KTRK's Marvin Zindler Passes Away

[HoustonNews 0]

Marvin passed away earlier today.

 

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=action13&id=5478841

 

I don't believe they have posed an article yet, but there are video tributes on the site via the link.

 

He will be missed here in Houston and all over. He touched many lives. Prayers go out to his family.

[TexasTVNews 1377]

NNNOOO!!!! :'(

[TheMightyGringoChannel 0]

That's a shame...Marvin was a class act. For those of you who might not know, "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas", was based on a story done by Marvin, back in the day. God Bless his memory and his family, my thoughts and prayers are with them.

[mbhcity 3]

He will be missed, but definitely a tough week in TV Journalism. First KGO's Pete Wilson, then the Phoenix reporters, and now his passing. It has been tough, but we will never forget him. a true legend.

[jlt1984 0]

I'm very shocked at how sudden this happened. He did a report from his hospital bed on Saturday's 10pm newscast...wow. KTRK's newscasts won't be the same....

[Oliverolang 41]

A true legend to the Houston market, and I grew up watching him as well. He will be missed dearly.

[newsie 11]

Very sad. :'( Prayers go out to his family and KTRK.

 

MARVIN ZINDLER, EYYYYEWITNESS NEWS!

[abric 181]

He not only affected the people of Houston, but around the world. There are some people we take for granted. Marvin is not that person. He never wants to be treated better, but equally as everyone else and that's what I will miss about him. A man who stands up for anyone and gets it done and makes sure it gets done with his no-holds barred attitude. There is not many many like Marvin and I doubt there ever will again. Marvin godspeed, and goodbye! :'(

[A3N 1002]

Very Sad. May he rest in peace. I will miss those trademark blue lense glasses that he always wore. KTRK and Television as a whole have lost a true classy Journalist.

[TexasTVNews 1377]

 

If you watched or happened to know Marvin for many years on Eyewitness News when you grew up, that you can trust

Marvin. When everybody know who lives in or outside the Houston Area that if they have problem with Social Security,

Medical problems, vacation scams and SLIME in the Ice Machine... They can call Marvin Zinder. Marvin was an ICON

in the Houston Area and all over the Lone Star State, I know you all feeling the pain that I having right now about Marvin

and I know you'll around the country are left with sadness and heartache that he's no longer with us. Ever since this news

was broken, I was worried about his wife, family and their dog Magic. And I worried about Dave, Gina, Bob, Tim and the

entire Eyewitness News team. I was lucky enough to get his autograph in 2006 of last year along with other KTRK anchor

pics I've collected. Watching him on TV and online was an honor, but knowing him was a total blessing. I have newscast

with Marvin in 1994, 2004 and last year and I every time I watched him past or present on Eyewitness News, I wanted

him to recover from cancer. Marvin was not the only person we lost from pancreatic cancer, Remember this. Seven years

ago we lost Sylvan Rodriguez (KHOU) from that same cancer, Sylvan fought it for 10 months and won it then came back

and took his life, now the cancer took another Houston legend. Each person on this forum, each person who are interns a

local stations around the country and each person in the Houston area who are suffering Marvin's loss in a very deep and

in very devastating hurtful way, and many of you in the Bayou City are left with sadness now that he's no longer among

us. We all loved Marvin Zinder very deeply, and we never thought we had to say goodbye to him this soon in at this time

in the worst way. I don't know who's going to succeed Marvin to do the Action 13 Reports, especially Rat and Roach

reports, I guess it's not to be, because here we are without you and the fans of TV News Marvin, and it is very painful what has happened today and I know that this devastating and sad story. To me, this was worst week I've ever had in my life. First, we lost a Bay Area legend by the name of Pete Wilson, Then two photographers form KTVK and KNXV died in a helicopter crash and now we lost another legend by the name of Marvin Zindler, and I ask myself "What in the hell is going on here, we losing people who cover and bringing us the news became the news." And if heavens themselves blaze forth into the death of princes look to sky in Houston and all over Texas tonight because the night sky will be shining brightly for the prince of a man who was Marvin Zindler.

