Swing (Jan-Dec 1953)

Record Details:

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GOODMAN ACE JANE ACE blCK SMITH — ~ ™ ~ VIRGIJVU HEm y GOODMAN ACE — "THE MOVIE MAN" A ROUND THE K. C. ATHLETIC CLUB, back in the 1920s, a young and sarcastic player of. Down-and-Out Rummy" named Goodman Ace was distinguished by three things: (1) A "literary" look sharpened by an immense pair of tortoise-shell glasses. (2) An intense dissatisfaction with the status quo of anything. (3) A habit, late in the week, of carrying around the current issue of Variety, trade paper and "bible" of show business. Published in New York City Wednesdays, Variety never reached Kansas City before Fridays. There exists a feeling among Ace's intimates of those days that one reason he wanted to make the eastern "Big Time" was to read Variety on its publication date. He made the "big time", all right! — as creator, writer, producer and director of "Easy Aces" in which he played "Ace". His first Chicago sponsor was Lavoris. Later the program originated in Manhattan for a succession of big moola advertisers. While in Chicago, Ace hired a school teacher to act one of the supporting roles, "Marge." This was Mary Hunter, now a successful stage director of' Broadway plays. "Easy Aces" ran for years. Goodie, more of a calculating business man than old Athletic Club pals might suppose, was wily enough to keep perfect recordings of all his live broadcasts, while also retaining the copyrights. Later he packaged these "Aces" in re-issue form, as transcribed shows; and collected an additional $75,000 a year on his files. With the demise of "Easy Aces", Goodie showed up at CBS as a high-priced executive in the program department. Seldom has there been such an executive. Typically he presided over a motley circle of strange characters known as gag men — many of them semiliterate but possessed of a wild genius for twisting normal comments into crazy jokes. Ace was the boss genius. More recently he has been the man behind Tallulah on NBC's "Big Show" — chief wag and gag washer. On the side, he's the erudite TV-Radio critic for The Saturday Review of Literature. An enthusiastic horse player quick to pursue those fast bucks, he turned out a filmed version of "Easy Aces" used as movie shorts and