Paul Armstrong (playwright)

Armstrong was born April 25, 1869, in Kidder, Missouri.{{cite news |title=Paul Armstrong Dead |work=Brooklyn Daily Eagle |date=August 31, 1915 |location=Brooklyn, New York |page=2 |via = Newspapers.com}} He was the youngest of three children for Richard Armstrong, an Irish-Canadian sailor, and his wife Harriet.1880 United States Federal Census for Paul Armstrong, Michigan > Bay > West Bay City > 022, retrieved from Ancestry.com When he was six-months old the family left Missouri,{{cite magazine |last=Collins |first=Charles W. |title=Paul Armstrong-- Apostle of "The Punch" |magazine=The Green Book Magazine |location=Chicago, Illinois |publisher=The Story-Press Corporation |date=April 1914 |page=652}} and moved to West Bay City, Michigan where Armstrong grew up and went to school. After high school he took up steam navigation on the Great Lakes,{{cite news |title=Paul Armstrong Dead |work=Brooklyn Times |date=August 31, 1915 |location=Brooklyn, New York |page=12 |via = Newspapers.com}} earning his Master's license in 1890. Armstrong acted as manager for a steamship line,{{cite news |title=Miscellaneous |work=The Inter Ocean |date=July 20, 1891 |location=Chicago, Illinois |page=7 |via = Newspapers.com}} and helped skipper their excursion vessels from 1890 to 1895.

==Journalism and press agent==

Armstrong started newspaper work in spring 1896, supplying special features to The Buffalo Sunday Morning News.{{cite news |last=Armstrong |first=Paul |title=Hallucinations of Lunatics |work=The Buffalo Sunday Morning News |date=May 10, 1896 |location=Buffalo, New York |page=9 |via = Newspapers.com}}{{cite news |last=Armstrong |first=Paul |title=Queer Romance |work=The Buffalo Sunday Morning News |date=May 17, 1896 |location=Buffalo, New York |page=9 |via = Newspapers.com}} By January 1897 he was at the Chicago Herald.{{cite news |last=Armstrong |first=Paul |title=Passing the Word |work=The Daily Argus (credited to Chicago Herald) |date=January 26, 1897 |location=White Plains, New York |page=3 |via = Newspapers.com}} He then jumped to the New York Journal, where he wrote about prize-fighting under the byline "Right Cross".{{cite news |title=Paul Armstrong's First Play a Hit |work=The Buffalo Review |date=June 23, 1899 |location=Buffalo, New York |page=2 |via = Newspapers.com}} Having met an art student named Rella Abell from Kansas City, Armstrong carried on a long-distance courtship when she went to Paris for art school.{{cite news |title=Gossip of Society |work=The Kansas City Star |date=April 28, 1899 |location=Kansas City, Missouri |page=2 |via = Newspapers.com}} They became engaged in April 1899, and were married in London during July 1899.{{cite news |title=In Society |work=The Kansas City Times |date=July 9, 1899 |location=Kansas City, Missouri |page=10 |via = Newspapers.com}}

Jim Corbett hired Armstrong as press agent for his brief excursion into baseball. Armstrong had Corbett arrested in Boston during October 1900 for refusing to payNewspaper consensus of the time held that Corbett was a notorious deadbeat. the agreed salary and expenses.{{cite news |title=Corbett Arrested |work=The Buffalo Enquirer |date=October 27, 1900 |location=Buffalo, New York |page=4 |via = Newspapers.com}}{{cite news |title=Corbett Sued By Armstrong |work=The Buffalo Enquirer |date=November 1, 1900 |location=Buffalo, New York |page=7 |via = Newspapers.com}} After Armstrong's one-act plays were produced in vaudeville, he became press agent for the White Rats of America during their February 1901 strike.{{cite news |title="White Rats" Strike All Over The East |work=The Evening World |date=February 21, 1901 |location=New York, New York |page=3 |via = Newspapers.com}}{{cite news |title=The Strike of the Vaudeville Actors |work=The New York Times |date=February 23, 1901 |location=New York, New York |page=9 |via = NYTimes.com}} He fell out with the White Rats when he tried to lease the Circle Theater in May 1901, and by July was fired.{{cite news |title=Some White Rat Secrets Exposed |work=The Buffalo Review |date=July 1, 1901 |location=Buffalo, New York |page=2 |via = Newspapers.com}}