 

Rest in Peace Marvin, We all love you and we all going to miss you. Here's to life, Here's to love and Here's to you. :'(

 

Marvin Zindler, Eyewitness News (1972-2007)

35 Years at KTRK ABC 13

[bhratbrat 437]

Most of the videos are of Marvin on ABC13.com! This is definately sad seeing a Houston Institution Pass On. Very sad to see this happen. God Bless Houston, Marvin Zindler, and KTRK-TV.

 

Statement from ABC13

 

7/29/07 - KTRK/HOUSTON) - Legendary television broadcaster Marvin Zindler died this evening at M.D. Anderson Hospital from complications of pancreatic cancer. He was 85.

 

MARVIN'S LEGACY

Marvin Slideshow

Marvin Zindler was a Houston icon known for his colorful style. He was truly an original and there will never be anyone like him again on television. View Marvin pictures through the years.

 

Leave your message

There is no doubt Marvin will be greatly missed in Houston and beyond. Leave your messages to Marvin and his family here. Your thoughts and prayers meant a lot to him during his courageous battle.

 

 

[FULL COVERAGE]

Marvin is survived by his wife Niki, his five grown children, nine grand children and one great-grand child.

 

Known for his trademark white hairpieces, blue lenses and signature sign-off, Marvin was a fearless, flamboyant and trail-blazing broadcaster. His nightly reports helped create a new genre of broadcast journalism that became a staple in television newsrooms across the country.

 

Marvin Zindler made his mark as a consumer advocacy reporter and was one of the first in Houston to investigate controversial issues and institutions. He became a household name for exposing a brothel in La Grange known as The Chicken Ranch. The nationwide notoriety over the brothel's closing inspired the Broadway musical and movie, "Best Little Whorehouse In Texas."

 

Marvin went on to use his nightly Eyewitness News segments to expose substandard care at nursing homes, obtain special medical care for those who couldn't afford it, help thousands cut through bureaucratic red tape and help many more successfully resolve their consumer problems. Ranking high among Marvin's accomplishments was his investigation into restaurant health violations that resulted in a nationwide requirement for salad "sneeze bars." His weekly "Rat and Roach Reports" improved cleanliness and food safety in restaurant kitchens. Marvin traveled extensively documenting how Houston doctors helped alleviate pain and suffering in poor countries around the world. One of his recent noteworthy accomplishments was assisting seven Iraqi men with getting replacements "hands" for the ones cut-off during Saddam Hussein's regime.

 

Henry Florsheim, KTRK-TV President and General Manager, said, "Marvin was one of the most valued and beloved people in Houston. For nearly 35 years he was welcomed into the hearts and homes of millions of local viewers. This is a deep loss for me both, personally and professionally, my prayers are with his family, friends and co-workers."

 

David Strickland, Vice President of News, said," Marvin never hesitated to question the status quo or to take on the toughest problems for folks who had no one else to help them. He was an inspiration in our newsroom and will be missed by everyone at Eyewitness News."

 

Dave Ward, Eyewitness News Anchor said, "Marvin was one of kind. He was one of the most compassionate people I have ever met and deep in his heart he believed in helping folks who needed someone on their side."

 

Marvin Zindler joined KTRK-TV on January 1, 1973 after a colorful career with the Harris County Sheriff's Department. He brought a unique on-air presence and reporting style to his Action 13 segments on Eyewitness News. Many credit his nightly reports as one of the major contributors to KTRK-TV's long time reign as Houston's most-watched television station. His Action 13 office says for many years they received nearly 100,000 requests for assistance on a variety of consumer issues. As recently as June of this year, Marvin, at age 85, was still reporting five days a week.

 

Marvin has been recognized with awards from every news organization, many charity groups and from several in the medical fields. A medical award of special note was presented by the Plastic Surgeons of America. They honored Marvin for his openness and honesty in talking about his cosmetic surgeries and for the help he obtained for charity patients who desperately needed reconstructive surgery. Marvin had the Scottish Rite Masonry 33rd Degree conferred upon him, the highest honor one can receive in the Masonry. In 2003, Marvin was inducted into the "Silver Circle" of the Lone Star Emmy Association for his historic contributions to broadcast journalism in Texas.

