In one year on the New York Advertiser, he wrote 1,008 short stories...He [then] determined to abandon journalism and turn to the drama for a livelihood..." The Prodigal Father (1892) is MacDonough's first work that received any note in reviews of the day.

Most of them have become obscure with the passage of time, but some—besides Babes in Toyland—are worthy of mention and present certain points of historical interest.

[1] He wrote the lyrics for the operetta, Chris and the Wonderful Lamp (1899), with music by march king John Philip Sousa, a work that undergoes periodic revival even today.

MacDonough was also one of the many lyricists called to help out in the first musical production of L. Frank Baum's The Wizard of Oz (1902).

MacDonough was also the American adapter of Johann Strauss' last work, Vienna Life (1901), and of Franz Lehár's The Count of Luxembourg (1912).