# Easy Aces > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Easy_Aces > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Easy_Aces.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easy_Aces > Source revision: 1353079987 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Short description|American serial comedy radio series}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2020}} {{Infobox Radio Show | show_name = Easy Aces | image = Goodman jane ace 1939.jpg | imagesize = 250px | caption = Goodman and Jane Ace-''Easy Aces'' (1939) | other_names = | format = Comedy | runtime = 15 minutes (KMBC)
30 minutes (CBS) | country = USA | language = [English](/source/English_language) | home_station = [NBC](/source/NBC) ([Blue](/source/Blue_Network))
[CBS](/source/CBS) | syndicates = | television = | announcer = Truman Bradley
Ford Bond | starring = [Mary Hunter](/source/Mary_Hunter_Wolf)
[Paul Stewart](/source/Paul_Stewart_(actor))
Martin Gabel
Helene Dumas
Ken Roberts
Ann Thomas
Ethel Blume
Alfred Ryder
Peggy Allenby | writer = Goodman Ace | composer = | director = | producer = | executive_producer = | narrated = | record_location = | first_aired = 1930 | last_aired = 1945 | num_series = | num_episodes = | audio_format = | opentheme = "[Manhattan Serenade](/source/Manhattan_Serenade)"{{cite book|editor-last=Singer|editor-first=Mark|title=Mr. Personality: Profiles and Talk Pieces from The New Yorker|pages=432|year=2005|publisher=Mariner Books|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=noDkchBP1E4C&q=perry+como&pg=PA214|isbn= 0-618-19726-5|accessdate=22 September 2010}} | endtheme = | website = | podcast = }} '''''Easy Aces''''' is an American serial [radio](/source/old-time_radio) [comedy](/source/comedy) (1930–1945). It was trademarked by the low-keyed drollery of creator and writer [Goodman Ace](/source/Goodman_Ace) and his wife, [Jane](/source/Jane_Ace), as an urbane, put-upon realtor and his [malaprop](/source/malaprop)-prone wife. A 15-minute program, airing as often as five times a week, ''Easy Aces'' did not draw as strong ratings as other 15-minute serial comedies such as ''[Amos 'n' Andy](/source/Amos_'n'_Andy)'', ''[The Goldbergs](/source/The_Goldbergs_(broadcast_series))'', ''[Lum and Abner](/source/Lum_and_Abner)'', or ''[Vic and Sade](/source/Vic_and_Sade)'' but its unobtrusive, conversational, and clever style, and the cheerful absurdism of its storylines, built a loyal enough audience of listeners and critics alike to keep it on the air for 15 years. ==Accident of circumstance== Goodman Ace (b. Goodman Aiskowitz, 1899–1982) was a film critic for the ''[Kansas City Journal-Post](/source/Kansas_City_Journal-Post)'' in his native [Kansas City](/source/Kansas_City%2C_Missouri). On radio station [KMBC](/source/KMBZ_(AM)), he read [comic strip](/source/comic_strip)s to children on Sunday mornings and reviewed films on Friday evenings. One night in 1930, the cast of the 15-minute show that followed his slot failed to show up, and Ace found himself having to fill in the time. His wife, Jane (b. Jane Epstein, 1897–1974), had accompanied him to the studio that night, and the two engaged in an impromptu chat about their weekend bridge game. This brought such a favorable response that the station invited Ace to create a domestic comedy—even though neither of the couple had ever really acted before.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=MiEbAAAAIBAJ&pg=2163,427593&dq=goodman+ace&hl=en|title=Radio's Easy Aces Find It Easy To Keep Going for Seven Years|author=Steinhauser, Si|date=27 July 1937|publisher=The Pittsburgh Press|accessdate=20 November 2010}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6gyxWHRLAWgC&pg=PA2 |title=Dictionary of Missouri Biography|editor-last=Christensen|editor-first=Lawrence O.|editor2-last=Foley|editor2-first=William E.|editor3-last=Kremer|editor3-first=Gary R.|editor4-last=Winn|editor4-first=Kenneth H.|publisher=University of Missouri|year=1999|pages=848|isbn=0-8262-1222-0|accessdate=1 March 2011}} At first, according to radio historian John Dunning (in ''On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio''), the show oriented entirely around the couple's [bridge](/source/Contract_bridge) playing, and nearly died the same way, when Jane Ace was said to have lost her temper over her husband's constant needling of her style of play, and threatened to quit the show entirely. Ace revamped the show into "a more universally based domestic comedy revolving around Jane's improbable situations and her impossible turns of phrase."{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EwtRbXNca0oC&dq=%22The+Easy+Aces+situation+comedy%22&pg=PA216 |last=Dunning |first=John |author-link=John Dunning (detective fiction author) |title=On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio |date=1998 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York, NY |isbn=978-0-19-507678-3 |pages=216-218|edition=Revised |access-date=2024-11-11}} The result was one of radio's most respected comedies, going on to a fifteen-year air life despite its never being a ratings blockbuster. It was the first KMBC program to go on to become a network radio show.