So, I was talking with a friend on Discord, who's a fan of old school animated media, and modern tributes to it; since he remarked about how different post-Hays Code Betty Boop was from her pre-Hays Code self, a change that led to the character's eventual disappearance, is there any way the Hays Code might have been avoided, and how would an entertainment industry devoid of its influence develop?
WI: No Hays Code?
- Thread starter Neoteros
- Start date
marathag
Banned
need to avoid the SCOTUS Mutual Film vs Industrial Commission of Ohio decision, that Filmmakers were not covered by the 1stA.
That stayed in place until May 1952, when SCOTUS overturned that decision with Joseph Burstyn vs Wilson
If they are protected by the 1stA, less likely for Studios to follow the 'voluntary' Motion Picture Production Code.
Now an Ratings recommendation would be another way to avoid that, but you really need to avoid that terrible decision above(and that was 9-0) so the Media is protected
That stayed in place until May 1952, when SCOTUS overturned that decision with Joseph Burstyn vs Wilson
If they are protected by the 1stA, less likely for Studios to follow the 'voluntary' Motion Picture Production Code.
Now an Ratings recommendation would be another way to avoid that, but you really need to avoid that terrible decision above(and that was 9-0) so the Media is protected
No chances of actors being spared that? The influence of the Code on cinema might've had one hell of a societal impact after all, since each and every movie had to adhere to strict morality guidelines.
An issue to remember is that back in the forties, individual states banned certain movies that passed the Hays Code. I heard there was a movie where Kathryn Hepburn used the word "virgin" c.1948 and Kansas did not allow it. Kansans would drive to Kansas City, Missouri to watch it; and of course, buy wine and liquor.
On another note, in 1970, Ohio banned the song "Ohio" from radio airplay before the FCC stopped it for the opening lines "Tin soldiers and Nixon's bombing..."
On another note, in 1970, Ohio banned the song "Ohio" from radio airplay before the FCC stopped it for the opening lines "Tin soldiers and Nixon's bombing..."
If this is 1st Amendment situation, the revised SCOUS decision, overrides most of the states blue laws in relation to the arts.
Since the Fairness Code for broadcasting was still in place, radio and TV would still be controlled. Books and movies would not.
As said before i think we could get an earlier rating system and maybe a little more strict on earlier categories, for both theatres and studio sake, but on the other hand we could see the 'adult only' movies(R and X?) carving up their niche far earlier that OTL thanks to specialized theatres and Arthouses being their best patrons, we could see more minor studios for that market too
best you can probably do is an earlier ratings system dividing things into initially general audiences/adults, then in the 40s or 50s something for teens in the middle
still really tame content compared to pre-code films but spicier than otl 30s to early 60s films
still really tame content compared to pre-code films but spicier than otl 30s to early 60s films
I doubt that any amount of First Amendment protection for films would stop the Hays Code. The fear of *private* action--boycotts by groups like the Legion of Decency https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Legion_of_Decency would be enough to make Hollywood cautious.
In any event, in 1915, any protection the Supreme Court gave to films would be far from absolute. It would no doubt recognize the right of Congress and the states to ban "obscene" films, and that would be defined a lot more broadly in the 1910's, 1920's and 1930's than it was a few decades later.
You'd be surprised at what people got away with in the pre-code era. One early Frank Capra movie had a character flip the bird, for example.
That's why I think a Code-less Hollywood would be interesting, you wouldn't get Sausage Party but, for example, a movie featuring an interracial or interreligious relationship dropped right in the middle of World War II by one of Hollywood's many Jewish directors and producers as a very personal fuck you to Adolf Hitler would be neat.
Some of that would be inevitable, especially during the Cold War, but being anti-Communist doesn't automatically mean being reactionary - Elvis was rabidly opposed to the USSR for example, and he was as religious as only a guy from the US South in the 1950s could be, but in the post-Hays Code US he was still demonized; in a Hays Code-less US, he'd probably be able to voice his admiration for and give credit to the black musicians that preceded him without being flat out ignored by the media (AFAIK, he tried to do so, repeatedly, and to no avail), and rock & roll would be held up as a triumph of American capitalism over Soviet communism, especially since the Warsaw Pact regimes clamped down hard on any kind of popular music (oh, the irony).
Nobody here is explaining how Hollywood would deal with boycotts by the Legion of Decency. "From the 1930s through the 1960s, Catholic parishes in dioceses across the country administered yearly pledges in which millions of Catholics throughout the US vowed to refuse to watch films that were condemned by the Legion.[27] "Although the Legion was never officially an organ of the Catholic Church, and its movie ratings were nonbinding, many Catholics were still guided by the Legion's classifications"[3]" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Legion_of_Decency
marktaha
Banned
I meant -there were films made preCode like "I Am a Fugitive From A Chain Gang" that showed authority in its corrupt and often true light. Afterwards, they had to show government as the good guy-noy the experience of many people.
the legion of decency and state censorship boards are why any shifts in content from moving to an early ratings system would be shifts of degree as opposed to RADICAL shifts
That was what I meant, once the Cold War starts, even in the absence of the Code, there'd probably be CIA agents all over Hollywood but, even then, the window between what'd be acceptable and what wouldn't be would be far wider than the one the US got IRL - and there'd be indirect consequences of this freer state of affairs in Europe as well if, for example, Cinecittà cooperates with Hollywood just as it did in OTL, for example.