 It opened on January 7, 1929 at the President Theatre, and ran for 67 performances, closing in March of that year.Sturges conceived of the idea for the play from personal experience, after an actress he was dating explained her erratic behavior as the result of her trying out scenarios for the play she was writing.Sturges decided that if she could write a play, so could he, and began writing "The Guinea Pig", completing the third act that night, although the rest took somewhat longer.