and Bobby was producing the record at Capitol. When the publisher called and got Bobby on the phone and told Bobby that if Wayne Newton did it instead of Bobby Darin, they were going to take the publishing away. And Bobby said, well, you just take the publishing away. Well, they changed their mind. And everything worked out fine. And I was at that session.

Wow. I got to sit there. A man of many talents, Bobby Darin. He was a good actor, too. Yes. I don't know whether you remember the first time you ever heard Mack the Knife or not, but have you ever heard a record that was better produced, a better record ever than Mack the Knife? Isn't that a classic?

I mean, you think about popular music. How does it get any better than Mack the Knife? I love Artificial Flowers, too. Oh, yeah. That went beyond the sea. Yeah, too. Oh, yeah. That way I'm beyond the sea. Yeah, he was just something else. And yet he could write a simple little song like

Things. T-H-I-N-G-S. I love that one, too. That was a great song. You know that song, Gilbert? Things like a walk in the park. I think Dino records it. So simple. Things like a sailboat ride. What about the night we cried?

Please, Gilbert, don't sing it. Gilbert, don't sing it. Please, you're ruining it. Gilbert, you're ruining the song. Talking about the things we used to do. Oh, God, I'm sorry I brought it up. Oh, memories are all I've got to remember. No, no, Bobby is turning over in his grave.

And heartache is the friend I'm talking to. You're really pushing it. You're really pushing it, Gilbert. Oh, Sandy's enjoying this. Wink is going to run. Wink's going to make a run for it. We have some friends we go to dinner with all the time. And one guy is Michael Lloyd, and the other one is Johnny Tillotson,

who's a singer from back in the day in the 60s. And we go to a place called Duke's in Malibu. Oh, is Duke's still there? I love Duke's. Duke's is there. Yeah, sure. Michael Lloyd did the Dirty Dancing album, among other things. But he brings his ukulele, and we have sheet music to all the Hawaiian songs.

We bring a bottle of champagne. They pop the cork. We sing Tiny Bubbles, and then we do all the Hawaiian dances. Gilbert, you have to come out here sometime and go to dinner with us. This is after we've had a half a Hawaiian dances. You have to come out here sometime and go to dinner with us. This is after we've had a half a dozen drinks. Gil, we have another invitation. Wink and Sandy, you've kept us going.

Are you guys still doing working with the Dream Factory or St. Jude's? Anything else you want to plug or promote? Those are great charities. They're always part of us st jude children's research hospital in memphis we love danny thomas god rest his soul and rosemary his his late wife and we uh anytime we do anything for charity the money always goes to st jude

but uh i might mention i'm in uh i have a game show that's in development called spin out with the arthur smith company they produce america ninja warriors and they're also producing the new I have a game show that's in development called Spin Out with the Arthur Smith Company. They produce America Ninja Warriors, and they're also producing the new Ellen DeGeneres game show. So be on the lookout for a new show called Spin Out, hopefully in the next year. And I'm playing a minister on a new faith-based soap titled Hilton Head Island for Pure Flix. My mother would be so proud. Your mother's dream has finally come true. Absolutely, yeah.

But that's about it. Well, there's one other thing I'd like to say. We went to a party the other night at Roma Downey and Mark Burnett's house, and it may become something that we want to donate to in the future. There is going to be a huge, it'll be the third biggest museum in Washington, D.C., and it's going to be a museum of the Bible. And they have some of the Dead Sea Scrolls and some of the original Torahs, and it's going to be quite something. So we're just finding out about that now. Yeah.

Wow. And the book is Winking at Life. Would you like to hear Gilbert sing again? Yes. No. No. Oh, that shark bites with his teeth, dear. And those teeth are pearly white. I need some drums. You know, Sandy, he's belted him out with some of the best

on this show. He sang Wichita Lineman with Jimmy Webb. We'll send it to you. Oh, that's got to be very cool. And MacArthur Park. Oh, wow.

And he sang with who else? Paul Williams. Oh, Paul Williams. he sang with who else? Paul Williams? Oh, Paul Williams. We sang Rainbow Connection. He sang Tie a Yellow Ribbon with your pal Tony Orlando. Tony Orlando. Super Califragilistic with Dick Van Dyke. Oh, what could be better than that?

What could be better? Yeah, that's your greatest day in show business, I think. Well, you guys, it's quite an honor to be on this show. You guys have had everybody on this show. We really have. We've been lucky. Yeah, we've had Carl Reiner recently. We just had Norman Lear.

Oh, boy, isn't he amazing? Amazing. 94. And he's working on new stuff. Yeah. We had two. We had Mickey Dolenz here. We had Mike Nesmith here.

Oh, okay. Mickey Dolenz used to, before the monkeys, sometimes he doesn't talk about it much, but he parked cars at our nightclub, the Red Velvet, and one night when Elvis was there, Elvis gave him a $100 tip, and he thought he died and went to heaven. Wow. That's good stuff. Before Circus Boy.

Yes. Well, I just want to tell both of you that, again, Gilbert, I've been a fan for years. And, Frank, it's a pleasure meeting you. Pleasure was mine. And I'm very happy, Sandy and I both, to be included among this illustrious group of guests that you've enjoyed on your show. And thank you for the invitation. We had many requests to get Wink Martindale on the show.

And I also want to thank our mutual friend Bill Getty, who said, geez, if you haven't gotten Wink yet, what are you waiting for? So here you are. Give them our love. We sure will, and you've entertained us both today, so thanks for doing this. My pleasure. That's entertainment. Sam Gilbert, that's entertainment.

God, don't give him an idea again. Don't crank him up again. She keeps giving him ideas. I like his singing. Thank you. You guys were great. Thank you so much. Someone who appreciates good music.

Absolutely. Thanks, guys. So, I'm Gilbert Gottfried. This has been Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast with my co-host Frank Santopadre and the great Wink Martindale and his wife, the lovely Sandy. An extra bonus we got.

We got two for the price of one. Sandy, thank you so much. two for the price of one. Sandy, thank you so much. Two for the price of none. Oh, you know how to hurt us. I'm going to go home and watch Viva Las Vegas. Okay. We love you guys. Thank you so much.

Thank you. You're welcome. Bye. © BF-WATCH TV 2021