{{Short description|American actress (1897–1974)}}
{{Use American English|date=July 2020}} {{Use mdy dates|date=July 2020}} {{Infobox presenter | name = Jane Ace | image = Jane ace publicity 1935 1a.jpg | image_upright = 0.9 | caption = Jane Ace on ''Easy Aces'', 1935 | birth_name = Jane Epstein | birth_date = {{birth date|mf=yes|1897|10|12}} | birth_place = Kansas City, Missouri, U.S. | death_date = {{Death date and age|1974|11|11|1897|10|12}} | death_place = New York City, U.S. | show = ''Easy Aces'' (radio and television)<br>''mr. ace and JANE''<br>''Jane Ace, Disk Jockey''<br>''Monitor''<br> ''Weekday'' | station = KMBC | network = CBS<br>DuMont<br> NBC | spouse(s) = Goodman Ace }} '''Jane Ace''' (born '''Jane Epstein'''; October 12, 1897 – November 11, 1974) was an American radio actress and comedian best-known for her role in the radio comedy Easy Aces. She starred in the program alongside her husband Goodman Ace, who was also the show's creator and writer. She was known for her high-pitched voice and use of witty malapropisms, many of which became part of American vernacular.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z4XJQD4O_TkC&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=March 1, 2011}}</ref>
==Early years== Born as Jane Epstein in Kansas City, Missouri, she met Goodman Ace while both attended the same Kansas City high school and Goodman, hoping to make a writing career, edited the school newspaper.<ref>{{cite news|title=Win With A Wife!|date=March 30, 1941|publisher=The Milwaukee Journal}}</ref> In due course, he became a movie critic and columnist for the Kansas City ''Journal-Post''.<ref name="Spokesman">{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=mvlLAAAAIBAJ&sjid=4u4DAAAAIBAJ&pg=2937%2C4683680&q=Kansas+City+Journal+Post |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title='Easy Aces' creator dies |page=3 |newspaper=The Spokesman-Review (Washington) |agency=Associated Press |date=March 27, 1982 |access-date=2025-04-01}}</ref>
After Goodman became a newspaper reporter, he was able to get passes for various shows. Jane wanted to attend Al Jolson's Kansas City show, but none of her boyfriends could get tickets to the sold-out performance. Ace got his first date with Jane because of his press pass; it enabled him to take Jane to the sold out Jolson show.<ref name="Jane">{{cite news|title=A Couple of Aces|author=Jacobs, Mary|date=25 June 1939|publisher=The Milwaukee Journal}}</ref> Jane's father, Jacob Epstein, a Kansas City clothing store owner, had hoped for a son-in-law who would be an asset to his business; after learning that Ace was in the newspaper business, his comment was, "Where's your newsstand?"<ref name="New Yorker"/><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6gyxWHRLAWgC&q=jane+ace&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=0826212220|accessdate=1 March 2011}}</ref>
The couple married in 1922; soon after they were married, Ace lost his reporter's job. The Aces found they could forget their worries when playing bridge. Ace was hired by the ''Kansas City Journal-Post'' as its drama critic.<ref name="Jane"/> They caught their big break a few years later, while Goodman gave his witty reviews once a week on Kansas City radio station KMBC as well. One night in 1930, the show following his slot failed to feed, and Ace had to fill the 15 minutes' air time. He invited Jane—who'd accompanied him to the studio that night—to join him on the air chatting about a murder case that had broken locally and a bridge game they played the previous weekend. The couple's witty impromptu (Jane: "Would you like to shoot a game of bridge, dear?") provoked such a response that the station invited them to develop their own domestic comedy.<ref name="New Yorker">{{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=September 22, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Goodman's Gamble in Radio Wins Fortune on 'Aces Up'|date=December 28, 1939|publisher=The Milwaukee Journal}}</ref>
==Radio days== thumb|right|150px|Listener postcard from ''Easy Aces'' sponsor, Lavoris, about new episodes of the program beginning September 26, 1932. The couple appears to be returning from vacation by freight train. thumb|150px|Premiere of "Jane Ace, Disk Jockey", October 27, 1951.
