Prior to his successful playwriting career, Broadhurst managed the Bush Street Theatre in San Francisco His second play, 'What Happened to Mr. Jones," was a hit and launched his career as a playwright. Productions of his plays in Seattle include "The Price" (Metropolitan Theatre, 1912), "Today" (Moore Theatre 1915), and "The Women on the Index" (Wilkes Theatre, 1919). Broadhurst had a dispute with Bayard Veiller, a playwright who had been a reporter for the "Seattle Star," over the authorship of "Within the Law."