LATE EARLY 1930S: THIS ERA IS KNOWN AS PRE-CODE HOLLYWOOD Pre-Code Hollywood… The Racy Truth!!

Before the Production Code 1915: United States Supreme Court ruled in 1915 (Mutual Film Corporation v. Industrial Commission of Ohio) that motion pictures were merely a business and not an art form, and thus not covered by the First Amendment  Ordinances banning the public exhibition of "immoral" films proliferated. The movie studios feared that federal regulations were not far off.

1922: MPPDA and the “Morality Clause” are created – What are they? 1922 Creation of the Motion Pictures Producers and Distributors Association (which became the Motion Picture Association of America in 1945), Industry trade and lobby organization. Headed by Will H. Hays.  Hays immediately instituted a morality clause to apply to anyone working in films.  Also derailed attempts to institute federal censorship over the movies.

Dates of the Code The Motion Pictures Producers and Distributors Association (MPPDA), which later became the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA),  1927: “Don’ts and Be Carefuls”  1930: Adopted the code  1934: Enforced the code  1968: Abandoned the code in favor of the subsequent MPAA film rating system.

1927: “Don’t and Be Carefuls” 1927 Hays compiled a list of subjects he felt Hollywood studios would be wise to avoid. He called this list "the formula" but it was popularly known as the "don'ts and be carefuls" list around town.

1930 – Hays Production Code created Motion Picture Production Code is created, but not enforced The Production Code spelled out what was acceptable and what was unacceptable content for motion pictures produced for a public audience in the United States.

The Code has no TEETH! Depression economics and changing social mores resulted in the studios producing racier fare -- The Code couldn’t stop because it had no way to enforce Many found such censorship prudish, due to the free thinking social attitudes of the time period. Films in the late 1920s and early 30s reflected the liberal attitudes of the day and frequently included sexual innuendos, references to homosexuality, illegal drug use, infidelity, abortion, and profane language, as well as women in their undergarments. Strong women dominated the screen. Gangsters in films like The Public Enemy, Little Caesar, and A Free Soul were more heroic than evil. References to sexual promiscuity, drug use, bloody gangster life, and morally ambiguous endings began to draw the ire of various religious groups.

1934: The Code gets TEETH 1934: An amendment to the Code:  Established the Production Code Administration (PCA)  Joseph Breen was appointed to head the PCA  Under his leadership, enforcement of the Production Code became rigid and notorious. Breen's power to change scripts and scenes angered many writers, directors, and Hollywood moguls.moguls.  Required all films released on or after July to obtain a certificate of approval before being released.  For more than thirty years following, virtually all motion pictures produced in the United States adhered to the code.  The Production Code was not created or enforced by federal, state, or city government. Hollywood studios adopted the code in large part in the hopes of avoiding government censorship, preferring self-regulation to government regulation.

Effect of the Code Enforcement of the Production Code led to the dissolution of many local censorship boards There are those who argue that the Code forced filmmakers to be more creative in how they showed sex and violence on screen, resulting in some very interesting and amusing moments on film during the 30+ years it was in effect.

End of the Era The Code began to weaken in the late 1940s By the 1950s several aspects of the code had slowly lost their taboo. Areas of the code were rewritten in 1956 to now accept subjects such as interracial relationships, adultery, prostitution, and abortion. Billy Wilder's Some Like It Hot (1959) was released without a certificate of approval due to its themes and became a box office hit and, as a result, further weakened the authority of the Code. In the early 1960s, films began to deal with adult subjects and sexual matters that had not been seen in Hollywood films since the early 1930s. The MPAA reluctantly granted the seal of approval for these films, again not until certain cuts were made.

End of the Code Continued In 1966, the original, lengthy code was rewritten and replaced with a list of eleven points. The points outlined that the boundaries of the new code would be current community standards and good taste. In addition, any film containing content deemed to be suitable for older audiences would feature the label "Suggested for Mature Audiences" (SMA) in its advertising. The Code was replaced in 1966 by the MPAA ratings system, which attempts (not always successfully) to restrict who may see a film (and therefore where and when it can be shown), but does not prohibit any films from being made or shown