Conceived and written by Goodman Ace, ''Easy Aces'' graduated within two years from a strictly local show to a network offering (first from Chicago, then from New York). When the program was still at KMBC on a local level, the couple was contacted by a sponsor offering to bring them to Chicago for a network show on a trial basis. If the ratings for the show were good, the sponsor promised to then begin paying them salaries. Ace thought it was a wonderful offer, but Jane did not, saying that if the sponsor considered their show good enough for a network, it was also good enough for a salary. She went on to say that they needed $500 per week for their services and no less; the sponsor honored all of Jane's demands.<ref name="Jane"/>
Goodman played himself as a put-upon realtor, and Jane played "his awfully-wedded wife" (and used the name Sherwood as her on-air character's maiden name) with an endearing mixture of sweet-natured meddlesomeness and language mangling. Her husband once swore that she was a natural malapropper, but in radio character Jane became the unchallenged mistress of the kind of malaprops that (unlike Gracie Allen's "illogical logic") substituted words in seemingly ordinary phrasing and still made perverse sense, after a fashion.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X77jSHAkKnMC&q=jane+ace&pg=PA110|title=Queens of comedy: Lucille Ball, Phyllis Diller, Carol Burnett, Joan Rivers, and the New Generation of Funny Women (Studies in Humor and Gender, volume 2)|editor-last=Horowitz|editor-first=Susan|publisher=Routledge|year=1997|pages=184|isbn=2-88449-244-5|accessdate=March 1, 2010}}</ref> Comical dialog ensued.<ref name="On">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EwtRbXNca0oC&dq=%22The+Easy+Aces+situation%22&pg=PA216|title=On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio|section=The Easy Aces|author=Dunning, John|year=1998|pages=216–218|publisher=Oxford University Press USA|isbn=0-345-49773-2|access-date=November 19, 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mHXu2rrV1JoC&dq=%22Goodman+and+jane+ace%22&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|page=127|isbn=0-520-24061-8|accessdate=March 1, 2011}}</ref> The Aces signed with Educational Pictures to make ''Easy Aces'' two reel comedies in 1934.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=b9cwAAAAIBAJ&pg=1371,2659956&dq=goodman+ace&hl=en|title=Easy Aces On Screen|date=December 13, 1934|publisher=Reading Eagle|accessdate=November 27, 2010}}</ref> ''Dumb Luck'' made its debut January 18, 1935, with the couple on the screen in their radio roles.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0322106/|title=Dumb Luck|date=January 18, 1935|publisher=Internet Movie Database|accessdate=November 27, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/company/co0050385|title=Educational Pictures Film List|publisher=Internet Movie Database|accessdate=November 27, 2010}}</ref>
Many years after ''Easy Aces'' ended, Goodman Ace revealed his wife had never had acting experience before the show.<ref>{{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|page=320|isbn=1-58648-190-8|accessdate=March 1, 2011}}</ref> The Aces tried a short-lived, expanded revival on CBS Radio in 1948, known as ''mr. ace and JANE'', before trying a television version of the original ''Easy Aces'' style on the DuMont Television Network from December 1949 to June 1950.<ref name=TV>{{cite book |first1=Tim |last1=Brooks |first2=Earle |last2=Marsh |title=The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows – 1946–present |edition=8 |year=2003 |pages=407–408 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=flZ0wqsOnjkC&dq=%22Easy+Aces+humor%22&pg=PA407 |section=Easy Aces |isbn=0-345-45542-8 |publisher=Ballantine Books |access-date=November 16, 2024 }}</ref><ref>{{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=March 12, 1950|page=88|publisher=The Courier Journal|accessdate=October 2, 2017|via = Newspapers.com}} {{Open access}}</ref>