Armstrong's first play was a four-act comic melodrama called Just a Day Dream, produced by William A. Brady. Armstrong had shown it to Joseph Jefferson who suggested some changes.{{cite magazine |last=Collins |first=Charles W. |title=Paul Armstrong-- Apostle of "The Punch" |magazine=The Green Book Magazine |location=Chicago, Illinois |publisher=The Story-Press Corporation |date=April 1914 |page=654}} First performed at Boston's Castle Theatre in June 1899,{{cite news |title=Drama and Music |work=The Boston Globe |date=June 20, 1899 |location=Boston, Massachusetts |page=2 |via = Newspapers.com}} it was revived twice at the same venue.{{cite news |title=Music and Drama |work=Boston Evening Transcript |date=December 20, 1899 |location=Boston, Massachusetts |page=8 |via = Newspapers.com}}{{cite news |title=Castle Square Theatre: "Just a Day Dream" |work=Boston Evening Transcript |date=October 9, 1900 |location=Boston, Massachusetts |page=11 |via = Newspapers.com}} 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.{{cite news |title=Boston Music Hall |work=The Boston Globe |date=Oct 9, 1900 |location=Boston, Massachusetts |page=8 |via = Newspapers.com}} He had more success with a one-act farce, Like Mother Used to Make, which Crimmins and Gore played to good effect.{{cite news |title=Elks Gave Surprise |work=Brooklyn Citizen |date=May 1, 1901 |location=Brooklyn, New York |page=6 |via = Newspapers.com}}

Armstrong finished the four-act St. Ann by late June 1902.{{cite news |title=World of Amusement |work=The Washington Post |date=June 22, 1902 |location=Washington, D. C. |page=30 |via = Newspapers.com}} 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.{{cite news |title=Will Create New Part |work=The Washington Post |date=August 2, 1902 |location=Washington, D. C. |page=2 |via = Newspapers.com}}{{cite news |title=World of Amusement |work=The Washington Post |date=August 3, 1902 |location=Washington, D. C. |page=30 |via = Newspapers.com}} Armstrong assembled a company for rehearsals in August 1902, with Laura Nelson Hall as lead.{{cite news |title="St. Ann" Is in Rehearsal |work=The Washington Times |date=August 17, 1902 |location=Washington, D. C. |page=20 |via = Newspapers.com}}

St. Ann opened for a week at the Columbia Theatre in Washington, D.C., on September 1, 1902.{{cite news |title=Columbia Washington's Leading Theater (ad) |work=The Washington Times |date=August 28, 1902 |location=Washington, D. C. |page=6 |via = Newspapers.com}} It received mixed reviews from critics,{{cite news |title=At The Theaters |work=The Washington Post |date=September 2, 1902 |location=Washington, D. C. |page=2 |via = Newspapers.com}} but its bookings at Baltimore and Philadelphia went awry, the female lead quit,{{cite news |title=World of Amusement |work=The Washington Post |date=September 7, 1902 |location=Washington, D. C. |page=30 |via = Newspapers.com}} and thereafter the company performed only a few scattered one-night engagementsA newspaper columnist had suggested this course of events would occur weeks before the play opened. See "The World of Amusement" in The Washington Post of August 17, 1902 on page 28.{{cite news |title=A New Play And A New Author |work=The Wilkes-Barre Record |date=September 18, 1902 |location=Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania |page=5 |via = Newspapers.com}}{{cite news |title=In The Theatres |work=The Times-Tribune |date=September 19, 1902 |location=Scranton, Pennsylvania |page=6 |via = Newspapers.com}} before collapsing at Newport News. Pittman claimed that Armstrong's loathing of the Theatrical Syndicate, which controlled bookings, undid their production.{{cite news |title=The Troubles of "St. Ann" |work=The Roanoke Times |date=October 4, 1902 |location=Roanoke, Virginia |page=2 |via = Newspapers.com}} The failure led to a brawl in Armstrong's New York office, with Pittman pulling a gun and Armstrong decking him.{{cite news |title=Actors In A Row |work=The Sun |date=October 1, 1902 |location=New York, New York |page=7 |via = Newspapers.com}} Armstrong was arrested on an assault charge, which a judge dismissed after hearing about the gun.{{cite news |title=Rialto Row Ends In Police Court |work=The Evening World |date=October 3, 1902 |location=New York, New York |page=3 |via = Newspapers.com}}