{{cite web|url=http://library.umkc.edu/sites/library.umkc.edu/files/images/spec-col/col-church-kmbc-finding-aid2.pdf|title=KMBC Finding Aid-page 9|publisher=University of Missouri at Kansas City Library|accessdate=17 November 2010}}{{Dead link|date=December 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} [[File:2 aces.JPG|thumb|left|220px|''Easy Aces'' postcard sent to listeners by the show's sponsor, [Lavoris](/source/Lavoris), reminding them that new episodes of the program would begin 26 September 1932 on CBS (Columbia Network). Goodman and Jane appear to be returning from vacation by freight train.]] ''Easy Aces'' moved to [WBBM](/source/WBBM_(AM)) [Chicago](/source/Chicago){{cite web|url=http://www.museum.tv/rhofsection.php?page=158|title=Goodman and Jane Ace|publisher=Museum of Broadcast Communications|accessdate=13 January 2011|archive-date=22 June 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110622052039/http://www.museum.tv/rhofsection.php?page=158|url-status=dead}} in 1930 on a trial basis; the Aces themselves launched a write-in appeal to test the size of their audience and thousands of letters convinced original sponsor [Lavoris](/source/Lavoris) to renew the deal for 1932–33. (A typical Ace maneuver, according to Dunning, was to buy trade publication ad space poking fun at the show's modest rating: after all, a typical Ace ad would say, the ratings were polled by telephone and the ''Easy Aces'' audience never answered the phone while the show was on.){{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=eJFJAAAAIBAJ&pg=832,14688&dq=goodman+ace&hl=en|title=Appeal of Magic Not What It Was|author=Crosby, John|date=1 June 1957|publisher=The News and Courier|accessdate=7 May 2011}}{{Dead link|date=July 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=PzdPAAAAIBAJ&pg=1718,1960458&dq=goodman+ace&hl=en|title=Walter Winchell|author=Winchell, Walter|date=15 September 1949|publisher=St. Petersburg Times|accessdate=8 May 2011}}{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/14005227/hollywood/|page=22|title=Hollywood|author=Dixon, Hugh|date=10 February 1941|publisher=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette|accessdate=26 September 2017|via = [Newspapers.com](/source/Newspapers.com)}} {{Open access}} The program began airing on the [CBS](/source/CBS) network in March 1932.{{cite news|title=Ace's Own Show Is Deuces With Him|date=5 March 1944|publisher=The Milwaukee Journal}}{{cite web|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,804192,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080504171700/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,804192,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=4 May 2008|title=Aces Up|date=8 September 1947|publisher=Time|accessdate=14 January 2011}}(subscription required) That summer, the Aces sought [New York City](/source/New_York_City) backing and found it in the [Blackett, Sample and Hummert](/source/Blackett-Sample-Hummert) agency headed by [Frank Hummert](/source/Frank_Hummert), soon to become radio's top [soap opera](/source/soap_opera) producer with his wife [Anne](/source/Anne_Hummert) but then producing various other programs. Hummert liked the Aces' style and the show's low overhead and put them on CBS as often as four times weekly, as an afternoon offering, before [Anacin](/source/Anacin) (marketed at that time by [American Home Products](/source/American_Home_Products)' Whitehall Pharmaceutical division) moved them to 7 p.m. in 1935—right up against ''Amos 'n' Andy''. ''Easy Aces'' could not win its timeslot but it did build a loyal audience of its own. The show moved to the [NBC Blue Network](/source/National_Broadcasting_Company) and a 7:30 p.m. time slot Mondays and Wednesdays, beginning in 1935,{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=N1gdAAAAIBAJ&pg=6621,2088527&dq=goodman+ace&hl=en|title='Easy Aces' To Return|date=29 September 1935|publisher=The Pittsburgh Press|accessdate=20 November 2010}} before returning to CBS in 1942, holding the same time slot on Wednesdays and Fridays.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/14005498/aces_not_conventional/|page=15|title=The Miami Story:The Aces Are Not Conventional in Anything They Do|author=Kofoed, Jack|date=28 February 1940|publisher=The Miami News|accessdate=26 September 2017|via = [Newspapers.com](/source/Newspapers.com)}} {{Open access}}{{cite web|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,773883,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091029121016/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,773883,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=29 October 2009|title=Radio: The Aces Move|date=2 November 1942|publisher=Time|accessdate=14 January 2011}} The show became a half-hour entry one night a week from 1943 through January 1945. It ended when Goodman Ace and Anacin had a disagreement over a musical bridge in one of the episodes; he, in turn, criticized their use of cardboard packaging instead of tin for their headache tablets, calling it a "gyp". In 1934, the couple was signed by [Educational Pictures](/source/Educational_Pictures) to do ''Easy Aces'' two reel comedies.