Beginning
with some of the earliest exhibitions of motion pictures, there was public
debate about the question of whether the motion picture industry was morally
fit to control the content of its own products. As early as 1909 the People's
Institute in New York City created "The New York Board of Motion Picture
Censorship". This board quickly acquired a great deal of influence beyond
New York City, and most of the major motion picture producers eventually agreed
to submit all of their films to the board and to not release any films unless
approved by it. To reflect its growing importance, the board changed its name
to "The National Board of Censorship" and then, in 1915, to "The
National Board of Review". The Board's "Seal of Approval" became
the first formal attempt by the film industry to ward off legal film censorship
through quasi self–regulation. Despite this effort, in 1914 three Congressional
bills were introduced seeking to establish a Federal Motion Picture Censorship
Commission. Each bill sought to establish that, "no copyright shall be issued for any
film which has not previously received the certificate and seal of the
commission."
Although none of these bills became law, they were a clear reflection of public
concerns over the quality, propriety, decency and taste of the movies being
produced by Hollywood.
Powerful
religious groups and other concerned authorities in many states were ready to
respond when no federal laws were enacted to control the content of motion
pictures. After state censorship of motion pictures was declared constitutional
by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1915 (Mutual Film Corporation v. Ohio
Industrial Commission),
seven states and numerous cities and towns across the country established and
administered movie censorship boards that decreed what could and couldn't be
shown in their communities. By the early 1930s one–third of the American film
audience resided in areas controlled by state or municipal movie censors.
To
fight the exhibition chaos that ensued from having multiple authorities chop up
movies in multiple ways, or ban them altogether, the major Hollywood studios
and distributors formed a trade association in 1922 called The Motion Picture Producers and
Distributors of America
(MPPDA). They hired Will H. Hays to be the MPPDA's first president, at an
annual salary of $150,000, and this politically savvy former U.S. Postmaster
General would be their advisor and advocate for the next 23 years.
The
MPPDA pursued policies of self–regulation with regard to film content,
arbitration, intra–industry relations, and negotiations with government entities.
They agreed to voluntarily regulate film content by establishing a branch to
oversee and control the moral values of the stories they filmed. Initially
called The
Studio Relations Committee (SRC), but eventually known as the "Hays
Office", this branch of the MPPDA consolidated and synthesized the
restrictions and eliminations that had been deemed necessary by state and
foreign censors and, in 1927, produced a list of "Don'ts and Be
Carefuls" to govern production. Members agreed to specifically avoid 11
objectionable topics and to treat 26 others with care and good taste. Studio
compliance, however, was often weak and inconsistent because there were no
penalties for not following this "code". For instance, of the 572
films submitted to the various censorship boards in 1928, only 42 passed review
unscathed.
By the
time "talking pictures" began to replace silent pictures, it became
clear that a new expanded code providing guidelines for movie dialogue needed
to be written. (In 1929 alone, 7,500 theaters — more than 50% of the total —
were wired for sound.) With angry church groups threatening to campaign for
federal regulation of the motion picture industry because of what they
considered the continuing indecency and immorality of Hollywood's movies and
stars, the MPPDA produced a corporate statement of policy about the appropriate
content of entertainment cinema and acknowledged the possible influence of
movies on the morals and conduct of those who saw them. This statement, called The Motion Picture Production Code (and known informally as "The
Hays Code"), was published on March 31, 1930. This new code provided for
an appointed "jury" (composed of three heads of production chosen
from studios who were MPPDA members) that would be the final arbiters of
whether a film conformed "to the spirit and letter of the Code".
Determining exactly what the "spirit and letter of the Code" was,
however, generated a tremendous amount of debate for the next four years and
proved to be an enormous loophole for producers wishing to challenge the
guidelines.
When
the new Production Code was announced church groups and other moral arbiters
received its guidelines with a great deal of skepticism, and as the moral
boundaries of good taste continued to be tested and challenged by a number of
feature movies their skepticism became overt anger. In 1934 the Catholic
Church's bishops voted to establish The Legion of Decency — a group that evaluated the
content of movies, advised Catholic congregations about a film's moral content,
and asked Catholics to sign a pledge
promising "to remain away from all motion pictures except those which do
not offend decency and Christian morality." Boycotts of selected films in
major cities were threatened, although the only actual boycott of any size
occurred in Philadelphia. This boycott, however, was enough to convince the
major Hollywood studios that immediate action had to be taken. On the 13th of
June, 1934, the SRC was renamed The Production Code Administration (PCA), and a Catholic reformer
named Joseph Breen was made its director. Breen enforced the Code with a potent
mixture of missionary zeal and administrative tenacity, and after Will Hays retired
in the early 1940s many began referring to the PCA as the "Breen"
Office instead of the Hays Office.
The
members of the MPPDA agreed that each film passed by the PCA would receive a
certificate number. This number would be displayed with the MPPDA seal on every
print released by their studios, including short subjects and cartoons. Without
this certificate the movie would not be shown in any theater owned by a major
studio, or distributed by any MPPDA member. (The theater chains owned by the
major Hollywood studios accounted for more than 70% of America's first–run
movie houses in cities with a population greater than 100,000.) The PCA was
given the authority to review and delete what it felt was morally objectionable
material from both the final script before a movie was shot, and the finished
movie before it was released. The producers "jury" was eliminated,
and the PCA was authorized to impose a $25,000 fine on any studio that made
changes to a film after it received the PCA certificate. The only way a ruling
by the PCA could be overturned was through a direct appeal to the MPPDA's Board
of Directors, something that was rarely allowed.
