Most of the extras in this film were real locals from the Bowery area, as well as from Hell's Kitchen, and had never appeared before in films. Most of the gangster characters were actual gangsters in real life.
Raoul Walsh and his assistants hired a few local men to recruit extras for the river boat scene. On the scheduled day, they showed up with hundreds of people eager to make a few dollars. Most of them were rough city types and many of the women were obviously prostitutes.
This was the first film directed by Raoul Walsh on his new contract for Fox Films on a $400 per week salary (equivalent to over $11,000/week in 2022). Fox was so impressed with his work that they raised him to $800 a week (nearly $23,000/week in 2022) and threw in a new Simplex automobile.
The play, "The Regeneration" by Owen Frawley Kildare and Walter C. Hackett, opened in New York on 1 September 1908 and ran for 39 performances. In the cast were Janet Beecher and Helen Ware.