Motion Picture Production Code

Hollywood’s morals were quickly declining and people were noticing. To prevent government censorship and continue operating without facing consequences like fines or jail time, Hollywood studios needed to change. This is when the Motion Picture Production Code was introduced to prevent the government from getting involved. Hollywood stars were involved in several risqué films and a series of off-screen scandals such as the murder of William Desmond Taylor and the alleged rape of Virginia Rappe by popular movie star Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle. Many people felt the movie industry had always been morally questionable. Political pressure was increasing, with legislators in 37 states introducing almost 100 movie censorship bills in 1921. In 1922, Hollywood studios enlisted Will H. Hays to rehabilitate Hollywood’s image. The move to enlist Hays mimicked the decision major league baseball had made in hiring Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis as league commissioner to quell questions about integrity of baseball after the 1919 world series gambling scandal. New York Times even called Hays the “Screen Landis”. In 1929, a catholic layman, Martin Qurgley and the Jesuit priest Father Daniel A. Lord created a code of standards and submitted it to the studios. Lord was specifically concerned with the effects of sound film on children, he considered children to be especially susceptible to their allure. In February of 1930, studio heads met with Lord and Qurgley, after some revisions, they agreed to the stipulations of the code. On March 31, the MPPDA (Motion Picture Association of America) agreed it would follow the rules of the code. The Motion Picture Production Code was a set of industry moral guidelines that was applied to most United States motion pictures released by major studios from 1930-1968. The Code was adopted in 1930 but not seriously enforced until 1934. It spelled out what was acceptable and what was unacceptable content for motion pictures produced for public audience in the United States. The Code was commonly known as the Hays Code. The Code was known as the Hays Code after Will H. Hays was enlisted to rehabilitate Hollywood’s image. Hays, a former Postmaster General, was the first head of the office of the Code’s enforcement, so his name became attached to it. The Hays Code was divided into two main parts. The first part was a set of “general principles” which prohibited a picture from “lowering the moral standards of those who see it,” called for depictions of the “correct standards of life,” and lastly forbade a picture from showing any sort of ridicule towards law or “creating sympathy for its violation”. The second part was a set of “particular applications” which was an exacting list of items, which could not be depicted. Some of the positive outcomes of the Code were that directors and producers had to become creative with their movies. They had to think outside of the box to be able to develop a good movie that went along with the Code. Another positive outcome was that it guaranteed that almost every movie in every theatre was G-rated, and suitable for all family members to see. At the time it started, television didn’t exist, so movies were the primary source of family entertainment. With the Code censoring out any objectionable material, parents didn’t have to worry about taking their kids to a movie and being shocked by something crude or violent that they don’t want their children to see. The Code also had its disadvantages though. It prevented many movie-makers from making the kind of movies they wanted to make, stifled creativity, didn’t allow for a realistic depiction of society as it really existed, and stopped movie-makers from discussing controversial social issues, such as homosexuality. They rules were often prudish, they were even banned from using the word “virgin”, and even married couples were show sleeping in separate beds. By the 1960’s, social mores had changed so much that the Code was outdated. With TV there for clean, censored entertainment, movies needed edgier subject matter to attract adult audiences to theatres. Eventually studios simply started ignoring the Code, and it fell apart. It was replaced by the movie rating system, which allowed studios to make the movies they wanted, but kept children out of adult films, and warned potential audiences when the content might be objectionable. They Hays Code was created to keep the government from stepping in and taking over Hollywood. It may have been create for that main reason but it was also created so that families didn’t have to worry about if they could bring their children to the movies with them or not. With the Code censoring movies, families were able to go to the movie theatre without having the slightest worry of what their children might see. The Hays Code was also created for a worry free environment for parents.