After the St. Ann failure, Armstrong took on managing the Liberty Theatre, but quit after a season of disappointing productions. Armstrong's one-act play The Blue Grass Handicap was used by Willis P. Sweatnam in vaudeville during 1904. It was a three-character turf racing piece, the lead being played in blackface by a white actor. It was also used as a "curtain-raiser" for Armstrong's new three-act farce.{{cite news |title=New Farce at Savoy |work=Brooklyn Citizen |date=April 3, 1904 |location=Brooklyn, New York |page=8 |via = Newspapers.com}} The Superstition of Sue premiered at the Savoy Theatre on April 4, 1904, starring Walter E. Perkins, Wilfred Lucas, and Helen Lackaye.{{cite news |title="The Superstition of Sue" |work=The New York Times |date=April 5, 1904 |location=New York, New York |page=3 |via = NYTimes.com}} 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".The Sun called it "drivel", while The Evening World said audience members were gripped by "indecision as to whether they should run shrieking into Thirty-fourth Street or climb up on the stage and kill the performers".{{cite news |title=Helen Lackaye an Interesting Sue |work=Brooklyn Times Union |date=April 6, 1904 |location=Brooklyn, New York |page=2 |via = Newspapers.com}}{{cite news |title="The Superstition of Sue" |work=The Sun |date=April 5, 1904 |location=New York, New York |page=7 |via = Newspapers.com}}{{cite news |title="Superstitions of Sue" |work=The Evening World |date=April 5, 1904 |location=New York, New York |page=4 |via = Newspapers.com}} Surprisingly, the production went on to a second week,{{cite news |title=Manhattan |work=Brooklyn Citizen |date=April 16, 1904 |location=Brooklyn, New York |page=5 |via = Newspapers.com}} The Sun speculating the two plays "have been so thoroughly abused that a great many people want to see how bad they are".{{cite news |title=Springtime Theatre Bills |work=The Sun |date=April 10, 1904 |location=New York, New York |page=30 |via = Newspapers.com}}

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,{{cite news |title=Amusements |work=The Scranton Republican |date=March 17, 1905 |location=Scranton, Pennsylvania |page=7 |via = Newspapers.com}} and even more so when St. Ann, now renamed Ann Lamont, was revived by producer John Cort for Florence Roberts in October 1905.{{cite news |title=Amusements |work=The Salt Lake Tribune |date=October 3, 1905 |location=Salt Lake City, Utah |page=2 |via = Newspapers.com}}

During March 1906 Armstrong's new four-act Blue GrassA sequel to events in The Blue Grass Handicap. was performed in Philadelphia.{{cite news |title=Blue Grass at the Walnut |work=The Philadelphia Inquirer |date=March 6, 1906 |location=Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |page=4 |via = Newspapers.com}} 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.{{cite news |title=Gossip About Theatrical Folk |work=Buffalo Enquirer |date=April 6, 1906 |location=Buffalo, New York |page=2 |via = Newspapers.com}}

Producer George C. Tyler of Liebler & CompanyA partnership between Tyler and investor T. A. Liebler that produced over 100 plays on Broadway between 1896 and 1914. hired Armstrong in November 1906 to write a play for Eleanor Robson.{{cite news |title=Notes of the Stage |work=New-York Tribune |date=November 14, 1906 |location=New York, New York |page=7 |via = Newspapers.com}} The resulting Salomy Jane, based on a Bret Harte story, was completed in a week,Tyler and Furnas, pp.175-177 enabling a premiere at the Liberty Theatre on January 19, 1907.{{cite news |title=Bret Harte Melodrama |work=Brooklyn Citizen |date=January 21, 1907 |location=Brooklyn, New York |page=7 |via = Newspapers.com}} Its 19-week run made it one of the ten most successful plays of the year{{cite news |title=Ten Successful Plays of the Year |work=The News Tribune |date=June 15, 1907 |location=Tacoma, Washington |page=8 |via = Newspapers.com}} by the time it closed in May 1907.{{cite news |title=Miss Robson Ends Season |work=The New York Times |date=May 19, 1907 |location=New York, New York |page=7 |via = NYTimes.com}} 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.{{cite news |title=Paul Armstrong, Playwright, Dies |work=The New York Times |date=August 31, 1915 |location=New York, New York |page=9 |via = NYTimes.com}}

