Use the Text Tips

Just by placing your mouse over a year, you’ll see something like this:

Wherever you see a year number given in a different type face and character spacing, you may place the mouse over the year to get additional information about how the release date of that particular film fits into the timeframe of the MPPDA’s authority.  (In a very few cases, a word is formatted this way, and in these cases it is possible to place the mouse over the text to get additional text.)
 

The Production Code of the Motion Picture Industry (1930-1968)

Movies from 1930 to 1968 were governed by a Production Code.  This web site reproduces the Production Code (see frame at left) and gives examples of where the Code prevented proposed stories and scenes from reaching American cinemas.  Scenes that violated, challenged or stretched the limits of the Code are described.  (The dates above, 1930 to 1968, may be misleading because from 1930 to mid-1934, numerous movies were released without penalty or remedial action even though the movies did not conform to the requirements of the Production Code.  Those wanting examples will find many within the linked new window.  1930 to July 2, 1934, is often called the “pre-code” period, not because the Code hadn’t already been formulated and circulated, but because this period was pre-enforcement of the Code.  People, even film scholars, say “pre-code” because it’s easier than “pre-enforcement of the Code.”)

How the Code Came About

The Production Code came into being because the owners of the major Hollywood movie studios sought to stave off the threat of a national government-run censorship operation.  They also wanted to assure concerned civic leaders throughout the United States that Hollywood would deliver only wholesome movies and thus that there was no further editing to be done by the state and local censorship boards that had sprung up during the decade preceding the Code.

The Studio Relations Committee was organized in 1930 by the already-extant organization the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA) and given the responsible for the administration of industry self-censorship. The Studio Relations Committee was reconstituted as the Production Code Administration in 1934, after which it was more effective.

(Prior to 1930, the MPPDA had circulated a list of 36 subjects called the “Don’ts and Be Carefuls” (1927).  The MPPDA had formed in 1922 to reassure America that Hollywood did not condone immorality in the wake of lifestyle scandals then in newspaper headlines.)

The Production Code was adopted March 31, 1930, although it would be modified over the years.  (Examples are cited elsewhere within this web site.)

Why the name “Hays Code”?

The name “Hays Office” has long been synonymous with Hollywood’s self-censorship body, yet its namesake ceased to be involved in its daily operations prior to the period of its most-remembered conflicts with filmmakers.  Will H. Hays had indeed been the first president of the MPPDA (in 1922).  He had been installed as leader when the studio heads sought a man whose background in federal government would reassure the nation that Hollywood films would not corrupt the citizenry.

During the period that the Production Code was in existence, its enforcement was the responsibility of Jason Joy (1930-32), James Wingate (1932-34), Joseph I. Breen (chief censor the longest: 1934-54), and Geoffrey M. Shurlock (1954-68).  Stephen Jackson filled in for Breen for several months in 1948.

Eric Johnston replaced Will H. Hays as head administrator in 1945 and remained until his death in 1963.  Jack Valenti became the face of the organization in 1966.  Each of these three men was more an ambassador, lobbyist and salesman for the movie industry than a shaper of content.  (The same year Johnston started, the organization changed its name to the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).)  (Readers noticing the similarity between the name in “Hays Office” and the surname of the author of this web site, should examine the disparity in spelling.  Beyond the different spelling, the author of this web site has no known relationship to any person connected with the MPPDA/MPAA.)

• meander around topics of sex?
  
• hide violence behind foreground objects or within shadows?
  
• never treat the serious subjects that are dealt with in the best-regarded novels of the era?

In noticing these, you’ve seen instances where the Production Code Administration had their way against the wishes of filmmakers.  The Production Code Administration scuttled, weakened or diluted numerous scenes proposed by writers and directors of Hollywood films from 1934 to 1968.  (When you look at the Production Code itself (frame at left) and click on the graphics on the outer edge of the browser frame, you will open within a sub-frame various lists of examples: scenes that skirted the Production Code, scenes that could not be filmed under the Production Code, scenes that were changed because of the Production Code, or (not often) scenes which reached movie screens despite the existence of Production Code.

