She started in Los Angeles before moving to New York, appeared in leading roles in several Broadway plays and received positive reception.

She made her professional debut around age 17 in 1910 at the Los Angeles Belasco Theatre, as a non-speaking extra in a production of Forty-five Minutes from Broadway.

[1][2][3] She joined Oliver Morosco's stock company, where her productions included Peg o' My Heart and The Bird of Paradise supporting Carlotta Monterey.

[4][5] She had a part in Upstairs and Down (1916)[6] which was the most popular Los Angeles play of the season before coming to New York,[7] marking Arnold's Broadway debut.

[10] The magazine The Independent wrote that Arnold is a corker and that the "subtle little meanings she makes her lines suggest sets the comedy down in The School for Scandal class.