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.The play gained notoriety when actress Clara Bloodgood left the matinee performance she was attending, returned to her hotel room and shot herself.{{cite news |title=New Play At Albaugh's |work=The Baltimore Sun |date=November 26, 1907 |location=Baltimore, Maryland |page=9 |via = Newspapers.com}} Its Broadway premiere came on January 18, 1908, with Armstrong producing and staging it.{{cite news |title=The Drama |work=New-York Tribune |date=January 19, 1908 |location=New York, New York |page=9 |via = Newspapers.com}} 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",{{cite news |title=Paul Armstrong's New Play |work=The New York Times |date=January 19, 1908 |location=New York, New York |page=28 |via = NYTimes.com}} 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.{{cite news |last=Darnton |first=Charles |title="Society" Kills Paul Armstrong's Pet "Bulldog" |work=The Evening World |date=January 20, 1908 |location=New York, New York |page=11 |via = Newspapers.com}} Armstrong later recognized as much, saying he had "gone back to being a playwright".{{cite news |title=Five Armstrong Plays |work=The New York Times |date=August 30, 1908 |location=New York, New York |page=17 |via = NYTimes.com}}

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,{{cite news |title="Going Some" |work=The Waterbury Democrat |date=March 17, 1908 |location=Waterbury, Connecticut |page=8 |via = Newspapers.com}}{{cite news |title=Belasco |work=The Evening Star |date=April 7, 1908 |location=Washington, D.C. |page= |via = Newspapers.com}} was withdrawn over casting issues.{{cite news |title="Going Some" |work=The Washington Herald |date=April 12, 1908 |location=Washington, D.C. |page=20 |via = Newspapers.com}} In May, Armstrong signed a contract with Klaw and Erlanger to deliver a play called In Time of Peace by September 1, 1908.{{cite news |title=Manhattan Stage Notes |work=Brooklyn Citizen |date=May 20, 1908 |location=Brooklyn, New York |page=5 |via = Newspapers.com}} It was completed a month late,{{cite news |title=Theatrical Notes |work=The New York Times |date=October 9, 1908 |location=New York, New York |page=9 |via = NYTimes.com}} never produced, and later became the subject of a lawsuit as Klaw and Erlanger attempted to get their advance payment to Armstrong returned.Court of Appeals, pp 32-33

File:Via Wireless Act III Scene 2 (1908).jpg

Frederic Thompson asked Armstrong and Winchell Smith to dramatize an old story of his, which they did in Via Wireless.{{cite news |title="Via Wireless" A Lively Play |work=The Baltimore Sun |date=October 20, 1908 |location=Baltimore, Maryland |page=3 |via = Newspapers.com}} 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. The production premiered on Broadway in November 1908,{{cite news |title=Liberty Theatre |work=New-York Tribune |date=October 25, 1908 |location=New York, New York |page=46 |via = Newspapers.com}} running through mid-January 1909 before going on tour.{{cite news |title=Another Faversham Play |work=The Sun |date=January 10, 1909 |location=New York, New York |page=36 |via = Newspapers.com}}