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=b9cwAAAAIBAJ&pg=1371,2659956&dq=goodman+ace&hl=en|title=Easy Aces on Screen|date=13 December 1934|publisher=Reading Eagle|accessdate=27 November 2010}} ''Dumb Luck'' was released 18 January 1935, with the Aces reprising their radio roles.{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0322106/|title=Dumb Luck|date=18 January 1935|publisher=Internet Movie Database|accessdate=27 November 2010}}{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/company/co0050385/|title=Educational Pictures Film List|publisher=Internet Movie Database|accessdate=27 November 2010}} In 1936–37, the "Easy Aces" narrated a series of one-reel comic travelogues for the Van Beuren Corporation, released thru [RKO Radio Pictures](/source/RKO_Radio_Pictures). ''Easy Aces'' storylines often ran several episodes, though there were many single-episode stories, and the show was performed live on the air but in an isolated studio, without an audience, which suited its conversational style. Goodman Ace wrote the show's scripts and played the exasperated but loving husband of Jane Ace, his deceptively scatterbrained, language-molesting, more than periodically meddlesome wife. (Like many radio couples of the day, the Aces used their real names on the air, though no one ever addressed Ace by his first name—it was always Ace—and Jane chose the maiden name of Sherwood for her on-air character.){{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8g6YQTuBYQ8C&q=jane+ace&pg=PA71|title=Mixed Nuts: America's Love Affair With Comedy Teams From Burns And Allen To Belushi And Aykroyd|editor-last=Epstein|editor-first=Lawrence J.|publisher=PublicAffairs|year=2004|pages=320|isbn=1-58648-190-8|accessdate=1 March 2011}}{{Dead link|date=February 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} There were no sound effects beyond the almost ambient-like playing of normal life sounds, and the Aces' inexperience as actors probably worked in their favour: they simply played as though they were allowing listeners to eavesdrop on their own real-life conversations, allowing ''Easy Aces'' listeners more than those of many shows to believe the Aces really could have been their own unusual neighbours. The couple worked from a card table with a microphone sunk in its center, feeling it was easier to talk to each other in this manner rather than standing at a microphone.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=2rw0AAAAIBAJ&pg=3823,4083484&dq=goodman+ace&hl=en|title=Radio Chatter|author=Lee, Johnny|date=9 June 1943|work=Schenectady Gazette|accessdate=10 November 2010}} In addition, as Arthur Frank Wertheim noted in his book ''Radio Comedy'', Ace shunned belly laughs in favour of consistent character humour. "A lot of times, on the air," Wertheim quoted Ace as saying, "I noticed comics in a sketch do a joke that destroys the character because it gets a big laugh." The cast included [Mary Hunter](/source/Mary_Hunter_Wolf) as best friend and boarder Marge; [Paul Stewart](/source/Paul_Stewart_(actor)) as ne'er-do-well brother-in-law Johnny; [Martin Gabel](/source/Martin_Gabel) as Neil Williams, a newspaper reporter and Marge's love interest; Helene Dumas as Southern maid Laura; [Ken Roberts](/source/Ken_Roberts_(announcer)) as Cokie, an orphaned young adult "adopted" by the Aces;{{cite news|title=A Couple of Aces|author=Jacobs, Mary|date=25 June 1939|publisher=The Milwaukee Journal}} Ann Thomas as Ace's secretary;{{cite news|title=Bronx Express Is Cause of Ann Thomas' Accent|date=30 March 1941|publisher=The Milwaukee Journal}} Ethel Blume as the Aces' niece, Betty; [Alfred Ryder](/source/Alfred_Ryder) (remembered best as Sammy on another old-time radio mainstay, ''[The Goldbergs](/source/The_Goldbergs_(broadcast_series))'') as Betty's husband, Carl Neff; [Peggy Allenby](/source/Peggy_Allenby) as Mrs. Benton, a nosy, gossipy neighbour who turned up now and then to leave openings for Jane to fret and gnash over imagined slights or indiscretions; and, [Truman Bradley](/source/Truman_Bradley_(actor)) and [Ford Bond](/source/Ford_Bond) as their announcers.