Hays Code
Between 1930 and 1968, all motion pictures were subject to the Production Code, now infamously known as the Hays Code. The Hays Code was created as a way to censor all motion pictures. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) adopted the Hays Code in 1930, hoping that these laws would prohibit anything considered immoral or socially unacceptable.
During the 1920′s, the city of Hollywood became a controversial conversational point because it allowed the press to sensationalize three major scandals, involving Hollywood celebrities. These stories included the manslaughter trials of Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle, who was charged with murdering actress Virginia Rappe, the murder of director William Desmond Taylor, who was exposed as being bisexual and the drug -related death of Wallace Reid. Everyone wanted to know about these scandalous stories, so the press made sure to cover them all. This, in turn confirmed the perception that Hollywood was an immoral city, later causing many to coin the scandalous as “Sin City”.
Seeing that so many Americans viewed Hollywood as being an unethical and immoral city, they believed it logical to create the Motion Pictures Producers and Distributors Association in 1922 (later known as the MPAA in 1945). Will H. Hays became the leader of this new organization and his first order was to ban actor Fatty Arbuckle from all the movie theaters. In 1927, Hays made a list, in which he outlined all that was acceptable and unacceptable viewing material in movies. This list later popularly became known as the “don’t's and be careful’s list”.
In 1930, the Studio Relations Committee (SRC) was founded, by Hays, as a means to implement his new code, however it was not that successful, as it could not not enforce anything legally. Following the creation of the original code, Martin Quigley, publisher of motion picture trade newspaper based in Chicago, believed that the code should be more extensive and cover more immoral issues. That was why Quigley recruited the services of Father Daniel Lord, a Jesuit priest and Catholic St. Louis University instructor, to write a longer code which aboded to the Catholic Church’s morals and sets of values. On March 31, 1930, this code became official and was formerly dubbed as the Hays Code.
In order to put more pressure on movie studios and enforce their new Hays Code, the MPAA sought help from the Catholic Church.
On June 13, 1934, all film studios and films were subject to a new amendment to the Hays Code. It required that all films now receive a certificate of approval, from the MPAA, stating that it was given permission to be viewed in theaters. For thirty years following the implementation of this change, all motion pictures in the United States adhered to the law.
In 1934, Joseph Breen was appointed the new head of the PCA (Production Code Administration). Under his rule, the Hays Code became more rigid, making many film studios unhappy. Breen became many film studios’ most hated person because he had the power to drastically change scripts and scenes.
In 1934, Breen enforced his code on “Tarzan and His Mate”, by making it the first film that was really subjected to censorship. In this movie, actress Maureen O’ Sullivan was said to have too many brief nude scenes, making Breen quite angry. Many films after that were harshly subject to Breen’s Code. Even Betty Boop was forced to change from the free-spirited flapper to dressing like the calm and reserved housewife.
In the late 1950′s, the Hays Code came under major threat with the introduction of foreign films. Foreign films were not subject to Hays Code laws, making them nearly impossible to ban.
In 1951, people thought that the Hays Code would become more flexible, but it did not. Instead the laws became more rigid, now involving censorship on words and more subjects. With the production of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho” and Billy Wilder’s “Some Like It Hot”, who released their films without any certificate of approval, the Hays Code became less and less relevant. These films did not seek approval from the MPAA, yet they still became box office hits. Consequently, these films aided in weakening the power and authority that the Hays Code had over the cinema industry.
In the 1960′s, the Hays Code faced one of the biggest issues in America. With the emergence of new gay civil rights movements, homosexuality became a subject more commonly seen in movies. This led to more censorship and restrictions established by the Hays Code.
Eventually, the Hays Code became less and less effective, until it was completely abandoned. On November 1, 1968, the MPAA implemented new film ratings: G, M, R and X. In 1970, the M rating was replaced by GP and then in 1972, it was replace by the current PG. In response to the films Gremlins and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, which received many complaints that they were to horrific, the rating PG-13 was created. In 1990, the X rating was replaced by NC-17, because X was already being used by the pornography industry in their XXX.
Over the years, the film industry has faced so many changes, some for the bad, but most for the good. If you want to see all the original laws that the Hays Code contained, here is a link to view them:
http://www.artsreformation.com/a001/hays-code.html