One week after Via Wireless debuted, Armstrong's Blue Grass was given its own Broadway premiere by Liebler & Company at the Majestic Theatre.{{cite news |title="Blue Grass" Wins At The Majestic, Manhattan |work=The Standard Union |date=November 10, 1908 |location=Brooklyn, New York |page=3 |via = Newspapers.com}} 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,{{cite news |title=Theatrical Notes |work=The New York Times |date=November 7, 1908 |location=New York, New York |page=7 |via = NYTimes.com}} but Olive Wyndham learned the role in time.{{cite news |title=Majestic Theatre |work=New-York Tribune |date=November 8, 1908 |location=New York, New York |page=44 |via = Newspapers.com}} 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.{{cite news |title=Manhattan Stage Notes |work=Brooklyn Citizen |date=November 16, 1908 |location=Brooklyn, New York |page=6 |via = Newspapers.com}} However, the production closed after three weeks, to make way for DeWolf Hopper in The Pied Piper.{{cite news |title=De Wolf Hopper at Majestic Soon |work=New-York Tribune |date=November 23, 1908 |location=New York, New York |page=7 |via = Newspapers.com}}

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.{{cite news |last=Mantle |first=Burns |title=News of the Theaters |work=Chicago Tribune |date=February 3, 1909 |location=Chicago, Illinois |page=10 |via = Newspapers.com}} 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", while Charles W. Collins was wholly dismissive of Armstrong's clumsy attempt to dramatize the tragedy of Native Americans.{{cite news |last=Collins |first=Charles W. |title="The Renegade" |work=The Inter Ocean |date=February 4, 1909 |location=Chicago, Illinois |page=6 |via = Newspapers.com}} After two weeks the play was withdrawn with the explanation that Armstrong was rewriting it.{{cite news |last=Mantle |first=Burns |title=Around the Theaters |work=Chicago Tribune |date=February 12, 1909 |location=Chicago, Illinois |page=8 |via = Newspapers.com}}

File:'Going Some' Act IV Scene 2.jpg

By April 12, 1909, Armstrong was back on Broadway with a recast Going Some at the Belasco Theatre.{{cite news |title=Four New Plays |work=Brooklyn Daily Eagle |date=April 13, 1909 |location=Brooklyn, New York |page=22 |via = Newspapers.com}} 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.{{cite news |title=News of Plays and Players |work=The Sun |date=April 29, 1909 |location=New York, New York |page=9 |via = Newspapers.com}} The Broadway production ran for 96 performances until June 26, 1909.{{cite news |title=Notes of the Stage |work=New-York Tribune |date=June 26, 1909 |location=New York, New York |page=7 |via = Newspapers.com}}

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.{{cite news |date=December 26, 1909 |title=Alias Jimmy Valentine |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/chicago-tribune/116863717/ |work=Chicago Tribune |location=Chicago, Illinois |page=5 |via=Newspapers.com}} 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.{{cite news |date=January 22, 1910 |title=H. B. Warner A Star |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/times-union/147412862/ |work=Brooklyn Daily Times |location=Brooklyn, New York |page=6 |via=Newspapers.com}} It ran there for five months, closing June 11, 1910.{{cite news |date=June 11, 1910 |title=Wallacks (ad) |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-sun/147413366/ |work=The Sun |location=New York, New York |page=14 |via=Newspapers.com}} Alias Jimmy Valentine was Armstrong's most lasting legacy: it had a brief Broadway revival starting December 8, 1921, at the Gaiety Theatre,{{cite news |last=Whittaker |first=James |date=December 9, 1921 |title=He Of Sandpaper Finger Lore Is Ever Yeggspert |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-news/147413496/ |work=Daily News |location=New York, New York |page=21 |via=Newspapers.com}} 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.{{cite web |title=CBS Radio Mystery Theater 1977-1978 |url=https://archive.org/details/CbsRadioMysteryTheater1977-1978_119 |website=archive.org |access-date=6 July 2025}}

File:Catherine Calvert in 'The Deep Purple' 1910.png]]