{{cite web|url=http://www.originaloldradio.com/easy_aces.html|title=Easy Aces|publisher=Original Old Radio|accessdate=12 January 2011|archive-date=4 January 2013|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130104142916/http://www.originaloldradio.com/easy_aces.html|url-status=dead}} When ''Easy Aces'' relocated from Chicago to New York, the actor who played Marge's husband did not move along with the rest of the cast; Ace wrote him out of the script with a divorce for the couple and a new boyfriend for Marge. He then received a letter from an extremely loyal fan who said that since he did not believe in divorce, he would stop listening to the show unless Marge's ex-husband was written out of the story as dead. Ace prodded the network to build set tables with microphones embedded beneath them, not in front of or above them, the better to ease the prospect of mike fright among their co-performers and allow them to sound like themselves and not actors. Further along that line, Ace refused to rehearse an episode more than once, the better to avoid destroying the spontaneity that made the show work as it did. =="I am his awfully-wedded wife"== That and almost everything else could be forgotten amidst Jane Ace's linguistic mayhem, much of it provided by her wry husband's scripts and enough improvised by her.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mHXu2rrV1JoC&q=jane+ace&pg=PA127|title=Radio Goes to War: The Cultural Politics of Propaganda during World War I|editor-last=Horten|editor-first=Gerd|publisher=University of California Press|year=2003|pages=232|isbn=0-520-24061-8|accessdate=1 March 2011}} (Mary Hunter's real laughter, at Jane's malaprops or Ace's arch barbs, was practically the show's laugh track, years before anyone ever thought of using canned laughter.) Known as often as not as "Jane-isms,"{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z4XJQD4O_TkC&q=jane+ace&pg=PA839|title=Encyclopedia of Radio 3-Volume Set|editor-last=Sterling|editor-first=Christopher H.|publisher=Routledge|pages=1696|year=2003|isbn=1-57958-249-4|accessdate=1 March 2011}} the better remembered of her twisted turns of phrase were more than a match for [Gracie Allen](/source/Gracie_Allen)'s equally celebrated illogical logic, anticipating such later word and context manglers as [Jimmy Durante](/source/Jimmy_Durante), [Lou Costello](/source/Lou_Costello), [Phil Harris](/source/Phil_Harris), and, especially, ''[All in the Family](/source/All_in_the_Family)'''s Archie Bunker. The famed Jane-isms included: thumb|180px|right|ZIV Company advertisement for radio program transcriptions (1945)
* ''Perish forbid!'' * ''Congress is back in season.'' * ''You could have knocked me down with a fender.'' * ''Up at the crank of dawn.'' * ''Time wounds all heels.'' * ''Now, there's no use crying over spoiled milk.'' * ''I'm completely uninhabited''. * ''Seems like only a year ago they were married nine years!'' * ''I am his awfully-wedded wife.'' * ''He blew up higher than a hall.'' * ''I look like the wrath of grapes!'' * ''I wasn't under the impersonation you meant me!'' * ''He shot out of here like a bat out of a belfry.'' * ''I'm sitting on pins and cushions.'' * ''The coffee will be ready in a jitney.'' * ''This hangnail expression... '' * ''I don't drink, I'm a totalitarian.'' * ''We'll be together like Simonized twins.'' * ''Well, you've got to take the bitter with the better.''
Jane Ace's [malaprop](/source/malaprop)s were less limited in their word play than the [Mrs. Malaprop](/source/Mrs._Malaprop) of [Richard Brinsley Sheridan](/source/Richard_Brinsley_Sheridan)'s ''[The Rivals](/source/The_Rivals)''. She was scripted as having a knack for making right the muddled situations she made muddled in the first place, by stumbling into the solutions right before her original muddling might have blown everything to smithereens. Some critics such as the ''[New York Herald-Tribune](/source/New_York_Herald-Tribune)'''s John Crosby noted her language molestation betrayed a "crazy like a fox" intelligence with its own logical illogic, but as Crosby himself said, "There are a lot of Malaprops in radio but none of them scrambles a cliché quite so skillfully as Jane."{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/14004034/easy_aces_phone/|title='Easy Aces' Lend Their Talents To Heroes' Phone Campaign|page=1|date=1 February 1945|author=Sosin, Milt|publisher=The Miami News|accessdate=7 May 2011|via = [Newspapers.com](/source/Newspapers.com)}} {{Open access}}{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=IJwcAAAAIBAJ&pg=6908,6228553&dq=jane+ace&hl=en|title=Dumb Doras Have Returned To Caves|author=Wilson, Earl|date=28 September 1978|publisher=Sarasota Herald-Tribune|accessdate=7 May 2011}} ==Cheerful absurdity== The show's storylines, crafted to allow for steady unfurling of absurdities, included dealing with deadbeat brother-in-law Johnny falling into work as a private investigator; accidentally discovering a potential boxing champion when first thinking about adopting an orphan; losing (in a crooked politician's crooked deal) and then regaining Ace's real estate business; Jane becoming a