A relative newcomer to television at a time when most people would be looking toward retirement, Florenz Ames started out as a song and dance man in vaudeville, often performing on smaller stages with his wife Alice "Adelaide" Winthrop; as "Ames and Winthrop" they appeared in a revue called "Alice in Blunderland" with Winthrop in the title role and Ames playing the other roles. He moved onto the Broadway stage and appeared in a number of shows from before World War I until the Korean War, including the original productions of "Of Thee I Sing" and "Oklahoma!" as well as a number of Gilbert & Sullivan operas.