FIVE YEARS OF "EASY ACES"

New Zealand Listener, Volume 5, Issue 106, 4 July 1941, Page 9

FIVE YEARS OF "EASY ACES"

A Radio Favourite That "Just Went On and On"’

N Saturday, July 6, the O Easy Aces begin their fifth year of broadcasting over the ZB stations. Easy Aces is one of the very few programmes which have been running continuously for anything like that time over the ZB’s, though in America the Aces have been top-line radio stars for more than a decade. Goodman Ace originally conceived the idea of Easy Aces as the radio comedy of American home life one day while he and some friends were idly quipping at each other over a bridge table-the Aces actually sit at one while broadcasting. After that, the programme just went on and on, and that is one of the secrets of its success, says Mr. Ace, who is nothing if not conscientious and who keeps in close touch with listeners’ tastes. "So far as my show is concerned, the radio audience wants stories dragged out to the bitter end," he says. " You can’t be too sparing with details. Personally, I would just as soon make plot inci-

dental to dialogue, but audiences seem to want story first." Thinking up plots is something of a burden, Mr. Ace confesses. Sometimes, he says, he can "toss off" a plot in a couple of hours, though more often it takes a whole day. Thinking up the twisted and misused phrases used by Jane Ace in her role of dumb housewife is much easier. He keeps a record of these malapropisms in a little black book, in which he keeps adding and subtracting. When he is actually producing a show, Mr. Ace confines himself to essentials, and won’t have his programme cluttered up with sound effects. If he wants to give the illusion of a room in a busy newspaper office, he uses a single typewriter. He and Jane Ace never have more than one rehearsal. Reading over scripts too many times kills spontaneity, he believes, They Are Real People Many listeners still imagine that the Aces are just a radio couple thought up by some overworked script-writer and played by a couple of competent radio actors. Their name is really Ace, how-

ever, and they are man and wife. Mr. Ace was born in Kansas City 42 years ago. Jane was also born in Kansas City, and is seven years younger. They went to the same schools, -though while Jane was finishing off her education. Mr. Ace was

studying journalism, and later holding down his first job on The Kansas City Journal-Post. There his flair for humorous writing was soon recognised, and he was given a column and the post of dramatic critic. Twelve years later, in 1929, he started off in radio as "The Movie Man," presenting a radio version of his newpaper column. The following year he thought up the idea for Easy Aces and started it off over a local station. It "clicked" instantly, and in 1931 the Aces betook themselves to Chicago. They have been on the air ever since. Personal Details Thumb-nail sketches: Jane is 5ft. 2in, in height, weighs 103lb., has hazel eyes and blonde hair; likes clothes and designing them; dislikes jewellery; admires Jack Benny as a comedian, Vina Delmar and Pearl Buck as authors, and Louis

Alter as a composer (he wrote "Mane hattan Serenade," their theme song); is superstitious, keeping up with Goodman Ace’s tradition of broadcasting with a hat on. Mr. Ace is 6ft. tall, weighs 175lb., has blue eyes and reddish blonde hair; likes to write; smokes black cigars incessantly; is always sought out for advice on gags, which he gives freely; is popular with his professional colleagues; admires Lynne Fontanne as an actress, Jack Benny as a comedian, George Arliss as an actor; writes so many malapropisms in the course of a year that he hardly knows when he is talking straight. Approximately 600 episodes of Easy Aces have been broadcast in New Zealand alone. Allowing for only four firstclass wisecracks per episode, a low estimate, that means 2,400 wisecracks, which is a lot in any language.