He was best known for starring as Samuel Plastrick, the lead character in the comic melodrama Sam'l of Posen; or, The Commercial Drummer by George H.

[3] Though there are many quoted sources for the character of Sam'l after it brought Curtis meteoric fame and fortune, the character was a Jewish "drummer", or traveling salesman, and Curtis claimed he based his portrayal of him on a real salesman in San Francisco, claiming, "He was, perhaps, one of the most comical men that I ever met; and for the life of me I could never refrain from giving imitations of him.

He began building the Peralta Park Hotel in 1888; the structure, with its sixty rooms and twenty baths, opened in 1891.

The arresting officer, Alexander Grant, was shot and killed and, though Curtis denied responsibility, he was indicted for murder.

He tempered the stereotypical or crude aspects of the character and, by 1894, one reviewer noted, "Nobody, whether Jew or Gentile, could find offence in this amiable, ingenious and kind hearted young Israelite.

Curtis attempted one performance in London on July 4, 1895, and one historian noted the "puzzling afternoon" was "beyond the grasp" of the audience, who expected to laugh at the Jewish character rather than with him.