Goodman Ace

Goodman Ace
Goodman and Jane Ace, 1938.
Birth name	Goodman Aiskowitz
Born	(1899-01-15)15 January 1899 Kansas City, Missouri
Died	25 March 1982(1982-03-25) (aged 83) New York City
Show	Ace Goes To the Movies Easy Aces (radio and television) Mr. Ace and Jane Monitor Weekday You Are There Jane Ace, Disk Jockey (writer) The Danny Kaye Show (writer) The Milton Berle Show (writer) The Texaco Star Theater (writer) The Big Show (writer) The Texaco Star Theater (television writer) The Perry Como Show (television writer) Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall (television writer)
Station(s)	KMBC WPAT
Network	CBS NBC DuMont National Public Radio
Spouse(s)	Jane Epstein

Goodman Ace (15 January 1899 – 25 March 1982), born Goodman Aiskowitz, was an American humourist, radio writer and comedian, television writer, and magazine columnist.

"Goody" (as he was known to friends) is not always the most recognisable writer/performer of his era by today's reader or listener, but his low-key, literate drollery and softly tart way of tweaking trends and pretenses made him one of the most sought after writers in radio and television during the 1930s through '60s.

Born in Kansas City, Missouri, the son of Latvian immigrants, Ace grew up wanting to write, and proved it as the editor of his high school newspaper, where he inverted his first nom de plume, Asa Goodman. Ace worked as a roller skating messenger for Montgomery Ward while he studied journalism at Kansas City Polytechnic Institute. He also wrote a weekly column called "The Dyspeptic" for the school's newspaper. In due course, after also working at the post office and a local haberdashery to support his mother and sisters after his father's death, he became a reporter and columnist for the Kansas City Journal-Post.

Jane Epstein was his high school sweetheart; the problem for Ace was that the romance was one-sided until he became a local newspaper reporter. Jane wanted to attend the sold-out performance of Al Jolson in Kansas City; her boyfriends were unable to get tickets, but Ace had access to the concert via his press pass. The Jolson concert was the couple's first date; they married six months later, in 1922.

In 1930, Ace took on a second job reading the Sunday comics on radio station KMBC (anticipating the famous newspaper strike stunt, almost two decades later, by legendary New York mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia) and hosting a Friday night film review and gossip program called Ace Goes to the Movies. Ace was not initially a volunteer for the job. An editor at the Journal-Post had the idea that having an employee read the newspaper's comics on the air for children would increase circulation for the paper. Taking the job meant an extra $10 per week in one's paycheck, but none of the newsroom staff was interested. The editor, reasoning that since Ace's current assignment was covering local theater, insisted he would be the perfect man for the job. Ace suggested a second radio show, this one dealing with films, thus collecting an additional $10 per week.