Goodman Ace (15 January 1899 – 25 March 1982), born Goodman Aiskowitz, was an American humourist, radio writer and comedian, television writer, and magazine columnist.

"Goody" (as he was known to friends) is not always the most recognisable writer/performer of his era by today's reader or listener, but his low-key, literate drollery and softly tart way of tweaking trends and pretenses made him one of the most sought after writers in radio and television during the 1930s through '60s.

Early years

Born in Kansas City, Missouri, the son of Latvian immigrants, Ace grew up wanting to write, and proved it as the editor of his high school newspaper, where he inverted his first nom de plume, Asa Goodman. Ace worked as 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's 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.