professional bridge player (as the instructor's living example of how ''not'' to play bridge!); Jane's misguided attempts to help her husband's business affairs (mostly under the influence of a domineering woman who had manipulated her husband's business success); and various Jane-instigated romantic mishaps. (Jane: "Well, you could have knocked me over with a fender"; Ace, deadpan: "''There's'' an idea"). There were frequent allusions to playing bridge, as well, even when the game wasn't a storyline centerpiece; this may have been the Aces' own nod of thanks to the subject that provoked the show's creation in the first place. In 1945, ''Easy Aces'' lost its longtime sponsor, [Anacin](/source/Anacin), after a company representative objected to a musical interlude. (The Aces at one point used small music themes, usually spun off a line of dialogue toward the end of the previous scene.) Ace rejoined by suggesting he didn't like Anacin switching from small tins to small cardboard boxes to package its aspirin. "They sent me a two-word answer: 'you're fired'," Ace remembered in a radio interview many years later.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/14004947/goodman_vs_anacin/|page=12|title=Anacin's Popularity Goodman's Fault|author=Grace, Arthur|date=27 December 1957|publisher=The Miami News|via = [Newspapers.com](/source/Newspapers.com)}} {{Open access}} ==Episode status== [[File:Easy Aces ad 1945.jpg|thumb|180px|The program in syndication on the [Yankee Network](/source/Yankee_Network) in 1945.]] ''Easy Aces'' survives with many of its best episodes intact thanks to a bit of foresight on the Aces' part. They owned the rights from the beginning, recorded ("transcribed," in the day's vernacular) just about all its episodes, and sold the [syndication](/source/Broadcast_syndication) rights to over three hundred episodes from 1937 to 1941 to the [Frederick Ziv Company](/source/Ziv_Company), a [Cincinnati](/source/Cincinnati%2C_Ohio)-based distribution firm (and later producers of television shows like ''[Bat Masterson](/source/Bat_Masterson_(TV_series))''), in 1945. These episodes became a bigger ratings hit in syndication than when the Aces and cast performed them originally.{{cite magazine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HUUEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA5 |title='Aces' E.T. Mark Nears $500,000|date=15 March 1947|magazine=Billboard|accessdate=1 March 2011}} They are the ''Easy Aces'' episodes long since available to old-time radio collectors, in above-average sound condition, but minus their commercial spots, edited away the better to foster future, differently-sponsored airings. (The [Library of Congress](/source/Library_of_Congress) is believed to have perhaps one or two hundred more ''Easy Aces'' episodes in its collection as well.) ==Resurrected Aces== In 1948, the Aces revived the show on [CBS](/source/CBS) as ''mr. ace and JANE'' (the unusual spelling was Ace's idea) on Saturday nights at 7pm. (''[Time](/source/Time_(magazine))'' had reported a year earlier that the Aces were pondering whether to create a new fifteen-minute serial for Jane almost exclusively, but she couldn't decide whether to do that or a new half-hour show with a live audience.) Recorded live before a studio audience, the new version also revived and expanded a few of the vintage ''Easy Aces'' plots and presented a few new ones. The new show was sponsored first by the [U.S. Army Recruiting Service](/source/United_States_Army){{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=-shQAAAAIBAJ&pg=7362,5434729&dq=jane+ace&hl=en|title=The Aces Are Back|author=Crosby, John|date=31 March 1948|work=The Portsmouth Times|accessdate=14 January 2011}} and, later, by [Jell-O](/source/Jell-O).{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=4O08AAAAIBAJ&pg=2865,5194591&dq=mr+ace+jane&hl=en|title=Aces Are Trumps|date=27 August 1948|publisher=The News and Courier|accessdate=27 November 2010}}{{Dead link|date=July 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}{{cite magazine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MuwDAAAAMBAJ&q=jane+ace&pg=PA9|title=CBS to Cuffo 'Ace and Jane' After GF Quits|date=11 December 1948|magazine=Billboard|accessdate=1 March 2011}} "The new program," wrote Crosby, in a 31 March 1948 column, "differs from the old ''Easy Aces'' in about the same manner as the new and old ''Amos 'n' Andy'' programs. It's once a week, half-hour, streamlined up-to-date and very, very funny... Goodman Ace, the brains of this team, tags along behind his wife, acting as narrator for her mishaps in a dry, resigned voice (one of the few intelligent voices on the air) and interjecting witty comment. The couple's conversations are usually masterpieces of cross-purpose." Jane-isms included her being assigned to a jury panel and remarking: ''I'll say he's not guilty, whoever he is. If he's nice enough to pay me three dollars a day to be his jury, the least I can do is recuperate, doesn't it to you?'' "In most other respects," John Crosby wrote, "Jane is a rather difficult conversationalist because she is either three jumps ahead or three long strides behind the person she is conversing with." Of Goodman Ace, Crosby wrote that with the revival show he "uses his program to take a few pokes at radio, the newspapers, and the world in general. He's particularly sharp on the subject of radio, a field he knows intimately. Once, playing the role of an advertising man, he asked a prospective sponsor what sort of radio program he had in mind. 