Easy Aces Series Premiere Mach 1,1932
Radio Series Premiere
Easy Aces Series Premiere Mach 1,1932
Listen to a Episode of Easy Aces
Jane Writes A Letter
Goodman Ace ( b . Goodman Aiskowitz , 1899 ? 1982 ) was a film critic for the Journal Post in his native Kansas City . On radio station KMBC , he read comic strips 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 .
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 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 impossible turns of phrase .? 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 . The program began airing on the CBS network in March 1932 . That summer , the Aces sought New York backing and found it in the Blackett , Sample and Hummert agency headed by Frank Hummert , soon to become radio ? s top soap opera producer with his wife Anne 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 ( marketed at that time by American Home Products ? Whitehall Pharmaceutical division ) moved them to 7 p . m . in 1935---right up against Amos ? n ? Andy . They couldn ? t possibly out-rate that hit , but they could and did build a loyal audience of their own . The show moved to the NBC Blue Network and a 7:30 p . m . slot Mondays and Wednesdays , beginning in 1935 , before returning to CBS in 1942 , holding the same time slot on Wednesdays and Fridays . The show became a half-hour entry one night a week from 1943 through Jan . 1945 . It all ended when Goodman Ace and Anacin had a disagreement 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 ?.