Houston has lost a local legend!

[radioguy141]

From KTRK:

Marvin Zindler passes away after battle with cancer

For nearly two generations, he's been part of Houston, never farther away than a television set.

First he took to the radio and then TV. He was fired from his first on-air job at KPRC in the 50's. Marvin claims he was told he was too ugly. So he embraced plastic surgery.

With a career in law enforcement, Marvin served warrants for the sheriff's office and started the consumer fraud division. His exploits got him noticed and in 1973, at my request, he was hired here at Channel 13.

[EDIT]

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http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=action13&id=5519844

 

[bhayes1016]

Another link to our childhood, gone. RIP

 

[CW]

Another link to our childhood, gone. RIP

Yes....death sux....

I remember 1st seeing Marvin back in the 70s when the Beaumont area got cable and 13 was on it...I got to the point where I watched Houston TV news more than the BPT news (even though the BPT market was half decent back then....but now???....) Only ONE time did I get sideways with his report...he was reporting on a ham operator that supposively causing TVI to a neighbor...when they showed the ham's tower, he was over a mile away...and the TV was just showing rolling raster bars...ALL it needed was a tune up...Marvin even admitted on the report the ham "was not at home" at the time they did the story...SO HOW COULD he cause TVI when he wasnt home??? I hear 13s own engineers jumped him about that and he had to make an onair retraction...

However, he did a lot of good for a lot of people....love him or hate him...he MADE a difference in people's lives.

 

[rageradio]

Another link to our childhood, gone. RIP

Aint that the truth.... I was 3 when he started at KTRK.

RIP Marvin Zindler

You will be missed

 

[stan]

His signoff at the end of his reports was legendary.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJObxxYaHpI

 

[Bill Cherry]

I remember reading an interview with his wife (I think his first wife...wasn't he married twice?) She said that neither she nor their kids had ever seen him without his rug. He even wore it to bed.

Wonder if he got that behavior from Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire.

Everyone will miss old Marvin. Me, too.

 

[no respect]

May Marvin rest in peace.

 

[FilioScotia]

Gertrude, his wife of 56 years, passed away in 1997. He remarried fairly soon after, because, as he said more or less publicly, his late wife wouldn't have wanted him to be alone.

Rest in Peace Marvin.

 

[CW]

Gertrude, his wife of 56 years, passed away in 1997. He remarried fairly soon after, because, as he said more or less publicly, his late wife wouldn't have wanted him to be alone.

Rest in Peace Marvin.

Niki was his second wife.

 

[Bill Cherry]

I was one of the corporate officers of a company that built and leased apartments. We had about 5,000 units. Our offices were on Richmond at Fountainview, and we're talking about, say, late-'70s. It was in the days of open shirts, gold chains, jeans and blazers. We had just gotten out of the leisure suit fad.

I'm sitting in my office and I see the hallway getting really bright. About that time the receptionist calls me on the intercom and asks me if I can come to the front. I was the only man in the joint since everyone else was at lunch, so I guess that's why she picked me.

I go up there, and there's Marvin with a cameraman. Marvin has a mike in his hand, and he's there because he's gotten some bogus complaint about an apartment building that didn't even belong to our company, but he's going to take us to task anyway.

When he sees me in jeans and shirt, he goes in a rampage. "This guy doesn't look like a businessman! Look how he's dressed. Are you the only man here? Got a suit somewhere and white shirt and tie you could put on for this interview?

"No, Mr. Zindler, I don't, and I'm the only man here at the moment....but they are dressed like me, too."

"Well, let's get out of here, Joe," he said to the camerman. "Nobody's going to believe I'm accomplishing anything by eating out a guy in jeans."

 

[purpledevil]

Now that's classic Marvin Zindler. The "little man" has definitely lost a huge voice.

R.I.P. Marvin. There are no rats and roaches where you've gone, but I bet that back 9 is the best you've ever played.

 

[snoman]

My condolences go out to the ABC 13 and Zindler family. I worked with his son Mark in Tyler. This is very sad news. However, he did lead a full life. He helped many along the way. And, he kept working until his death. There is definitely a void in Houston TV.

 

[olebud]

I just heard the sad news about Marvin and it brought back some good old memories. Before I moved from Nashville to Houston to KIKK, one of the first things I was told was about the guy with the silver hair piece and his trademark signoff.
When his book came out, I interviewed him for a psa program one Sunday night when the studios were still in Pasadena. He was a great and fun interview and was promoting the book he had just written. Was I ever shocked when after the show, we left and the parking lot was packed with people wanting to meet him and get his autograph.
I ran into him several times in the years after that and he was alway gracious.
What a great character for the times.
Sometimes it's sad that time marched on.l

Buddy Sadler -- former N.D. KIKK 1974-79.

 

[FilioScotia]

Can you imagine how hard it must be for the people at KTRK to not have Marvin coming and going during the day? When someone like Marvin works at a place nearly 35 years he becomes part of the building, the atmosphere, the decor, the very air you breathe. He's part of your life.

Now all of a sudden he's not there anymore, and a friend over there told me it's like a giant piece of their lives has been ripped out. Bob Allen described it perfectly in that touching tribute they put together: "It's too quiet around here."

My heart goes out to them, especially his producer Lori Reingold, and cameraman Bob Dows. You can't say enough about those two individuals. They were Marvin's production team, and they worked exclusively with him for more than 25 years! They traveled the world with him and made him the TV phenomenon and local institution he was. He wasn't just a part of their lives. He WAS their life.

I've been told by those in position to know that Lori was Marvin's rock. Left to his own devices, Marvin would go charging off in a dozen directions at once, but Lori worked with him to pick their projects and keep him focused on one project at a time, so each project would get the full attention it needed.

I've seen her with Marvin and Dows out in the field on several occasions, and it was she who carefully "stage-managed" the interviews and B-Roll video shots for maximum effectiveness when they edited the shoots down for his nightly news segments. Marvin was the fearless consumer crusader, but Lori made him the TV star he was with her instincts for what works on TV.

Put yourself in Lori's and Bob's shoes. What can you do now, after working with someone like Marvin for most of your career? Bob will probably continue working with whomever the station puts in charge of Action 13, but it'll never be the same.

Unless she needs the income, I think Lori will retire and find something outside of television. What can she find to do now that could possibly compare with what she did with Marvin for more than a quarter of a century? Her life has crashed to Earth. What do you after you've been on the mountain top for half your life? Lori is a wonderfully creative person, and I'm hoping that once she and the others at KTRK move past their grief, she will give some thought to writing a book about "Life with Marvin". I'll buy a copy.