Earlier this month I noted that Houston television legend Marvin Zindler was gravely ill. Today he lost his battle with pancreatic cancer.

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

Marvin was a product of Houston and never strayed from his home. His father was the first mayor of Bellaire. Marvin was a drum major at Lamar High School. One thing he was not was cut out for his family's clothing business. Marvin as it's said marched to his own beat.

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.

As Marvin would say, he wasted no time in making news. First he exposed the goings on at a house of ill repute in La Grange known as the Chicken Ranch. The confrontation between Marvin and the sheriff is stuff of legend and the basis for a Broadway musical.

The bread and butter of Marvin's Action 13 though was representing the people who'd been cheated out of what was owed them or ignored by government.

And so it went for nearly 35 years. It was an unprecedented career for a man who was more than a personality. Marvin Zindler was a true character, one who will never be replaced.

I urge you to watch the videos -- they chronicle a true character, and have excerpts from the classic "Chicken Ranch" reports, which led to his being immortalized as the thinly disguised Melvin P. Thorpe in The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas.

Houston media will never be the same.

Farewell, Marvin.

Posted by: Greg at 03:54 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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