Notes about re-editings of the Production Code

The version of the Production Code originally adopted by the Motion Picture Producers & Distributors of America on March 31, 1930, is in its substance the same as the rewritten version dated June 13, 1934.  Revisions after the latter date brought about changes, additions and deletions concerning the content allowed in movies, yet the revision of the 1930 version done in 1934 was merely a case of revising to improve the readability.  This web site does not provide the text of the 1930 version because the 1934 version is substantially the same.  The table below provides one example of how a passage was reworded from its 1930 version for its 1934 incarnation.  Those interested in reading the 1930 version (not reproduced on this site) and comparing it to the 1934 and later versions (which are on this site) may do so by bringing up the 1930 version at artsreformation.com (complete) and gmu.edu (without “Reasons” section).

In 1956, the Production Code was fully rewritten yet again.  It became much shorter.  This shorter, leaner version of the Code can be read online at Google Books (where it appears with a footnote about a 1961 change, lacks section XI and seems to be reproduced from a source which left off the entire “Reasons” section).  (Although the page you are currently reading does not endeavor to indicate every cut made for the 1956 version of the Production Code, notations are made denoting significant differences between the pre-1956 and post-1956 editions.  Readers of this page should not assume that they will learn of every change, but can observe where allowances were permitted to filmmakers regarding subject matter previously denied them.)

One more thorough rewrite of the Production Code occurred, this one dated September 20, 1966.  The text is offered as a supplement on this Production Code web site.  The passages restricting the content of the movies became the leanest of any version of the Code, a small fraction of the size of the earlier ones.  The 1966 version has just ten items of one to three sentences each.  Even with its sections on declaration of principles, permissible advertising, permissible titles, and administrative matters, this version of the Code is puny.  For the Motion Picture Association of America, its efforts to update the Code for the late 1960s proved untenable; in just a couple of years, the Motion Picture Association introduced the modern ratings system (“G” “R”, “X”, etc.), ridding the industry of the old idea of the Code entirely.

Readers of this web page should be aware that tables such as the one above do appear to indicate passages of the Code that were added or removed during the period of 1934 to 1955.  This page endeavors to show every passage that was part of the Code from 1934 to 1955.  For that reason, the Code is occasionally interrupted to show two (or more) versions of the same passage, along with date information alerting the reader as to which years the particular passage was in effect.  Readers who find this confusing may want to confine their reading of tables to only the top white-background cell in each table, as that will be earliest version.

Comments by the creator of this web site are in a different type font, italicized and indented.

Note to readers about additions to the Code are indicated in notes formatted as this one is; likewise, remarks about passages which were moved from one section to another, are made in notes of this kind. However, not every deletion is indicated. Where the Code ceased to include an item, it typically was not owing the subject ceasing to be objectionable (in the view of the Production Code Administration) but due to the subject remaining covered by a broad category that retained enforceability.
 

A Word About Changes in Wording
Between Editions of the Production Code

The following is a passage from the Code as originally published:

During the rapid transition from silent to talking pictures they realized the necessity and the opportunity of subscribing to a Code to govern the production of talking pictures and of acknowledging this responsibility.

On their part, they ask from the public and from public leaders a sympathetic understanding of their purposes and problems and a spirit of cooperation that will allow them the freedom and opportunity necessary to bring the motion picture to a still higher level of wholesome entertainment for all the people.

The paragraph two higher than this [“During the rapid...”] was omitted from a later printing. The paragraph immediately above is merely one of many which became more concise as revisions were prepared. The comparison offered here will have to suffice for those not compared; substantive alterations in later passages will be noted. The paragraph above came to read:

On their part, they ask from the public and from public leaders a sympathetic understanding of the problems inherent in motion picture production and a spirit of cooperation that will allow the opportunity necessary to bring the motion picture to a still higher level of wholesome entertainment for all concerned.

Later versions omit so many specific details —— many of which describe actual scenes from movies of the era —— that the web site proprietor did not want to merely present the version of the Code with the best writing in place of the most detail.  This site is intended for those desiring historic information.  Thus, notes of this type must suffice.

 Here are direct links to full-length articles (all of them part of this web site) focused on particular subjects arising from the enforcement of the Production Code: 

LAUREL & HARDY VS. THE CENSORS

• Article on changes made to several Laurel & Hardy comedies

AYN RAND VS. HOLLYWOOD SELF-CENSORSHIP

TWO ARTICLES ON FILMS DEALING WITH ABORTION:

 (Each article will open in a new window.) 

This is not all, Folks!

Links provided within the “examples” frames launch illustrated pages on over two dozen subjects.  Some of these two-dozen-plus separate windows have audio and motion-video available.  Almost all have still images reproduced from the actual movies under discussion.  Among the subjects illustrated are: