Goodman Ace - Early Years

Early Years

Born in Kansas City, Missouri, the son of Latvian immigrants, Goodman Ace (he inverted his first non de plume, Asa Goodman) grew up wanting to write, proving it as the editor of his high school newspaper. Ace was also 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 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 early 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.