The Easy Aces was billed as "radio's laugh novelty," and Jane Ace was Mrs. Malaprop of the air. Jane had a twangy midwestern voice, slightly softer in natural conversation, that reminded a listener of Bernardine Flynn's Sade Gook {Vic and Sade}. She was one of radio's enduring female screwballs, Gracie Allen and Marie Wilson being the others. Under the guidance of her husband and writer, Goodman Ace, she defined the term "malapropism" to a generation that had never heard of it or its creator. Mrs. Malaprop was a character in an 18th century play by Richard Brinsley Sheridan. Her sentences were filled with wrong words that vaguely resembled proper speech and had a great comedic effect on audiences of that time. In the early 1930s, the Aces were effectively combining malapropisms with general "dumb blonde" humor.
( John Dunning )
[ On the Air: The Encyclopedia ]
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