The
Motion Picture Production Code began by stating that, "No picture shall be produced
which will lower the moral standards of those who see it." While acknowledging that, "Motion pictures are very
important as Art",
the Code made it clear that, " . . . the sympathy of the audience shall
never be thrown to the side of crime, wrongdoing, evil or sin." The Code went on to provide
specific moral obligations, working principles, and production guidelines for
the treatment of various plots and plot elements.
Although
by 1940 Code enforcement had become standard operating procedure in America's
motion picture industry, there was a gradual weakening of compliance during and
after World War II. Open resistance to the Code started with a few major
independent producers and, at first, focused on pictures geared to more sophisticated
urban audiences.
Howard
Hughes, for instance, conducted a much–publicized battle over "The Outlaw", his 1943 "adult western"
starring Jane Russell. The Hays Office instructed Hughes to reshoot or
eliminate 37 specific shots in which they felt Russell's breasts were
overemphasized. Hughes refused to comply and appealed the PCA's decision to the
MPPDA's Board of Directors. The Board, made up of studio executives who were
dealing with similar scenes in their own productions, agreed to grant the Seal
of Approval if a few minor cuts were made. Although Hughes made the cuts and
finally received a Seal, he ended up shelving the movie. In 1946, however,
Hughes suddenly decided to openly defy the PCA, the Legion of Decency (who had
condemned "The
Outlaw"),
and many local censorship boards by distributing the movie as it was originally
filmed using a risqué advertising campaign that "openly and
repeatedly" violated the PCA's advertising code. Even though the PCA
revoked the movie's Seal of Approval and many movie theaters refused to show
it, "The
Outlaw"
was a major box–office success wherever it was shown.
After
Will Hays retired in 1945 the MPPDA was renamed The Motion Picture Association of
America
(MPAA), a name it still retains. Hays' sudden absence was another blow to the
faltering authority of the Production Code Administration, and his guidance,
reputation, and judgment were greatly missed.
Pressure
to relax the PCA's guidelines continued to grow and came from many quarters. In
1948 the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its momentous "Paramount
Decision" (United
States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc.), an antitrust decree that ordered
the major Hollywood studios to divest themselves of their theater chains.
Without its theaters as an enforcement tool, the MPAA and its Production Code
Administration lost a great deal of clout. Then there was the growing
popularity of television during the early 1950s, and the growing competition
from foreign films, both of which contributed to the declining attendance at
Hollywood's movies. (Many in Hollywood felt that one way to lure back audiences
was to make their sophisticated, adult productions more cutting–edge.) Finally,
the legal standing of state and local censorship boards was greatly limited by
a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1952 (Joseph Burstyn v. Wilson) that is often referred to as the
"Miracle Decision". Ruling on this case, that concerned an Italian
film called "The
Miracle"
which had been banned in New York City, the Supreme Court overturned its 1915
decision and ruled that "expression
by means of motion pictures is included within the free speech and free press
guaranty of the First and Fourteenth Amendments." Although some municipal and state
censorship of movies would continue for the next decade, the "Miracle
Decision" effectively sounded the death knell for local government
oversight of the movie industry. After a number of other court challenges were
lost by film censors, government censorship of movies in the United States
eventually disappeared by the mid–1960s.
In
1953 Otto Preminger released his film "The Moon is Blue" without a Seal of Approval. Despite
not having a PCA Seal, and despite being condemned by the Roman Catholic
Church's Legion of Decency, and despite being shut out of many theaters, "The Moon is Blue" ended up being both a critical and
financial success. Because this suggested that the guidelines of the Production
Code no longer fit the needs of the 1950s, and its Seal of Approval no longer
determined the economic destiny of a movie, the PCA responded by becoming
increasingly more flexible. After Joseph Breen resigned from the PCA in 1954,
his successor, Geoffrey Shurlock, rather quickly acquiesced to pressure from
both Hollywood and the public, and by 1956 the Production Code was revised. The
Code now approved such formerly controversial subjects as miscegenation,
abortion, childbirth, and drug addiction. By 1959 Shurlock admitted that any
subject except homosexuality could be presented in PCA–approved films as long
as a "moral conflict" provided the "proper frame of
reference." Meanwhile, The Legion of Decency's influence gradually
declined during the 1950s when it became clear that its objections no longer
automatically hurt a film at the box–office.
In the
spring of 1961 the head of the Motion Picture Association of America suggested
for the first time that the organization might be willing to consider dropping
the Production Code entirely in favor of some sort of voluntary classification
system for movies. By the time the movie "Blow–Up" was released in 1966 without a Seal
of Approval, and enjoyed extraordinarily good box-office business in its first
six weeks, it became clear to many observers that the Production Code had
become irrelevant. In the autumn of 1966 another revision of the Production
Code was unveiled which recommended that movies, " . . . keep in closer harmony
with the mores, the culture, the moral sense and the expectation of our society." The weekly news magazine NEWSWEEK called the new Code "a glittering diadem of
hypocrisy."
On
November 1, 1968, the Motion Picture Production Code was officially replaced by
the first version of the MPAA's voluntary movie classification system. This
classification system assigns a rating (currently: G, PG, PG–13, R, or NC–17)
to a movie based on the movie's content and the way that content is handled.
These ratings are cautionary warnings for parents rather than an endorsement.
Although the MPAA continues to issue certificate numbers for all films assigned
one of its classifications , and its seal and certificate number are still displayed
at the end of a film's credits, the certificate number now merely indicates
that the movie has been viewed by the MPAA and has received an MPAA rating.
"Children watch too much television" is a commonly heard cry. There is so much bad content on television and in movies that it would be easy to assume that shielding our children from television and movies would be the action of a responsible parent.