The first of two successful collaborations with Wilson Mizner, The Deep Purple was also the last Paul Armstrong play produced by Liebler & Company.George C. Tyler was the only producer to work more than once with Armstrong. It also marked the start of a personal crisis, as Armstrong's marriage began to unravel{{cite news |title=Paul Armstrong, Author, Sued; Actress Affinity? |work=The Inter Ocean |date=December 5, 1910 |location=Chicago, Illinois |pages=1, 4 |via = Newspapers.com}} over his obsession with actress Catherine Calvert, an Armstrong discovery.{{cite news |title=Being A Type Got Catherine Her Job |work=Chicago Tribune |date=October 9, 1910 |location=Chicago, Illinois |page=21 |via = Newspapers.com}} After a tryout in Rochester,{{cite news |title=Amusements |work=Democrat and Chronicle |date=September 27, 1910 |location=Rochester, New York |page=7 |via = Newspapers.com}} the play had an open engagement in Chicago at the Princess Theatre starting October 3, 1910, with Richard Bennett as the lead.{{cite news |last=Hammond |first=Percy |title=News of the Theatres |work=Chicago Tribune |date=October 4, 1910 |location=Chicago, Illinois |page=8 |via = Newspapers.com}} The play ran fourteen weeks in Chicago,{{cite news |last=Hammond |first=Percy |title=Small Talk of the Stage |work=Chicago Tribune |date=January 3, 1911 |location=Chicago, Illinois |page=8 |via = Newspapers.com}} before moving to Broadway on January 9, 1911, at the Lyric Theatre.{{cite news |title=New Play Of Crooks Seen At The Lyric |work=The New York Times |date=January 10, 1911 |location=New York, New York |page=4 |via = NYTimes.com}} The Deep Purple closed May 20, 1911, after 152The total includes a matinee and evening performance on the final day. performances.{{cite news |title=Theatrical Notes |work=The New York Times |date=May 20, 1911 |location=New York, New York |page=13 |via = NYTimes.com}}

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,{{cite news |last=Bulleit |first=Clarence J. |title=About The Theaters |work=The Indianapolis Star |date=January 13, 1912 |location=Indianapolis, Indiana |page=12 |via = Newspapers.com}} and an open run in Chicago,{{cite news |last=Hammond |first=Percy |title="The Greyhound" Is a Smart Yellow-Back |work=Chicago Tribune |date=January 16, 1912 |location=Chicago, Illinois |page=9 |via = Newspapers.com}} its Broadway premiere came on February 29, 1912, at the Astor Theatre.{{cite news |last=Darnton |first=Charles |title=The New Plays |work=The Evening World |date=March 1, 1912 |location=New York, New York |page=19 |via = Newspapers.com}} It ran for 112 performances, closing on June 1, 1912.{{cite news |title=Astor Last 2 Times The Greyhound (ad) |work=The Sun |date=June 1, 1912 |location=New York, New York |page=18 |via = Newspapers.com}}

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.{{cite news |title="Romance Of Underworld" |work=The New York Times |date=March 28, 1911 |location=New York, New York |page=13 |via = NYTimes.com}} It was later made into a silent film in 1918, and Romance of the Underworld in 1928.

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.{{cite news |title=Pistols, Platitudes, Treacle, Trepanning |work=The New York Times |date=September 21, 1913 |location=New York, New York |page=15 |via = NYTimes.com}} 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". The Escape closed after two weeks.

Rella Abell Armstrong, who had discontinued her initial suit for divorce, now won a final decree in December 1913, giving her custody of their three young daughters and $7,500 annual support.{{cite news |title=Armstrong Divorce Final |work=The New York Times |date=December 10, 1913 |location=New York, New York |page=9 |via = NYTimes.com}} Ten days later Armstrong married Calvert in New Haven, Connecticut.{{cite news |title=Paul Armstrong Married |work=The Buffalo Commercial |date=December 20, 1913 |location=Buffalo, New York |page=13 |via = Newspapers.com}}

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".{{cite news |title="The Bludgeon" Has Its Premiere |work=The Standard Union |date=September 8, 1914 |location=Brooklyn, New York |page=9 |via = Newspapers.com}} 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.{{cite news |title='Heart of a Thief' A Tiresome Play |work=The New York Times |date=October 6, 1914 |location=New York, New York |page=11 |via = NYTimes.com}} The New York Times called it "tiresome", while The Sun said of the play's run "The end cannot be far off".{{cite news |title=This Week's Plays |work=The Sun |date=October 11, 1914 |location=New York, New York |page=29 |via = Newspapers.com}}

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.{{cite news |title=Theatrical Notes |work=The New York Times |date=July 22, 1915 |location=New York, New York |page=9 |via = NYTimes.com}}

