Even more interesting was the fact that Stroud himself was restricted from reading his own biography. The strict policy of Alcatraz prohibited inmates from reading materials that referenced any crime-related activities. Morton Sobell, known as the famous “Atom Spy” and co-defendant of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, resided on Alcatraz for five years. He later recounted that he was the only inmate on Alcatraz who received the magazine Scientific American and that an article featuring Stroud slipped through the censors in September of 1957. Sobell managed to have the article smuggled to Stroud up in the hospital ward, and this would be one of the first printed biographies he would read on the subject of his own life. Jim Quillen also stated that while he wasn’t certain, he had heard that individual pages of the Gaddis book had been slipped to Stroud over a period of several years.
The years of seclusion ultimately took their toll on Stroud and he attempted suicide twice. His physical health also started to deteriorate visibly. He suffered lengthy bouts of depression, and there were rumors of his failure to thrive. On July 13, 1959, while being escorted to the recreation yard, Stroud was stopped and notified that he was being transferred once again, and was directed back to his cell. After spending seventeen difficult years on Alcatraz, Stroud was to be moved to the Medical Center in Springfield, Missouri. He would arrive there on July 15 th.
Stroud was euphoric with his new environment in Springfield. In a brief letter to his attorney Stanley Furman, he wrote in part:
“I have already been told that I have the run of my ward, have met old friends, one going back to 1913, and have seen my first TV. I have twice as much space to walk as I had in the yard at Alcatraz. I am out in the ward up to 10:00 p.m. and I have a night call button in case of illness.”
In addition to being moved to a low security area of the medical prison, he was also given a private room in which he could open and close his own door. He was able to walk the vast grounds of the prison and spend time basking in the sun, which he had not been allowed to do since the beginning of his imprisonment fifty years ago in 1909. In addition to seeing his first television set, he was also able to listen to radio broadcasts freely. Stroud took employment as a bookbinder in the prison library and then as a tanner in the leather shop. Phyllis Gaddis, the daughter of the famed writer, later wrote that Stroud had made her a hand-tooled purse with his initials stamped on the face when she was a young girl.
A fellow inmate named Joseph Duhamel also took a keen interest in Stroud’s tale. He spent two years with Stroud helping to document his story In His Own Wordsfor a magazine article that would later appear in Saga Magazine. The article was so popular that the issue quickly sold out and became the magazine’s only second print run in its history. To avoid detection by prison officials, Duhamel claimed that he purchased a World Almanac, and each day he would write notes while Stroud dictated to him in the prison yard at Springfield. Duhamel stated that he used oxalic acid, a chemical employed to treat leather, as a type of invisible ink. The agent would become visible with the application of heat from a clothing iron. Duhamel published the article following his release from prison.
In 1958, 20 thCentury Fox entertained the idea of making a movie chronicling Stroud’s life, but later dropped the project under pressure from the Prison Bureau. Actor Burt Lancaster had reportedly become immersed in Gaddis’ book and he lobbied United Artists to join forces with his own production company, Norma Productions (named after his second wife Norma Anderson), to make what he considered a very important film. United Artists finally agreed and provided a budget of $2,650,000, with shooting to begin in late 1960. Lancaster would soon become obsessed with the project and he eagerly assembled his film-making team. This team included Cameraman Burnett Guffer ( From Here to Eternity), who helped to create a cinematographic tone that seemed to capture the essence of Stroud’s dark world. The film’s producers, Stuart Millar and Guy Trosper, who had also adapted the screenplay, spent nearly $200,000 of their budget building mock sets of Leavenworth and Alcatraz on Columbia Pictures’ back lot in Hollywood.
The Bureau of Prisons denounced Lancaster for helping to glorify the actions of a murderer and pledged to extend no support to the filming. Lancaster had also made attempts to visit Stroud and Former Correctional Officer Clifford Fish recalled an episode when Lancaster demanded that he be allowed to dock his yacht next to Alcatraz and meet Stroud in person. It was communicated to Lancaster that he would not be permitted to dock at Alcatraz and that if he approached without permission, his boat would be fired upon by tower guards. Reluctantly, Lancaster conceded.
The original director of the film was Briton Charles Crichton, but after only one month he was fired by Lancaster and replaced with John Frankenheimer. Lancaster had immersed himself in Stroud’s very complex character and the atmosphere on the set had taken on almost a symbolic significance; it was clear that this was the filming of a true epic. Lancaster would be forced to shave half of his head to accurately recreate the appearance of thinning hair and complicated makeup procedures were used to capture the effect of the aging process over time.
Burt Lancaster having makeup applied during the production of Birdman of Alcatraz.
Emotionally the filming was also very exhausting and taxing to the actors and film crew. In January of 1961, during the filming of the 1946 Alcatraz Riot at the Columbia studio, Burt Lancaster’s brother died suddenly of heart attack at the early age of fifty-five. It would prove to be an eerie and horrific scene, as the body was taken from the set on an ambulance stretcher. Despite this horrible tragedy, the crew continued filming through what would later be described as a surreal event. Guffey would later comment that it had almost felt like he was sitting in the middle of a real riot, as the actors were in a deeply emotional state following the death of Lancaster’s brother, John.
After the film was completed in February and following initial screenings and an unsuccessful editing, it was decided that the opening segments would need to be rewritten and re-filmed. Lancaster had made another commitment to film the movie Judgment at Nurembergand would need to fulfill this obligation before returning to work on Birdmanin May of 1961.
Birdman of Alcatrazfinally premiered in April of 1962. Lancaster, Gaddis and Stroud’s attorney Stanley Furman, held press conferences at the various screenings, attempting to rally support for Stroud’s release. Lancaster sent personal letters inviting guests to special screenings of the movie, stating:
“... I would be delighted to discuss with you the inside details of an incredible epic story. The film, based on the life of the most defiant man I have ever read or heard about. Your understanding will begin when you read the enclosed material on Stroud the killer, convict, scholar, scientist. I am convinced that only by showing you the film personally and talking with you could you comprehend my deep involvement, emotionally and intellectually, with this man and his life.”
A personal invitation from Actor Burt Lancaster, inviting Bureau of Prisons Director James Bennett to a screening of Birdman of Alcatraz in 1962.