 

Marvin began his broadcasting career in 1943 as a part-time radio disc jockey while working in his family's clothing store business. In 1950, he became a reporter and cameraperson for Southwest Film Production Company, which produced the 6:00 PM news for KPRC-TV. Two years later, Marvin joined the Scripts Howard Houston Press to work part-time as a crime reporter and photographer. He joined the Harris County Sheriff's Department in 1962 and handled Civil Process for two years before moving over to the Fugitive Squad where his work took him all over the world to extradite fugitives. While working for the Sheriff's Department, Marvin was responsible for establishing the Consumer Fraud Division within the Harris County District Attorney's Office. The Fraud Division is still in operation today.

 

Marvin Zindler was born on August 10, 1921 in Houston. He attended public schools and went to John Tarleton Agricultural College in Stephenville, Texas. He joined the Marines in 1941 and received an Honorable Discharge. In that same year, Marvin married Gertrude, his wife of 56 years. They raised five children before she passed away in 1997.

 

Edited with ABC13 Statement

[WAVY 10 Fan 233]

Our condolences to the Zindler family.

[bhratbrat 437]

LOCAL2, KHCW, KRIV, KHOU had this as the top story last night. The Houston Chronicle had this as there top story too.

 

LOCAL2 had Shara Fryer on last night talking about Marvin. She said this: "When Marvin decided that he was going to be your friend, he never withdrew that friendship. He's a true friend."

 

"He was a champion of the little guy," KPRC Local 2 anchor Bill Balleza said. "He never met anybody he didn't like and he'd do anything for anybody. The world is a better place because of Marvin Zindler, and we're going to miss him very much."

 

Dave Ward who first brought aboard Marvin Zindler

 

KHOU had it as there top story and they have video on there site.

KHCW just had a :45 second report

KRIV had a report this morning in Downtown

KPRC had 2 reports and was outside KTRK for there late report.

 

From the Houston Chronicle

Channel 13's Marvin Zindler dies at 85

 

 

By ERIC HARRISON

Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

 

 

Marvin Zindler, a Houston institution for more than three decades and a pioneer of consumer reporting, died Sunday at M.D. Anderson Hospital after a fight with cancer.

 

The irascible, flamboyant 85-year-old television personality had been diagnosed in July with inoperable pancreatic cancer that spread to his liver.

 

Even in his last days, Zindler continued to work, filing reports from his hospital bed. In his last report, broadcast Saturday, in which he helped a 45-year-old U.S. citizen secure a Social Security card necessary for employment, Zindler appeared thin and his voice was weak. Still, he signed off with a hearty "MAARVIN ZINDLER, eyewitness news" — his trademark for 34 years with KTRK Channel 13.

 

"Marvin Zindler was unique," said Dave Ward, the station's longtime anchor and one of the people responsible for Zindler being on the air. "There's never been anyone who lived life more than this man or who wanted to do more than this man. This is a personal loss to me and to everyone at this station — and to every man, woman and child, really, who lives in Southeast Texas."

 

Channel 13 interrupted its regular lineup Sunday at 8 p.m. to announce Zindler's death, with Ward calling him "a legend in Houston television who will never be forgotten."

 

The station had extended tributes during its 10 p.m. newscast.

 

Serbino Sandier-Walker, a journalism professor at Texas Southern University, called Zindler "irreplaceable."

 

"Marvin Zindler was a man for the people," Sandier-Walker said. "He fought for the little person. He made consumer reporting what it is today."

 

 

'Rat and roach' reports

To youthful viewers, Zindler is perhaps best known as the kind-hearted, grandfatherly figure in white wig and blue shades who delivered the weekly "rat and roach reports" based on health department restaurant inspections. After his idiosyncratic sign-off, his most famous catch phrase comes from the frequent health inspector findings of, "all together now, SLIIIME in the ice machine."

 

But to generations of low-income Houstonians, Zindler was the champion of last resort, the man to whom you turned when bureaucracies seemed indifferent and businesses tried to take advantage. The station said that for many years Zindler received 100,000 appeals for help.

