It went through several names during preproduction. First was The Comeback, followed by Evidence, before finally settling on Over the Wall five months before the film’s release. Shifting titles were, perhaps, to be expected, as little of the source material remained by the time cameras rolled.
James Cagney was attached for half a year. The star was, “certainly popular,” an early gossip item about the film noted, adding, “he continues to be a favorite with both men and women. He is the type, apparently, the public likes – rough and ready, and a down-to-earth attitude.” The article went on to note that the film’s director “had himself a nice trip to New York and a divorce since he has made a picture.”
Warner Bros. dropped Cagney from the film after the Public Enemy star filed – and subsequently won – a breach of contract lawsuit against the studio. Captain America serial star Dick Purcell was considered for the role, before the studio settled on Broadway actor, Ross Alexander. He, in turn, was replaced by the popular singing cowboy, Dick Foran. Recently-divorced director Lloyd Bacon would also be replaced, with Warner settling on another former vaudevillian, Frank McDonald.
A bombastic trailer declared Over the Wall, “the biggest story to come out of the big house.” The film followed the life of Jerry Davis, a longtime criminal sent to Sing Sing for a murder he didn’t commit. Inside the prison, Davis discovers that he has a great singing voice, before a chaplain attempts to help him prove his innocence. Real life prison warden Lewis Lawes makes a brief cameo in the trailer as himself.
Lawes had written the film’s initial treatment. It wasn’t the 21-year prison vet’s first flirtation with Hollywood. Six years prior, his best-know book, 20,000 Years in Sing Sing, was adapted into a film starring Spencer Tracy as a cocky inmate, with Bette Davis as his loyal girlfriend. But Over the Wall was different. It was, ostensibly, the true story of a famous inmate. “The warden has not only been Alabama Pitts’ jailer,” an article explained, shortly after the film had been green lit, “but his best friend.”
Pitts was 19 when he arrived at Sing Sing. A grocery store robbery at gunpoint and attempted taxicab escape landed him in police custody, while being implicated in five previous robberies earned him eight to 16 years at the New York State penitentiary. A staunch opponent of capital punishment and lifelong champion of reform, Lawes had stepped into the role of warden a decade prior. Sports proved a key component of his sweeping reforms, and in 1931, the Prison got its own football team.
New York Giants owner Tim Mara was the team’s sponsor, providing equipment, uniforms and training for the Sing Sing Black Sheep. Former Manhattan College head coach John Law signed on to lead a team with Pitts switching between fullback and quarterback. The young man thrived.
"Alabama is a triple-threat man in more ways than one,” The United Press wire service wrote at the outset of his prison career. “He can punt, drop-kick, ram the line, pass, run a broken field, play the harmonica, wiggle his ears, play center field on the prison baseball team and is to be starred in the annual prison show next month."
The Black Sheep went 5-1 in their first year, tearing through one police team after the next at Lawes Field. They fell 13-0 in their sole loss of the season. The New York Times described the game under the headline, “Police ‘Rob’ Sing Sing of a Football Game.” Played in front of a crowd of 7,000, their match against the Port Jervis Police Department followed the Sheep’s 33-0 blow out against the Ossining Naval Militia.
“Pitts and his huskies did not know they were the victims of a ‘racket,’ ” the paper wrote. “They honestly believed that they were playing real policemen. The way they put their hearts and bodies into the job was proof enough that they thought they were up against a team made up of representatives of law and order. They were still fighting hard near the enemy goal line when the last whistle blew.”
The plaintive notes of “Just One More Chance” — a hit for Bing Crosby a year prior —pleadingly soundtracked the game courtesy of an incarcerated bugler. “Ain’t he good?” a prisoner asked the attending press core. “He was an ace in Sousa’s band before he got here.”
Pitts tried out for two football teams during his time at Sing Sing, while Yankees scouts were said to have attended a game. Lawes led the charge to release the young man early for good behavior, a goal realized midway through 1935.
“Alabama Pitts is coming out Thursday,” a report explained. “Four years of Sing Sing behind him – they’ll give him $5 and a suit of clothes and open the gates of the great ‘outside’ to him. […] He ‘graduates’ in June, just as the college football boys do after four years.”
Fresh out of prison, Pitts signed with minor league baseball team, the Albany Senators. The move was greeted by immediate criticism by National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues head William G. Bramham, who complained that it was, “against the best interest of the association.” A public in the throes of The Great Depression were sympathetic to Pitts’ personal struggles, and the 25-year-old was allowed to play. The same year, he signed with the Eagles, appearing three regular season games with Philadelphia’s recently formed NFL team.
His baseball career proved more fruitful, though he ultimately bounced between minor league teams and leagues, eventually being released by North Carolina’s Hickory Rebels, in spite of batting .303 in his final season. Three years after Over the Wall’s release, Pitts attempted to cut in to dance with a woman, only to be stabbed to death by her partner.
Sources:
Lawes is retiring as Sing Sing head https://www.nytimes.com/1941/07/07/archives/lawes-is-retiring-as-sing-sing-head-foe-of-capital-penalty-put-303.html
Alabama Pitts’ Life to Be Filmed Soon https://www.newspapers.com/clip/47981731/the-berkshire-eagle/
Alabama Pitts’ is ‘Blackballed’ By League Head https://www.newspapers.com/clip/40886632/the-birmingham-news/
The League of Outsider Baseball by Gary Cieradkowski
Today in Hollywood https://www.newspapers.com/clip/47979944/reading-times/