GOODMAN ACE: A\ UNAMUSED LC>OK AT

BY JUDITH B. DOLGINS

IN 1929 Goodman Ace, age 30, drama, movie and vaude- they insist on a protection line-a joke they can use in case ville critic for the Kansas City Post, reviewed the act of a the original joke doesn't get a laugh. A line like that old new comic. "," he wrote, "is a young standby, 'I know you're out there -I can hear you breathing.' with old jokes ... It must cost a lot of money for material, I once worked for a comedian who was so neurotic he even so here are some newies for Mr. Berle which he can have insisted on protection lines for the protection lines." free of charge." There followed an entire column of original Besides wanting all the laughs, says Ace, " resist Ace jokes. novelty, which is absolutely essential in television because Twenty -five years later Ace was head writer on Berle's constant weekly exposure begins to bore the audience. They television show. One day during a script conference Berle refuse to acknowledge that the audience wants something suddenly stood up, whistled for attention and held up Ace's different. I started writing for Berle in 1952 and it was my old Kansas City Post review. "Goody," he said, "I think we first experience in television. He read the first script and can use some of these jokes now." said, 'This isn't lappy enough. You've got to make it lappy.' Ace, writer of more comedy lines for more performers "Well, I had heard the phrase 'lap dissolve' used in than anyone else in radio and television history, has of motion pictures and I figured 'lappy' was some kind of tele- course long since ceased dispensing jokes gratis. A writer vision cutting technique. But later I found out that Berle who once worked under him remarked, "Before money was meant 'lay it in their laps.' A lappy joke is a sure-fire joke. invented Goody Ace already had $8 in the bank." Today So any time we came up with a joke that was implied or he is head writer on the Show, where the writ- partially obscure, Berle would say it wasn't lappy enough. ing budget exceeds $10,000 a week. Few stars have fared as I finally decided I wasn't lappy enough, so I quit in 1955. well as Ace financially or can come close to his longevity And I feel that many comedians would still be on television record. As one well -known comedian recently summed it today they weren't so stubborn about change and would up with a wistful couplet: "We TV comics have come and accept the fact that viewers have more than 12- year -old gone but Goody Ace goes on and on." IQs.' Television's highest paid and most successful comedy Ace sees at least one spark of improvement in the generally writer, Ace is also one of the medium's severest critics. gloomy state of TV comedy. Appalled by what he feels is an Memories of the radio and TV columns he wrote for the overuse of elaborate production gimmicks, Ace has long Saturday Review still have some people in the industry admonished that "we should stop watching television and writhing. But, sums up one network executive: "Ace has start listening to it" Recently, he says, "television has been in this business longer than a lot of us, and he's seen it started recognizing the value of quiet conversations and in- from all sides. NVhen he says something we may want to telligent writing along with a minimum of camera angles knock him in the chops, but we listen with both ears." and production frenzy." Ace gave a strong argument for the Having been a performer himself during the 20 -odd years low -key approach in a Saturday Review article: he and his wife Jane did the on radio, Ace is When appeared on TV in 1950 he was sympathetic to the problems of today's comics. But he does "soundly trounced by many professionals . . . (who) cried not think most TV comedy at present is exactly side- that action was the main requisite for a good television splitting, and feels that much of the trouble lies with the show," Ace pointed out. "Nobody could just stand there or comedians themselves -many of whom are a difficult lot. sit there and say clever things. Nobody could just stand there "They have an insatiable craving to get all the laughs. and sing. Move around -get off the couch -look out of a With a few exceptions, like Hope and Benny, they will not window -sail a ship-tote that barge -lift that bale -get a edit themselves, they're so afraid of losing a laugh. When little drunk. Do something. Do anything. Don't just stand I I say 'edit' I don't mean taking something out of a routine there talking. because it's 'controversial' -some people think the word "One New York critic wrote, 'If I can close my eyes and a comedian of the Eisenhower is controversial. It's more a matter of taste; enjoy it's not television, it's radio.' Many i there's no sense in telling a joke that's in bad taste, getting critics of early television had the medium confused with laughs, then hating yourself for it. motion pictures that played the neighborhood movie houses.) "A lot of comics are so afraid of not getting a laugh that They were definite, and their opinions were final. So finals

40 TELEVISION MAGAZINE / February 19