the motion picture production code, popularly the hays code, was the american film industry's system of self-censorship, applied to most major-studio films from 1934 to 1968. martin quigley, editor of the motion picture herald, and father daniel a. lord, a jesuit priest, wrote it in 1929; studio heads agreed to it in february 1930 and the motion picture producers and distributors of america adopted it on 31 march 1930. it is named for will h. hays, mppda president from 1922 to 1945.
the code answered a wave of state censorship. in 1921, thirty-seven states introduced nearly one hundred censorship bills, and new york set up the first state censorship board that year, after the supreme court held in 1915, in mutual film corporation v. industrial commission of ohio, that films were not covered by free speech. the studios chose self-regulation, hiring hays in 1922; a "don'ts and be carefuls" list drawn up in 1927 by irving thalberg, sol wurtzel and e. h. allen supplied many of the code's items.
enforcement became rigid only in 1934: an amendment adopted on 13 june 1934 created the production code administration, and every film released from 1 july 1934 had to hold a seal of approval. joseph i. breen ran the office until his retirement in 1954, when geoffrey shurlock succeeded him. the code required that crime be punished and never made sympathetic, kept clergy and marriage respectable, and barred miscegenation, by 1934 defined as black-white relationships, along with any depiction of homosexuality.
the office rewrote scripts: hitchcock's rebecca (1940) dropped the novel's murder, and casablanca (1942) kept its affair implied. films were increasingly released without a seal, among them otto preminger's the moon is blue (1953), the first from a member company, and some like it hot (1959), refused a seal yet a box-office hit. the supreme court's 1952 decision in joseph burstyn, inc. v. wilson gave films first amendment protection, removing the state-censorship threat behind the code.
jack valenti took over the association in 1966, the year who's afraid of virginia woolf? was approved with viewers under 16 to be accompanied by an adult, and the long code was replaced by eleven points leaving decisions to "current community standards and good taste". on 1 november 1968 the rating system took effect with the symbols g, m, r and x, and the production code administration gave way to the code and rating administration.
related profiles; The Golden Age of Hollywood, Movie Studios, Roadshow Theatrical Release
sources; motion picture production code, will h. hays, pre-code hollywood, joseph burstyn, inc. v. wilson, mpaa rating system
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