Yesterday, we found out that Wink Martindale, best known as a game show host, passed away at age 91. In 1959, he had a top ten spoken word hit Deck of Cards. He was also a radio personality. The information below is from Wikipedia.
He started his career as a disc jockey at age 17 at WPLI in Jackson, earning $25 a week.
After moving to WTJS, he was hired away for double the salary by Jackson's only other station, WDXI. He next hosted mornings at WHBQ in Memphis while a college student at Memphis State University, before graduating with a bachelor of science degree in 1957. While at U of M, Martindale became a member of Kappa Sigma fraternity.
On the evening of July 10, 1954, Martindale was showing the WHBQ studio to some friends when he realized that his colleague on the 9 p.m. to midnight shift, Dewey Phillips, was getting many reactions from listeners after airing a new song. That song was Elvis Presley's first record, "That's All Right." The song was recorded at Sam Phillips' recording studio on the evening of July 5, 1954. Sam, who had brought the record on July 6, was in the WHBQ studio on the first airing night and had Elvis' telephone number. DJ Dewey Phillips wanted to interview Elvis during his program, so Wink endeavored to contact Elvis. Still, Gladys Presley, Elvis's mother, answered the phone and said Elvis was so nervous that he had gone to a movie theater. Gladys and her husband Vernon brought Elvis to WHBQ and Dewey interviewed Elvis without his knowing that he was on the air (Martindale reported that Elvis later admitted that he would have been unable to talk otherwise).
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