Early works Armstrong's first play was a four-act comic melodrama called
Just a Day Dream, produced by
William A. Brady. First performed at Boston's Castle Theatre in June 1899, it was revived twice at the same venue. He then wrote a one-act play called
My June, that dealt with the ongoing
Philippine–American War. It was well-received but commercially unviable for vaudeville. He had more success with a one-act farce,
Like Mother Used to Make, which Crimmins and Gore played to good effect. Armstrong finished the four-act
St. Ann by late June 1902. The story concerned Ann Lamont, a bohemian artist from New York who follows her ideal love to the leper colony at
Kalawao, Hawaii. Armstrong produced and staged the play, with Barton Pittman from
Kirke La Shelle's organization joining as business manager. Armstrong assembled a company for rehearsals in August 1902, with
Laura Nelson Hall as lead.
St. Ann opened for a week at the
Columbia Theatre in Washington, D.C., on September 1, 1902. It received mixed reviews from critics, but its bookings at Baltimore and Philadelphia went awry, the female lead quit, and thereafter the company performed only a few scattered one-night engagements before collapsing at Newport News. Pittman claimed that Armstrong's loathing of the
Theatrical Syndicate, which controlled bookings, undid their production. The failure led to a brawl in Armstrong's New York office, with Pittman pulling a gun and Armstrong decking him. Armstrong was arrested on an assault charge, which a judge dismissed after hearing about the gun.
Rise to fame After the
St. Ann failure, Armstrong took on managing the
Liberty Theatre, but quit after a season of disappointing productions.
The Superstition of Sue premiered at the
Savoy Theatre on April 4, 1904, starring
Walter E. Perkins,
Wilfred Lucas, and
Helen Lackaye. Sue rejects Adrian's proposal, having been made on Friday the 13th. Unwilling to live, Adrian seeks death but fails repeatedly. New York critics were nearly unanimous in panning
Sue, with only
The Brooklyn Times calling it "interesting". Surprisingly, the production went on to a second week,
The Sun speculating the two plays "have been so thoroughly abused that a great many people want to see how bad they are". The four-act melodrama,
The Heir to the Hoorah, premiered April 10, 1905 at the
Hudson Theatre. This was Armstrong's first success with a longer work; it ran for 112 performances on Broadway before going on tour. Produced and staged by Kirk La Shelle, its box-office appeal suggested Armstrong's plays were better off being implemented by others. Armstrong was delighted with having written a winner, and even more so when
St. Ann, now renamed
Ann Lamont, was revived by producer
John Cort for
Florence Roberts in October 1905. During March 1906 Armstrong's new four-act
Blue Grass was performed in Philadelphia. A horse-racing story, about a
Kentucky Colonel fallen on hard times, it had six settings and seven live horses on stage. After a three-week run it was withdrawn, reportedly because the producers wanted to make changes to which Armstrong objected.
Broadway ups and downs Producer
George C. Tyler of
Liebler & Company hired Armstrong in November 1906 to write a play for
Eleanor Robson. The resulting
Salomy Jane, based on a
Bret Harte story, was completed in a week, enabling a premiere at the
Liberty Theatre on January 19, 1907. Its 19-week run made it one of the ten most successful plays of the year by the time it closed in May 1907. Armstrong had proven he was more than a one-hit wonder, and for the next seven years would have plays in production every season on Broadway. Armstrong next wrote the three-act comedy
Society and the Bulldog, which was first presented at Albaugh's Theatre in Baltimore, on November 25, 1907. Its Broadway premiere came on January 18, 1908, with Armstrong producing and staging it.
The New York Times called the story of a newly rich Nevada miner who tries to buy his daughter a place in New York society "commonplace and uninteresting", while Charles Darnton in
The Evening World pointed out failures in casting, settings, and staging that suggested Armstrong had once again taken on too much. Armstrong later recognized as much, saying he had "gone back to being a playwright". During March and April 1908 Liebler & Company produced tryouts for a new play by Armstrong and
Rex Beach called
Going Some, but the work, though well-received, was withdrawn over casting issues. In May, Armstrong signed a contract with Klaw and Erlanger to deliver a play called
In Time of Peace by September 1, 1908. It was completed a month late, never produced, and later became the subject of a lawsuit as Klaw and Erlanger attempted to get their advance payment to Armstrong returned.