'How about music?' asked Ace. 'Music? That's been done, hasn't it?' said the sponsor." The Aces' co-stars now included [Leon Janney](/source/Leon_Janney), John Griggs, [Evelyn Varden](/source/Evelyn_Varden), Eric Dressler, Cliff Hall, and [Pert Kelton](/source/Pert_Kelton). (Kelton would soon become the first Alice Kramden, in the earliest "Honeymooners" sketches on [Jackie Gleason](/source/Jackie_Gleason)'s original ''[Cavalcade of Stars](/source/Cavalcade_of_Stars_(TV_series))'' variety hour on the old, experimental [DuMont](/source/DuMont_Television_Network) network.) The new announcer was Ken Roberts, from their old cast, and he also joined the new cast as a next-door neighbour who just so happened to be . . . a radio announcer. (Jane's asking for an autograph each time they met became a small running gag on the new show.) Ace sketched Roberts in character as full of jibes about radio commercial announcements, a typical such jibe going thus: "Fifty years ago, Blycose began selling the public its high-quality products. And, today, just as it was fifty years ago, it is March 20." But however favorably ''mr. ace and JANE'' was reviewed, however high the quality the Aces injected into it, it wasn't enough to extend its new life for more than one year. CBS kept the show on the air as a sustaining (non-sponsored) program for some months after Jell-O no longer was the sponsor.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=O3EvAAAAIBAJ&pg=3551,1827207&dq=mr+ace+jane&hl=en|title=Variety in Radio Fare|author=Hammerston, Claude|date=7 December 1948|publisher=Ottawa Citizen|accessdate=27 November 2010}} Nor was it enough to gain the Aces a steady television audience, when they tried reviving the original ''Easy Aces'' format and style and adapting it to a [15-minute TV show](/source/Easy_Aces_(TV_series)) on the [Dumont Television Network](/source/Dumont_Television_Network) which ran from 14 December 1949 to 7 June 1950.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/14131290/easy_aces_on_dumont_network/|title=Show Within A Show Is Basis For Easy Aces TV Program|date=12 March 1950|page=88|publisher=The Courier Journal|accessdate=2 October 2017|via = [Newspapers.com](/source/Newspapers.com)}} {{Open access}} Only one episode of the DuMont show is known to exist, in the J. Fred MacDonald collection at the [Library of Congress](/source/Library_of_Congress).[https://dumonthistory.com/a1.html DuMont historical website] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090216055809/https://dumonthistory.com/a1.html |date=16 February 2009 }}{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=0uQMAAAAIBAJ&pg=4363,596413&dq=john+crosby+aces&hl=en|title=Tearful Parting:Aces Will Leave Radio|author=Crosby, John|date=18 May 1949|publisher=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette|accessdate=27 November 2010}}{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=tNZaAAAAIBAJ&pg=3728,3368850&dq=goodman+ace&hl=en|title=The Invisible Aces|date=27 December 1949|author=Crosby, John|publisher=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette|accessdate=10 November 2010}}{{cite web|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,855076,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110131070641/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,855076,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=31 January 2011|title=Radio: A Homey Little Thing|date=19 December 1949|publisher=Time|accessdate=14 January 2011}}(subscription required) In 1956, it seemed that the television version of the show would be revived. There was news that NBC and Goodman Ace had selected [Ernie Kovacs](/source/Ernie_Kovacs) and his wife, [Edie Adams](/source/Edie_Adams), to play the roles of the couple in a pilot, but there is no information as to whether the pilot was ever filmed.{{cite magazine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eAoEAAAAMBAJ&q=ernie+kovacs&pg=PA2|title='Easy Aces' For the Kovacs|date=8 December 1956|magazine=Billboard|accessdate=8 November 2010}}{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=NQwrAAAAIBAJ&pg=1663,3925429&dq=goodman+ace&hl=en|title=Mary Astor Gets Star Role on Montgomery's TV Show|author=O'Brian, Jack|date=10 November 1956|publisher=Reading Eagle|accessdate=14 January 2011}} ==Afterlife== thumb|left|200px|Premiere of "Jane Ace, Disk Jockey", 27 October 1951. Jane Ace all but retired from public life (taking a very brief turn as what her husband called "a comedienne now making her come-down as a disc jockey" in the early 1950s) after ''Easy Aces'' was laid to rest at long last.