New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-08-31
PAUL ARMSTRONG
DIES SUDDENLY
Author of alias Jimmy
Valentine" Stricken
on Auto Ride.

Paul Armstrong. the playwright, was
stricken with heart disease while rid
ing in an automobile with a party of
friends at the Fifty-ninth Street en-
trance of Central Park yesterday after
non and died last night in his apart
ment at s29 Park Avenue. The attack
was recurrence of a former illness,
for which he had been attended at
Johns Hopkins Hospital. Baltimore,
two months ago. His family believed
he had fully recovered.
Mr.. Armstrong was returning to his
apartment with his wife and son, Paul,
jr., from the Pennsylvania Terminal,
where ne had gone in his automobile
with two other men at $3.50 p. m. Mrs.
Armstrong and the boy had been in
Baltimore for several days on a visit
to her parents and were r>turning to
New York
With Mr.. Armstrong were James p.
Sinnott, n sporting writer, and DR..
Francis NJ Mcnamara, Of Chicago,
staying at the Hotel Astor The party
drove from the station TO the Astor,
where DR.. Mcnamara left them.
Attack Grips Armstrong.
They were near the Fifty-ninth Street
entrance of Central Park when Mr..
Armstrong complained of feeling i'll.
With Mr. Snnott'S support, he leaned
over the side Of the car 10 get more
air. lie remained in this position until
the apartment was reached.
Mr.. Sinnott and Mrs. Armstrong
helped him upstairs and put him to bed.
Mr.. Sinnott 'phoned for DR.. Mcnamara,
who rushed from he Astor. DR.. Charles
H. Duncan, Of 233 Lexington Avenue,
Mrs. Armstrong; family physician, was
also summoned. Efforts to save the
PLAYWRIGHT were of no avail. He died
at 7:45.
No arrangements have been made
vet for the funeral. Mr.. Armstrong
leaves his wife, who was Catherine
Calvert, an actress, and their son, Paul
Armstrong jr., one and a half years
old. sHe also leaves his first wife, Mrs.
Rella Abel Armstrong, who divorced
him in 1912, and three daughters of
the first marriage, Annabel, fifteen;
Myrell, twelve, and Elizabeth, ten, who
live with their mother in East Eighty
sixth Street.
Dramatist's Active Life.
Paul Armstrong had a varied career.
Dramatist, steamboat captain, sport
writer, friend of crooks, exile from
Broadway, defendant in suit for
II. Of
roles he played in his forty-six years
Of life, which began in a little town
in Missouri and ranged from Michigan
to Paris.
The dramatist was born in Kidder,
Mo, April %. 1869 After a high
school education at Bay City, Mich,
he worked on steamers in the Great
Lakes for five years. and won his GER
tifcate as licensed master of steam
vessels. Then. following some news
paper experience, in which, under a
non de plume he wrote thrilling de-
scriptions of fstic encounters, he came
to New York and began the work which
made him well known and brought HIM
a fair sized fortune.
His first play, "The Heir TO the Hoo
rah," involved hin in lawsuit with
fellow reporter. William j. +. Dam,
who charged him with llagiarizing the
plot Of a magazine story entitled The
Transmogrifcation of Dan" Arm
strong's defence was that he had in
vented the plot himself and had told II
to Dam over a glass of beer in cafe.
The Supreme Court, however, ordered
him to pay the Krke la Shelle Com
pany, producer of the play, s1S,904 for
the idea.
Borrowed a Crook.
Other plays from his pen were "St::
Ann" "Salomy Jane" ain a Blaze OF
Glory" alias Jimmy Valentine THE
Deep Purple" "A Romance of the Tn
Continued on page'7, column !