File:Paul Armstrong and daughters 1909.jpg

A journalist interviewed Armstrong at his home "Acton Manor" in Annapolis during summer 1907. They noted his great interest in horses, of which he had several in his stables. He also had a dock and boathouse on the river where he tinkered with marine engines.{{cite news |title=A Playwright's Invasion Of Old Annapolis Town |work=The Baltimore Sun |date=June 2, 1907 |location=Baltimore, Maryland |page=12 |via = Newspapers.com}}

H. L. Mencken said in 1908 that "In spite of his train robber aspect... Paul Armstrong is the gentlest of men. I have seen him moved to tears by a Kipling ballad, and his worse vice is an indecent passion for shelled walnuts".{{cite news |title=About Paul Armstrong |work=The Binghamton Press |date=November 19, 1908 |location=Binghamton, New York |page=6 |via = Newspapers.com}}

Charles W. Collins wrote a profile of Armstrong for The Green Book Magazine in April 1914. He described Armstrong as having "a personality which stands out in any kind of company... A bull-dog tenacity of purpose, a truculence in demanding punctilious observance of his rights, and a sardonic humor are the traits written on his face".{{cite magazine |last=Collins |first=Charles W. |title=Paul Armstrong-- Apostle of "The Punch" |magazine=The Green Book Magazine |location=Chicago, Illinois |publisher=The Story-Press Corporation |date=April 1914 |page=651}} Collins also said of Armstrong: "His talk is pungent and picturesque; he has a wealth of fascinating anecdote about things seen and heard in the rough romantic world; and his humor is often grim".{{cite magazine |last=Collins |first=Charles W. |title=Paul Armstrong-- Apostle of "The Punch" |magazine=The Green Book Magazine |location=Chicago, Illinois |publisher=The Story-Press Corporation |date=April 1914 |page=656}}

Producer George C. Tyler of Liebler & Company mentioned three personal traits of Paul Armstrong: an ability to write plays in a speedy manner, a fondness for making curtain speeches, and a tendency to stop speaking with someone after a disagreement.Tyler & Furnas, pp.175-176 On at least three occasions Armstrong was formally charged with assault over theatrical disputes: by business manager Barton Pittman, by reporter Henry M. Friend,{{cite news |title=Paul Armstrong Sued |work=The Evening Capital |date=December 12, 1910 |location=Annapolis, Maryland |page=1 |via = Newspapers.com}} and by actor James Young.{{cite news |title=Paul Armstrong Dies Suddenly |work=New-York Tribune |date=August 31, 1915 |location=New York, New York |pages=1, 7 |via = Newspapers.com}}

Armstrong was treated for heart trouble at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore in spring 1915. On August 30, 1915, he had gone with two friends to Penn Station in Manhattan to greet his wife and young son, back from a visit to her mother in Baltimore. On the journey home to Park Avenue from the station, he fell ill in Central Park. After arriving home, two doctors were summoned, but Armstrong was soon pronounced dead.{{cite news |title=Paul Armstrong, Stricken In Auto, Dies In Few Hours |work=The Evening World |date=August 31, 1915 |location=New York, New York |page=5 |via = Newspapers.com}} Newspaper obits reported the cause as heart disease.{{cite news |title=Paul Armstrong, Playwright, Dead |work=The Boston Globe |date=August 31, 1915 |location=Boston, Massachusetts |page=9 |via = Newspapers.com}} His funeral service was held at his home, with just family and a few others in attendance, among whom were Rex Beach and Wilson Mizner,{{cite news |title=Paul Armstrong's Funeral |work=The Sun |date=September 2, 1915 |location=New York, New York |page=7 |via = Newspapers.com}} the latter having escaped from a sanitorium a few weeks earlier.{{cite news |title=Wilson Mizner, Playwright, Escapes From Sanitorium |work=The Buffalo News |date=August 5, 1915 |location=Buffalo, New York |page=3 |via = Newspapers.com}}

The New York Times said that as a playwright Armstrong "was unusually successful, and many of his plays enjoyed long runs. Starting with 1907, there was seldom a season that one of his plays was not running at a New York theatre". The Boston Globe described him as "one of the prominent figures on the American stage during the last ten years". Motion picture producers found enough potential in his plays to serve as the basis for films made years after his death. From a more distant vantage, Alan Havig in the Dictionary of Missouri Biography said of him: "A financially successful storyteller, Armstrong wrote nothing of permanent importance".{{cite book |author=Alan Havig |veditors=Christensen LO, Foley WE, Kremer GR, Winn KH |title=Dictionary of Missouri Biography |publisher=University of Missouri Press |year=1999 |page= }}

Dates reflect the year of first performance, or if unproduced the year of writing. The phrase "with" identifies a collaborator in the writing.