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/14003871/jane_ace_disk_jockey/|page=4|title='Jane Ace, Disk Jockey' premieres tonight|date=27 October 1951|publisher=The Miami News|accessdate=23 September 2010|via = [Newspapers.com](/source/Newspapers.com)}} {{Open access}} The Aces were hired as [NBC](/source/NBC) Radio ''[Monitor](/source/Monitor_(NBC_Radio))'' "Communicators" in 1955; they were given a spot just after [Dave Garroway](/source/Dave_Garroway).{{cite book|title=Monitor: The Last Great Radio Show|editor-last=Hart|editor-first=Dennis|pages=254|publisher=iUniverse, Inc.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FuhPB7yz1TwC&q=jane+ace+monitor&pg=PA16|isbn=0-595-21395-2|year=2002|accessdate=19 September 2010}}{{Cite book|title=Say Goodnight Gracie: The Last Years of Network Radio|editor-last=Cox|editor-first=Jim|pages=224|publisher=McFarland and Company|year=2002|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o18qwF_TZIIC&q=freeman+gosden&pg=PA184|isbn=0-7864-1168-6|accessdate=16 September 2010}} The couple was also signed to an NBC Radio show for women called ''Weekday'' that went on the air not long after ''Monitor's'' debut. ''Weekday'' was aired Monday through Friday.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=x9YyAAAAIBAJ&pg=4124,993291&dq=goodman+ace&hl=en|title='Weekday' (5 Times) NBC's Latest|author=Miller, Leo|date=6 November 1955|work=Sunday Herald|accessdate=14 January 2011}}{{cite web|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,861682,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081215063008/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,861682,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=15 December 2008|title=Radio:Woman's Home Companion|date=28 November 1955|publisher=Time|accessdate=14 January 2011}} They also went into commercial work.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/14004664/instant_brew/|page=24|title=Instant Brew By Real Ace|author=Grace, Arthur|date=18 February 1959|publisher=The Miami News|accessdate=23 September 2010|via = [Newspapers.com](/source/Newspapers.com)}} {{Open access}}{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/14003149/jane_ace_takes_it_easy/|page=10|title=Jane Ace Takes It Easy|date=9 January 1959|publisher=The Miami News|accessdate=23 September 2010|via = [Newspapers.com](/source/Newspapers.com)}} {{Open access}}{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=lcAuAAAAIBAJ&pg=4473,2622297&dq=goodman+ace&hl=en|title=A TV Commercial Steals Show|author=Danzig, Fred|date=16 December 1959|work=Beaver Valley Times|accessdate=23 September 2010}}{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapersid=ISUsAAAAIBAJ&pg=814,5273974&dq=goodman+ace&hl=en|title='Electronic Deceits' To Be Eliminated From TV Shows|author=Lowry, Cynthia|date=14 December 1959|publisher=Times Daily|accessdate=27 November 2010}} Goodman Ace enjoyed a second career as a writer. He wrote for radio (most notably, as head writer for [Tallulah Bankhead](/source/Tallulah_Bankhead)'s weekly variety show, ''[The Big Show](/source/The_Big_Show_(NBC_Radio))'', but also for [Ed Wynn](/source/Ed_Wynn), [Jack Benny](/source/Jack_Benny), [Abbott & Costello](/source/Abbott_%26_Costello), [Danny Kaye](/source/Danny_Kaye), and others), for television (most notably, for [Milton Berle](/source/Milton_Berle), [Sid Caesar](/source/Sid_Caesar), [Perry Como](/source/Perry_Como), [Robert Q. Lewis](/source/Robert_Q._Lewis), and [Bob Newhart](/source/Bob_Newhart)), and as a weekly columnist for ''[Saturday Review](/source/Saturday_Review_(US_magazine))'' (formerly ''The Saturday Review of Literature''). Those columns eventually yielded three anthologies: ''The Book of Little Knowledge: More Than You Want to Know About Television'', ''The Fine Art of Hypochondria, or How Are You'' and ''The Better of Goodman Ace''. In 1970, Ace published a book of eight complete ''Easy Aces'' scripts as well as essays about living with, working with and loving the malaprop queen, plus a seven-inch [flexidisc](/source/flexidisc) that extracted from the original radio performance of one of those scripts, "Jane Sees a Psychiatrist." The book was named for the show's standard introduction: ''Ladies and Gentlemen--Easy Aces.''{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=eX8uAAAAIBAJ&pg=1642,3593574&dq=goodman+ace&hl=en|title=The Passing Parade|author=Moser, Nick|date=7 September 1970|accessdate=23 September 2010}} He also held a regular slot for humorous commentaries on New York-area station [WPAT](/source/WPAT_(AM)) for a few years before spending the rest of his life as a writer and lecturer. The show and the Aces were inducted into the [National Radio Hall of Fame](/source/National_Radio_Hall_of_Fame) in 1990.