The appointment of Will Hays as president of the MPPDA in 1922 prompted the moral restoration of a rapidly corrupted image of the motion picture industry. It was during a time when sex and crime were f

for movie producers to follow in order to dodge the threat of government intervention. Its ideals reflected those of progressives and reformists, who also stood behind the previously introduced virtue of Prohibition. These were the individuals who regarded the motion picture not as a medium of entertaining the masses, but as a disease in society and a detriment to all that was good and pure.# It was the intention of Lord and Quigley to distinguish films as not just a form of crude entertainment, but something that could reshape the "bodies and souls of human beings" and "affect the spiritual or moral progress." And so it was Hollywood's responsibility, as well as theirs, to create a new motion picture suitable to all types of audiences, while still preserving the "moral responsibilities of the motion pictures." With this in mind, Lord proposed a fundamental basis for the Production Code, consisting of the following principles: 1) "No picture should lower the moral standards of those who see it." 2) "Law, natural or divine, must not be belittled, ridiculed, nor must a sentiment be created against it." 3)"As far as possible, life should not be misrepresented, at least not in such a way as to place in the mind of youth false values on life."# There was a mixed response of the public to the Production Code, which was not entirely enforced until 1934. Some believed it was essential and the only intelligent solution to the problem. Others concentrated on the fact that the industry had already undergone a great deal of scrutiny and did not require the pressure of any more forceful reforms. It was expressed that there was no possible manner in which “Hollywood could satisfy a twelve-year-old and an adult in the same picture.

The movie industry often found its opposition among different groups in society, most commonly, religious assemblies and the state governments. The Catholic Church played a significant role in the effort to establish censorship. The church threatened with numerous boycotts; however, it was a Jesuit priest and a devout Catholic publisher who authored the infamous Production Code enforced on the studio system. Preceding the Hays office, over half of the states were attempting to impose censorship upon production companies. All, except Virginia, failed in p

Some topics in this essay:
Production Code, Sin Cinema, Hays Office, Lord Quigley, Church Code, Preceding Hays, Virginia Rappe, Reid# Indignities, Relations Office, San Francisco, motion picture, production code, production companies, mass entertainment, motion picture industry, picture industry, form mass entertainment, motion pictures, movie industry, hays office, fatty arbuckle, picture censorship, motion picture censorship,