• Just a Day Dream (1899)
• My June (1900)
• Like Mother Used to Make (1901)
• St. Ann aka Ann Lamont (1902)
• The Blue Grass Handicap (1904)
• The Superstition of Sue (1904)
• The Heir to the Hoorah (1904)
• Under the Green Lamps aka A Night in a Police Station (1904) with Newton M. Macmillan: One-act play for a NY police band benefit.{{cite news |title="Cops" Don the Buskin |work=New-York Tribune |date=December 7, 1904 |location=New York, New York |page=9 |via = Newspapers.com}}
• Laska aka Lasca (1905) Unproduced play about Texas and Mexico.{{cite news |title=Gossip of the Stage |work=Brooklyn Daily Eagle |date=February 25, 1905 |location=Brooklyn, New York |page=21 |via = Newspapers.com}}
• Blue Grass (1905)
• In a Blaze of Glory (1906) One-act play written for Nat Goodwin.{{cite news |title=Goodwin's Latest Role |work=The New York Times |date=May 20, 1906 |location=New York, New York |page=43 |via = NYTimes.com}}
• The Man from the West (1906) One-act play.
• Salomy Jane (1907)
• Society and the Bulldog (1907)
• The Renegade (1908)
• Going Some (1908) with Rex Beach.
• In Time of Peace (1908) Unproduced four-act play about the US Navy.
• Via Wireless (1908) with Winchell Smith
• The Terrorist (1909) Unproduced; an unsuccessful attempt by Armstrong to placate Klaw and Erlanger over In Time of Peace.
• Trimmed (1909) One-act play for vaudeville
• Alias Jimmy Valentine (1909)
• The Deep Purple (1910) with Wilson Mizner
• A Romance of the Underworld (1911) One-act play.
• The Greyhound (1911) with Wilson Mizner
• The Escape (1913)
• Woman Proposes (1913) One-act satire on women proposing marriage to men.
• The Bludgeon (1914)
• The Heart of a Thief (1914)
• The Bank's Half Million (1915) One-act play with seven characters.

• The Greyhound (1914) - Silent film produced by the Life Photo Film Corporation.{{cite news |title=Motion Picture Notes |work=The Sun |date=May 3, 1914 |location=New York, New York |page=12 |via = Newspapers.com}}
• The Escape (1914)
• Salomy Jane (1914)
• Alias Jimmy Valentine (1915)
• The Deep Purple (1915)
• Via Wireless (1915)
• The Heir to the Hoorah (1916)
• A Romance of the Underworld (1918)
• Going Some (1920)
• The Deep Purple (1920)
• Alias Jimmy Valentine (1920)
• Salomy Jane (1923)
• Paths to Paradise (1925)
• Romance of the Underworld (1928)
• Alias Jimmy Valentine (1928)
• The Affairs of Jimmy Valentine (1942)
• Hold That Blonde! (1945)

{{reflist|group=fn}}

{{reflist}}

• George C. Tyler and J. C. Furnas. Whatever Goes Up. Bobbs Merrill, 1934.
• Lawrence O. Christensen, William E. Foley, Gary R. Kremer, and Kenneth H. Winn, eds. Dictionary of Missouri Biography. University of Missouri Press, 1999.
• Court of Appeals of the State of New York, Marc Klaw and Abraham L. Erlanger, plaintiffs, against Paul Armstrong, defendant, 1912.

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Category:1869 births

Category:1915 deaths

Category:People from Caldwell County, Missouri

Category:19th-century American dramatists and playwrights

Category:20th-century American dramatists and playwrights

Category:American theatre managers and producers