{{cite web|url=http://www.radiohof.org/comedy/goodjane.html |title=Goodman and Jane Ace-Easy Aces |publisher=Radio Hall of Fame |accessdate=20 July 2010 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110526100311/http://www.radiohof.org/comedy/goodjane.html |archivedate=26 May 2011 |df=dmy }} A [Canadian](/source/Canada) television [sitcom](/source/sitcom), ''[The Trouble with Tracy](/source/The_Trouble_with_Tracy)'', was adapted from the ''Easy Aces'' scripts in the early 1970s. Through a variety of factors -- notably, that 7 episodes were recorded every five days, allowing no time for retakes for flubbed lines or missed cues -- ''The Trouble with Tracy'' has been labelled by some television critics as one of the worst TV comedies ever produced.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=8rwyAAAAIBAJ&pg=1823,1607373&dq=goodman+ace&hl=en|title=Can These Four People Be Funny For Half An Hour Every Day?|author=Cobb, David|date=23 January 1970|publisher=Ottawa Citizen|accessdate=20 November 2010}} ==See also== *[List of programs broadcast by the DuMont Television Network](/source/List_of_programs_broadcast_by_the_DuMont_Television_Network) *[List of surviving DuMont Television Network broadcasts](/source/List_of_surviving_DuMont_Television_Network_broadcasts) ==References== {{Reflist}} ==Sources== *Goodman Ace, ''Ladies and Gentlemen, Easy Aces'' (New York: Doubleday, 1970). *Fred Allen (Joe McCarthy, editor), ''Fred Allen's Letters'' (New York: Doubleday, 1965). *Dick Bertel, ''The Golden Age of Radio'', interview with Goodman Ace, October 1971. *Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh, ''The Complete Directory to Prime Network TV Shows -- 1946 to Present (First Edition)'' *Frank Buxton and Bill Owen, ''The Big Broadcast 1920-1950'' *John Crosby, ''Out of the Blue'' (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1952) *WBAI-FM, Richard Lamparski interview with Goodman Ace, December 1970. *Leonard Maltin, ''The Great American Broadcast: A Celebration of Radio's Golden Age'' (New York: Dutton/Penguin, 1997) *Robert Metz, ''CBS: Reflections in a Bloodshot Eye'' *Arthur Frank Wertheim, ''Radio Comedy''. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1979) *John Dunning, ''On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio'' (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998) ==Listen to== *[https://archive.org/details/otr_easyaces Download 239 ''Easy Aces'' episodes from archive.org] *[http://www.podomatic.com/search?query=easy+aces Boxcars711: ''Easy Aces'' (two episodes)] *[http://otrperk.com/easyaces.cgi ''Easy Aces'' and ''mr. ace and JANE'' episodes] Old Time Radio-OTR *[http://way-back-when.net/shows/comedy/easy-aces "Easy Aces on Way Back When"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130928150104/http://way-back-when.net/shows/comedy/easy-aces |date=28 September 2013 }} ==External links== {{commons category}} *[http://www.genericradio.com/series.php?key=easyaces Five ''Easy Aces'' scripts written by Goodman Ace] *[http://www.otrsite.com/logs/loge1006.htm Jerry Haendiges Vintage Radio Logs: ''Easy Aces''] *[http://otrsite.com/articles/artwb011.html "Radio's Original Comedy Couple" by Walter J. Beaupre] *[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041020/ ''Easy Aces'' (TV show, 1949-50) at IMDB] *[https://dumonthistory.com/a1.html DuMont historical website] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090216055809/https://dumonthistory.com/a1.html |date=16 February 2009 }} *[https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1129&dat=19500124&id=rdgNAAAAIBAJ&sjid=SGoDAAAAIBAJ&pg=1900,4992514 ''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette'' (January 24, 1950) article on TV show] Category:American comedy radio programs Category:DuMont Television Network original programming Category:1930 radio programme debuts Category:1945 radio programme endings Category:1930s American radio programs Category:1930s in comedy Category:1940s American radio programs Category:Educational Pictures short films Category:CBS Radio programs Category:NBC Blue Network radio programs Category:NBC radio programs Category:Radio programs adapted into television shows Category:1949 American television series debuts Category:1950 American television series endings Category:Black-and-white American television shows Category:Ziv Company radio programs Category:Syndicated American radio programs Category:Television series by Ziv Television Programs --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Easy Aces](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easy_Aces) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easy_Aces?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.