 

Though he was proudest of his work championing "the little guy" and helping secure medical care for needy children, he was best known for stories he did a mere seven months after starting the job in 1973 that led to the closing of the state's best-known "bawdy house," as Zindler called it — a notorious La Grange brothel known as the Chicken Ranch.

 

The reports not only won him national notoriety but also a public thrashing by Fayette County Sheriff T.J. Flournoy, a Chicken House partisan, who broke two of Zindler's ribs and snatched his toupee, reportedly waving it in the air as if it were a prized enemy scalp.

 

Texas author Larry L. King wrote an article about it for Playboy magazine in 1974, which was turned into a long-running Broadway musical four years later and became a kitschy 1982 movie starring Dolly Parton, Burt Reynolds and Dom DeLuise.

 

In The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, DeLuise played a character based on Zindler, a vainglorious reporter who goes on a crusade to close the brothel.

 

Though Zindler's Chicken Ranch stories often were characterized as a moral crusade or a quest for publicity, Zindler maintained that he'd pursued them because he'd been convinced by state law enforcement sources that the Chicken Ranch and another nearby brothel were making payoffs to local officials and were involved in organized crime.

 

"I didn't care that they had a whorehouse," he'd say in later years. "We had plenty here in Houston."

 

Zindler seemed to enjoy the spotlight the musical and movie shone on him — he kept a poster for the film on his office wall — though he always said he felt his most important stories were 1985 reports on financial mismanagement by the Hermann Hospital board of trustees.

 

Zindler also loved to talk of the thousands of children who'd received free medical care from Marvin's Angels, doctors who donated their services because Zindler asked them to. In addition to his frequent on-air reports about such cases, Zindler started a foundation with his friend and plastic surgeon Dr. Joseph Agris that helped children around the world.

 

These activities, he told a reporter last year, were why — in his 80s and after enduring open-heart surgery and surviving a previous bout with prostate cancer — Zindler continued to work.

 

Marvin also traveled extensively, documenting how Houston doctors helped alleviate suffering in developing countries. Recently, for example, he helped seven Iraqi men get prosthetic devices to replace the hands that were cut off during Saddam Hussein's regime.

 

"Marvin was one of the most valued and beloved people in Houston," Henry Florsheim, KTRK-TV president and general manager, said. "For nearly 35 years he was welcomed into the hearts and homes of millions of local viewers. This is a deep loss for me, both personally and professionally; my prayers are with his family, friends and co-workers."

 

Zindler signed a lifetime contract with the station in 1988. He honored it to the letter. Even after being diagnosed in early July with the disease that would kill him, he went on the air in a bathrobe, pajamas and slippers to report the news.

 

It was the lead story on Channel 13's 6 p.m. news, and — to make it clear he was still on the job and not using his illness as an excuse to slack off — Zindler ended the report braying his famous sign-off.

 

Zindler's unusual lifetime contract — reportedly earning him $1 million a year, though he insisted it was lower — recognized his worth to the station, which until recently consistently had the most watched local news program. His was one of the city's most recognizable faces, even if it kept changing.

 

Zindler had countless cosmetic surgery procedures, beginning in 1954 after he was fired from an earlier television job by an executive who said he was "too ugly" to work in TV.

 

 

Relationship with father

Born into wealth, Zindler admits to having had an unfocused youth. Abe Zindler, his father, considered his middle son frivolous and irresponsible and died in 1963 deeply disappointed in him. The successful retailer and longtime mayor of Bellaire left no inheritance to Marvin but rather placed it in a trust for Marvin's five children. Marvin could draw only the interest.

 

Abe Zindler also left Marvin a harsh letter in which he derided his middle son as "a silly playboy with no sense in your head" and urged him to make something of himself.

 

Zindler had never liked working in his stern father's clothing stores. In the 1940s, while still working days for his father, Zindler began as a night DJ and spot news reporter for KATL, a now-defunct radio station. In the 1950s, while working as a volunteer policeman, he began writing and taking photographs for the Houston Press, a long-gone daily newspaper, and did spot news reports for KPRC television's fledgling news operation.