While doing ''Easy Aces'', Jane was offered other radio roles in addition to the one on the couple's show. A radio producer wanted her to play the lead in a production of ''Dulcy'', but she declined, reportedly believing she was unable to play other roles, because she did not consider the radio work she did as acting.<ref name="Jane"/><ref>{{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=February 1, 1945|author=Sosin, Milt|publisher=The Miami News|accessdate=May 7, 2011|via = Newspapers.com}} {{Open access}}</ref> Jane Ace sought no further acting work after the show ended at last, mostly retiring to a quiet life, except for a brief spell as what her husband described (in a 1952 essay) as "a comedienne now making her come-down as a disc jockey."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/14003871/jane_ace_disk_jockey/|page=4|title='Jane Ace, Disk Jockey' premieres tonight|date=October 27, 1951|publisher=The Miami News|accessdate=September 23, 2010|via = Newspapers.com}} {{Open access}}</ref> Jane came out of retirement to join her husband as an NBC Radio ''Monitor'' "Communicator" when the show premiered in 1955. The Aces were hired for the spot just after Dave Garroway's participation in the program was announced.<ref>{{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=September 19, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{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=September 16, 2010}}</ref><!-- Comment: Have yet to find anything more about this-how long they stayed with the show, etc.-->
The couple was also part of the NBC Radio ''Weekday'' show which made its debut not long after Monitor. It aired Monday through Friday, and was intended to reach female radio listeners.<ref>{{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=November 6, 1955|publisher=Sunday Herald|accessdate=January 14, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{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=December 15, 2008|title=Radio:Woman's Home Companion|date=November 28, 1955|publisher=Time|accessdate=January 14, 2011}}</ref> They also began writing and performing in commercials.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/14004664/instant_brew/|page=24|title=Instant Brew By Real Ace|author=Grace, Arthur|date=February 18, 1959|publisher=The Miami News|accessdate=September 23, 2010|via = Newspapers.com}} {{Open access}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/14003149/jane_ace_takes_it_easy/|page=10|title=Jane Ace Takes It Easy|date=January 9, 1959|publisher=The Miami News|accessdate=September 23, 2010|via = Newspapers.com}} {{Open access}}</ref><ref>{{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=December 16, 1959|publisher=Beaver Valley Times|accessdate=September 23, 2010}}</ref><ref name="Writes">{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=aMVCAAAAIBAJ&pg=6922,3407349&dq=perry+como&hl=en|title=Former Radio Comic Now Writes Perry Como Show|author=Danzig, Fred|date=March 25, 1958|publisher=Middlesboro Daily News|accessdate=November 2, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ISUsAAAAIBAJ&pg=814,5273974&dq=goodman+ace&hl=en|title='Electronic Deceits' To Be Eliminated From TV Shows|author=Lowry, Cynthia|date=December 14, 1959|publisher=Times Daily|accessdate=November 27, 2010}}</ref> Husband Goodman continued a second career as a radio and television writer and regular essayist for ''Saturday Review'', and his writings for that magazine frequently referenced Jane's doings, undoings, sayings, and unsayings.{{Citation needed |date=April 2023}}
==Death== Jane Ace died in New York City in 1974 from cancer, aged 77.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=UpxUAAAAIBAJ&pg=1511,2623167&dq=easy+aces&hl=en|title=Radio Star Jane Ace Is Dead|date=November 13, 1974|publisher=Ellensburg Daily Record|accessdate=November 10, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=vUMsAAAAIBAJ&pg=3950,3725899&dq=goodman+ace&hl=en|title=Gatsby is Great|date=March 21, 1974|author=O'Brian, Jack|publisher=Herald-Journal|accessdate=May 7, 2011}}</ref> Goodman Ace composed a eulogy in a ''Saturday Review'' column:<blockquote>Now alone at a funeral home ... the questions ... the softly spoken suggestions ... repeated, and repeated ... because... because during all the arrangements, through my mind there ran a constant rerun, a line she spoke on radio ... on the brotherhood of man ... in her casual, malapropian style ... "we are all cremated equal" ... they kept urging for an answer ... a wooden casket?... a metal casket?... it's the name of their game ... a tisket, a casket ... and then transporting it to Kansas City, Missouri ... the plane ride ... "smoking or non-smoking section?" somebody asked... the non-thinking section was what I wanted ... a soft sprinkle of snow as we huddled around her ... the first of the season, they told me ... lasted only through the short service ... snow stopped the instant the last words were spoken. He had the grace to celebrate her arrival with a handful of His confetti ...</blockquote>
