The document discusses developments in the film industry during the 1930s, including the introduction of the Motion Picture Production Code to regulate content and establish moral guidelines following concerns over Hollywood's influence; it also notes John Wayne's debut in a Western and technological advances like widescreen and sound cartoons being introduced during this period. The 1930s saw both growth and challenges for Hollywood as new regulations were established while the industry also had to adapt to the economic impacts of the Great Depression.

1. The 1930s
• Hollywood's dramatic prison
dramas
• B-actor John Wayne made his
debut in his first major role in
a western The Big Trail
(1930) - one of the first films
shot in „Grandeur‟ - Fox's
experimental wide-screen
70mm format
• Both the film and the new
process flopped; it would be
nine more years before his
star-making appearance in
Stagecoach (1939)

2. The 1930s
• RKO won its sole Best Picture
Academy Award for the western
Cimarron (1931)
• In 1930, the Motion Picture
Production Code, administered by
Joseph I. Breen and former
Postmaster General Will Hays, set
film guidelines regarding sex,
violence, religion, and crime
• The first daily newspaper for the
film industry had its debut in
1930, The Hollywood Reporter
• The first appearance of the
cartoon character Popeye was in
the Betty Boop cartoon from
Paramount and Max Fleischer

3. The 1930s
• The world's first drive-in theatre
opened in Camden, N.J. in June,
1933
• Walt Disney's 8-minute The Wise
Little Hen (1934) featured the
first appearance of Donald Duck
• The American film industry was
dominated by five major
corporate-style studios in the
1930s
• They exerted their influence over
choice of films, budgets, the
selection of personnel and
scripts, actors, writers, and
directors, editing, scoring, and
publicity

4. The Depression
• The poor economic climate hit Hollywood hard
• Nearly all of the Hollywood studios (except MGM) suffered
financially during the early 30s, and studios had to reorganise,
request government assistance, cut budgets and employees, and
close theatres when profits plummeted
• Attendance at theatres was drastically affected, although during
even the darkest days of the Depression, movie attendance was
still between 60-75 million per week
• Special incentives and giveaways (such as 2-for-1 features, dish
nights, and other contests and attractions) helped to maintain a
decent audience
• During most of the Depression Era, Hollywood responded with
expensive, mass-produced entertainment or escapist
entertainment, like The Grand Hotel (1932)

5. The Lead Up To Regulation
• Who were the most popular
actors before the 1930s?
• Which were the biggest
studios?
• What technological
advancements had been made?
• What kind of money was being
pumped into the industry?
• How do you think the rest of
America saw Hollywood in the
late 1920s?

6. Regulation
• The factions of society who has successfully lobbied against alcohol,
turned their attention to Hollywood
• Motion Picture Association of America is set up in 1922
• Its role was to regulate films and the industry in order to protect the
business – self regulation
• 32 States were also considering enacting laws against the movie
business
• In 1930, the Motion Picture Production Code was adopted
• “If motion pictures present stories that will affect lives for the better,
they can become the most powerful force for the improvement of
mankind.”
• Never really implemented until 1934, when the MPAA began to enforce
the code

7. The Hays Code
• From 1930 - 1934, The Hays code could not cut material out of films
• Amended in 1934 giving the Production Code Administration more
power
• Every film had to be certified by the administration
• The three main principles of the Hays Code:
1. No picture shall be produced that will lower the moral standards of
those who see it. Hence the sympathy of the audience should never
be thrown to the side of crime, wrongdoing, evil or sin
2. Correct standards of life, subject only to the requirements of drama
and entertainment, shall be presented
3. Law, natural or human, shall not be ridiculed, nor shall sympathy be
created for its violation

8. The Hays Code
• Sex: The sanctity of the institution of marriage and the home shall be
upheld. Pictures shall not infer that low forms of sex relationship are
the accepted or common thing.
1. Adultery
2. Scenes of Passion
3. Seduction or Rape
4. Sex perversion or any inference to it is forbidden.
5. White slavery shall not be treated.
6. Miscegenation
7. Sex hygiene and venereal diseases are not subjects for motion
pictures
8. Scenes of actual child birth, in fact or in silhouette, are never to be
presented
9. Children's sex organs are never to be exposed
10.Twin beds for married couples
11.No ridicule of ministers of religion
12.The prohibition of various words "sex", "hell", and "damn”
13.Suggestive postures and gestures

9. The Hays Code
• All films would be submitted for a
"seal of approval" - and if a film was
unacceptable and denied a seal, it
was not to be exhibited in theaters,
and the studio would be fined
$25,000
• Between 1930, many films were
either suppressed, or severely
mutilated or censored to fit the seal's
requirements
• Until 1934, restrictions on content
were mostly evaded and ignored.
• In the early days of the Depression in
the early 1930s, the desperate
Hollywood studios used the open
sexuality to increase their profits

10. Catholic Legion of Decency
• Rating system founded in 1933 based on the beliefs of the
Catholic Church:
• A - Morally unobjectionable
• B - Morally objectionable in part
• C - Condemned by the Legion of Decency
• The A rating was divided further:
• A-I: Suitable for all audiences
• A-II: Suitable for adults
• A-III: Suitable for adults only
• A-IV: For adults with reservations

11. In Britain…
• 1927: Home Secretary, "The position of the cinema in our
national life is becoming more and more important .. [It] may
have a very profound effect upon the national character.”
• 1936: The Moyne Committee: “Film is undoubtedly a most
important factor in the education of all classes of the
community, in the spread of national culture and in presenting
national ideas and customs to the world ... the propaganda
value of the film cannot be over-emphasized.”
• By 1939 "the cinema was easily the most important form of
mass entertainment with 20m tickets being sold and 3 new
cinemas being opened each weak, admission cost only a few
pence, and provided probably the cheapest form of mass
entertainment in most towns and cities

12. In Britain
J. Arthur Rank
• In 1933, J. Arthur Rank, who had started
by making religious films in order to
spread the word of the gospel, founded
British National
• In 1935, he went into partnership with
C.M.Woolf to take over Pinewood Studios,
20 miles west of London and found the
Rank Organisation
• When some early films that he was
involved with didn't get a very good
circulation he realised that control of the
movie theatres was the key to success
• He went into partnership with a gent
called Oscar Deutsch who was building a
J. Arthur Rank chain of cinemas
• The two established the ODEON (Oscar
Deutsch Entertains Our Nation) cinema
chain

13. The Debate!
• The class will be split into two groups
• One group will argue for the implementation of censorship (at
the time of the Hays Code and today)
• One will argue against censorship (at the time of the Hays
Code and today)
• Consider why censorship is important
• Think about the restrictions censorship placed on the film
industry – what effect might this have had?
• 5 minutes to prepare for an debate…