 

In 1962, he began working for the Sheriff's Department where, among other duties, he traveled around the world to extradite fugitives. While working in the Sheriff's Department, Zindler found his true calling — helping "the little guy" — and also found an outlet for his constant desire for attention. He created and ran the department's consumer fraud division.

 

Known for his fancy clothes, the press conferences he held at the drop of a hat and the mink-lined handcuffs he carried (in case he had to arrest a woman), Zindler rose to the rank of sergeant. After 10 years with the department, he was fired in late 1972, allegedly for angering local business people by doing his job too well.

 

Ward recommended that Zindler be hired by Channel 13. The TV job gave him a bigger platform for his eccentricities and greater opportunities to anger people.

 

From the beginning he was an oddity — intense, uncomfortable on camera, and he had the mien of a crusader.

 

 

Brush with politics

Zindler considered running for Congress in the 1970s at the urging of local Republican leaders. A survey was commissioned that said he could win, Zindler says, but he decided not to run because Gertrude, his first wife, didn't want to live in Washington.

 

Zindler's authorized biography tells of an earlier aborted entry into politics. In 1949, when he was 28, Zindler announced his candidacy for the mayorship of Bellaire, like his father had.

 

The Houston Post came out against him, calling the younger Zindler a "pinhead." The paper retracted the statement after Zindler filed a lawsuit, the book says, but the retraction ran under an eye-catching headline: "We won't call Marvin Harold Zindler a 'pinhead' again."

 

Zindler became involved in Democratic Party politics, serving as a delegate one year at the state Democratic convention where a conservative delegate slugged him after Zindler had made disparaging comments about the conservative wing of the party in a speech.

 

Zindler went on to work in the senatorial campaign of Lyndon Johnson and in other Democratic campaigns before switching to the Republican Party, where he continued to espouse liberal notions such as national health insurance.

 

Zindler often said he didn't consider himself a journalist, but he could claim credit for helping to pioneer broadcast journalism in Houston. He was born on Aug. 10, 1921, in Houston. He attended public schools and went to John Tarleton Agricultural College in Stephenville. He joined the Marines in 1941 and received an Honorable Discharge. In that same year, he married Gertrude, his wife of 56 years. They raised five children before she passed away in 1997.

 

He is survived by his wife, Niki, his five grown children, nine grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

 

 

A saddening day. Hopefully more information tonight or tomorrow about memorial services will be passed through.

[NewzPimpin 1]

These last few days have been, by all accounts, the worse for TV news.

[mbhcity 3]

These last few days have been, by all accounts, the worse for TV news.

 

And now another, ABC legend has passed. Tom Snyder who anchored at WABC-TV and hosted a show at KABC-TV during the mid 80's.

[bhratbrat 437]

Im not sure if you have saw the coverage on KTRK but if you have they now have Shara Fryer, Alan Hemberger (KHCW), Debroah Duncan (KHOU), Ed Brandon, Bill Balezza (KPRC), and Jan Glenn have videos up of Marvin

[bhratbrat 437]

Funeral will be held on Wednesday @ 11 AM. KTRK will be televising LIVE

[jlt1984 0]

Marvin passed away earlier today.

 

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=action13&id=5478841

 

I don't believe they have posed an article yet, but there are video tributes on the site via the link.

 

He will be missed here in Houston and all over. He touched many lives. Prayers go out to his family.

 

If anyone's interested, here is a link to some photos I took this afternoon of whats been left outside the KTRK studios for Marvin.

http://uhd.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2006568&l=9fdc4&id=160000004

[Guest abc7miami]

Marvin Zindler's Funeral:

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news&id=5531004

[bhratbrat 437]

They have videos of the funeral on the website

[Vlad 325]

Again, I don't know what is happening but so many people are just dying so quickly and unexpectedly this year. Another icon just gone. I don't live in the Houston area, but boy was this man a class act for the station and this country as a whole pretty much. A true icon, there will never be a replacement of this remarkable person. Again so sad and tragic. My personal condolences go out to his friends and family. And may God bless him in eternal peace.

 

Regards,

Vlad :'(

[tvpirate05 1]

God be with the family, friends, and staff of KTRK