That eulogy provoked hundreds of letters from current readers and old radio fans alike.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://otrsite.com/articles/artwb011.html|title=''Easy Aces'': Radio's Original Comedy Couple|author=Beaupre, Walter|publisher=Old Time Radio|accessdate=November 17, 2010}}</ref> With several hundred episodes of ''Easy Aces'' now circulating among old-time radio collectors (episodes the Aces syndicated through the Frederick W. Ziv Company in 1945), Jane Ace has been discovered by fans who weren't even alive before her own death.<ref name=AceTime>{{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=May 4, 2008|title=Aces Up|date=September 8, 1947|publisher=Time|accessdate=January 14, 2011}}(subscription required)</ref> The National Radio Hall of Fame helped make sure of that, inducting ''Easy Aces'' and its co-stars in 1990.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.radiohof.org/comedy/goodjane.html |title=Goodman and Jane Ace-Easy Aces |publisher=Radio Hall of Fame |accessdate=July 20, 2010 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110526100311/http://www.radiohof.org/comedy/goodjane.html |archivedate=May 26, 2011 }}</ref>
==Jane-isms== * ''Home wasn't built in a day.''<ref name="NYT">{{cite news |title=Jane Ace Is Dead at 74; Noted for Malapropisms |newspaper=The New York Times |date=12 November 1974 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1974/11/12/archives/jane-ace-is-dead-at-74-noted-for-malapropisms.html |at=Page 42, columns 2-4 |access-date=30 December 2023}}</ref> * ''Congress is still in season.''<ref name="NYT"/> * ''You could have knocked me down with a fender.''<ref name="NYT"/> * ''Up at the crank of dawn.''<ref name="NYT"/> * ''Time wounds all heels.''<ref>{{cite book |title=Do Unto Others ... Then Run: A Little Book of Twisted Proverbs |editor-last=De Ley |editor-first=Gerd |editor2-last=Potter |editor2-first=David |year=2002 |publisher=Andrews McMeel Publishing |pages=192 |isbn=0-7407-2738-9 |via=Google Books |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ogMn43SQZt0C&q=Do+Unto+Others+...+Then+Run+Jane+Ace&pg=PT110 |access-date=December 12, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Raised on Radio |editor-last=Nachman |editor-first=Gerald |publisher=University of California Press |pages=544 |year=2000 |isbn=0-520-22303-9 |via=Google Books |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hpywoSI2au4C&q=amos+n+andy&pg=PA273 |access-date=December 12, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |via=Google Books |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zeggqKDO9_gC&q=time+wounds+all+heels+jane+ace&pg=PA522 |title=Gabay's Copywriters' Compendium |year=2012 |editor-last=Gabay |editor-first=Jonathan |publisher=Routledge |page=522 |isbn=978-0750683203 |access-date=4 October 2012}}</ref> * ''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.'' * ''I've always wanted to see my name up in tights.'' * ''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.'' * ''He has me sitting on pins and cushions waiting.'' * ''The coffee will be ready in a jitney.'' * ''This hangnail expression... '' * ''I'm a member of the weeper sex.'' * ''I don't drink, I'm a totalitarian.'' * ''Well, you've got to take the bitter with the batter.'' * ''The way things are these days, a girl's gotta play hard to take.''
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *{{IMDb name|0009642}} {{commons category}} *[https://web.archive.org/web/20050313080951/http://www.comedystars.com/Bios/aces.shtml Encyclo Comedia] *{{rhof|158|Goodman & Jane Ace}}
===Listen=== *[https://web.archive.org/web/20110715020736/http://otrperk.com/easyaces.cgi ''Easy Aces'' and ''mr. ace and JANE'' episodes] Old Time Radio-OTR *[https://archive.org/details/Mr.AceAndJane Mr. Ace and Jane Radio Shows at Internet Archives]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ace, Jane}} Category:1897 births Category:1974 deaths Category:Actresses from Kansas City, Missouri Category:American radio actresses Category:Deaths from cancer in New York (state) Category:American women comedians Category:Jewish American actresses Category:20th-century American actresses Category:Comedians from Kansas City, Missouri Category:20th-century American comedians Category:20th-century American Jews Category:Jewish American comedians Category:Jewish women comedians