Frederic Thompson asked Armstrong and
Winchell Smith to dramatize an old story of his, which they did in
Via Wireless. The plot concerned the sabotage of a new naval artillery gun, and the rescue of passengers from a wrecked yacht using wireless sets during a storm at sea. A four-act melodrama, its first presentation in Washington, D.C. was attended by
President Roosevelt. running through mid-January 1909 before going on tour. One week after
Via Wireless debuted, Armstrong's
Blue Grass was given its own Broadway premiere by Liebler & Company at the
Majestic Theatre. Armstrong had achieved a rare success in having two of his plays running simultaneously on Broadway. The first night was nearly derailed when feminine lead Irene Moore came down with tonsilitis, but
Olive Wyndham learned the role in time. Some rewriting had been done, since the play was now three acts instead of four as in 1906. But Armstrong wasn't through tinkering; after the first week, he added a new character and new scenes. However, the production closed after three weeks, to make way for
DeWolf Hopper in
The Pied Piper.
The Renegade had been written by Armstrong for actor
William Farnum. As Farnum was now under contract to Liebler & Company, they mounted the first production at Chicago's
Studebaker Theatre on February 2, 1909. Sub-titled "A Tragi-Comedy in Four Acts", it told the story of a Harvard-educated Native American, whom the US government employs as a bridge to his unpacified tribe, but who falls afoul of a flirtatious white widow.
Burns Mantle summed it up: "It is not a well built play", After two weeks the play was withdrawn with the explanation that Armstrong was rewriting it.
Heyday By April 12, 1909, Armstrong was back on Broadway with a recast
Going Some at the
Belasco Theatre. It was an immediate success, and by the end of April
the Shuberts, who produced it, announced a second company for
Going Some would be formed to present the play on tour. The Broadway production ran for 96 performances until June 26, 1909. Later that year Armstrong had an even bigger hit with
Alias Jimmy Valentine, which opened in Chicago on Christmas night starring
H. B. Warner and
Laurette Taylor. Liebler & Company, who had commissioned it based on an
O. Henry short story, moved the production to Broadway's
Wallack's Theatre on January 21, 1910. It ran there for five months, closing June 11, 1910.
Alias Jimmy Valentine was Armstrong's most lasting legacy: it had a
brief Broadway revival starting December 8, 1921, at the
Gaiety Theatre, was adapted for motion pictures in
1915,
1920,
1928,
1936 and
1942, was adapted into a
radio program during 1938–1939, and adapted into a radio episode of
CBS Radio Mystery Theater as ''
Jimmy Valentine's Gamble'' on January 16, 1977. The first of two successful collaborations with
Wilson Mizner,
The Deep Purple was also the last Paul Armstrong play produced by Liebler & Company. It also marked the start of a personal crisis, as Armstrong's marriage began to unravel over his obsession with actress
Catherine Calvert, an Armstrong discovery. After a tryout in Rochester, the play had an open engagement in Chicago at the Princess Theatre starting October 3, 1910, with
Richard Bennett as the lead. The play ran fourteen weeks in Chicago, before moving to Broadway on January 9, 1911, at the
Lyric Theatre.
The Deep Purple closed May 20, 1911, after 152 performances.
The Greyhound was the second collaboration between Armstrong and Mizner. Written in 1911, it was produced by the Wagenhals & Kemper Company. After a January 1912 tryout in Indianapolis, and an open run in Chicago, its Broadway premiere came on February 29, 1912, at the
Astor Theatre. It ran for 112 performances, closing on June 1, 1912. With
The Greyhound, Armstrong had four straight successes on Broadway; their touring companies joined those of
Salomy Jane,
The Heir to the Hoorah, and
Via Wireless which were still playing on the road, as were his one-act plays for vaudville. The most prominent of the latter was
A Romance of the Underworld, which had three scenes and 23 speaking parts; it premiered at the
Fifth Avenue Theatre on March 27, 1911. It was later made into a silent film in 1918, and
Romance of the Underworld in 1928.
Later works Armstrong didn't use Catherine Calvert in
The Greyhound, but in September 1913 he made her the star of
The Escape in its Broadway premiere. He had once again decided to produce and stage his own work, despite his dismal record in doing so.
The New York Times reviewer said "Mr. Armstrong appears to be the sort of playwright who when he does go wrong covers the whole distance", while Calvert's performance was that of "a carefully drilled amateur". Ten days later Armstrong married Calvert in New Haven, Connecticut. During September 1914 Armstrong produced and staged his new work,
The Bludgeon, another four-act melodrama. It starred Maude Hanaford and premiered on Broadway at
Maxine Elliott's Theatre.
The Standard Union called it "a disappointment", with "an unwholesome theme" and characters who were either "vicious" or "weaklings". It also closed after two weeks, just weeks before another new Armstrong play,
The Heart of a Thief premiered at the
Hudson Theatre on October 5, 1914. This was produced by
Charles Frohman and starred
Martha Hedman.
The New York Times called it "tiresome", Armstrong's final work was a one-act play called ''The Bank's Half Million'', written and performed for the first time during July 1915, which featured his nephew,
Robert Armstrong. ==Personal character==