Early Years
Born as Jane Epstein in Kansas City, Missouri, she met Goodman Ace while both attended the same Kansas City high school and Goodman, hoping to make a writing career, edited the school newspaper. In due course, he became a movie critic and columnist for the Kansas City Journal-Post.
Throughout high school, Jane Epstein did not even bother to glance at her future husband, even though his admiration for her was no secret. After Goodman became a newspaper reporter, his stock with Jane began to increase; he was able to get passes for various shows. Jane wanted to attend Al Jolson's Kansas City show, but none of her boyfriends could get tickets to the sold-out performance. Ace got his first date with Jane because of his press pass; it enabled him to take Jane to the sold out Jolson show. Jane's father, Jacob Epstein, a Kansas City clothing store owner, had hoped for a son-in-law who would be an asset to his business; after learning that Ace was in the newspaper business, his comment was, "Where's your newsstand?"
The couple, married in 1922, got off to a rocky start; soon after they were married, Ace lost his reporter's job. While Jane was a good manager of their savings (she made all her own clothing before going into radio), there were tensions because of the financial problems. The Aces found they could forget their worries when playing bridge. Ace was hired by the Kansas City Journal-Post as its drama critic. They caught their big break a few years later, while Goodman gave his witty reviews once a week on Kansas City radio station KMBC as well. One night in 1930, the show following his slot failed to feed, and Ace had to fill the 15 minutes' air time. He invited Jane—who'd accompanied him to the studio that night—to join him on the air chatting about a murder case that had broken locally and a bridge game they played the previous weekend. The couple's witty impromptu (Jane: "Would you like to shoot a game of bridge, dear?") provoked such a response that the station invited them to develop their own domestic comedy.
Read more about this topic: Jane Ace
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