Kara

Hey everybody, this is Kara with the Day's Dumpster Fire. Before we get started on today's episode, I just want to give a little early warning to our listeners. The topic of censorship naturally brings up sensitive subject matters and conversations, including sex, racism, and some violence. This episode will lean into the uh adultier side of the spectrum for these reasons. I just want to give you a heads up. We'll rate it at like a PG 13-ish rating, but FYI, if you want to skip this episode because you're not comfortable, that's fine. Uh if you're listening as a family, maybe listen to this one first before you listen to it with your kiddos. Yeah.

Ed

Listen to it on the way home from church, not on your way to church.

Kara

Yes. That way you can pray your sins away.

Ed

And and and and I'm sure we'll we'll try to give little heads up throughout the episode. It's not like this is NC17.

Kara

So cue the music.

Ed

Okay. Okay. I saw the nod, like.

Kara

I was like, I was trying to, yeah. Cue the music. Go ahead. Hello. It is me. It is I.

Ed

Wow.

Kara

It is Kara. I'm here.

Ed

You're yeah, you're alive, but you are.

Kara

I made it through Thursday night, staying up to 2 a.m. getting this ready.

Ed

Yeah, audience, I apologize if uh Kara seems a little distant, even though she's running point on this episode. But um yeah, from our scene, you made the fatal mistake of taking a nap somehow today, and uh and now you're trying to like get the brain cells working.

Kara

Yeah, I um we got back from celebrating a birthday with my brothers, and then we came back and my husband was watching soccer, and I started to doze off, and now here we are.

Ed

Yeah, soccer will do that.

Kara

Well, I actually like watching it with him, but it's been, you know, every day for the past I don't know, a few weeks. So I I love it for him, and I love that he enjoys it.

Ed

For me, the the World Cup is funny because it's a lot like the Olympics where nobody talks about anything pertaining to it until the actual like World Cup is happening, and then suddenly everybody's experts.

Kara

Yeah, well, he does talk about it and he does watch it throughout the regular season when he has time. So I give him credit.

Ed

I just find it cute that that Americans, like especially during the Olympics, where they're watching like gymnastics, and uh suddenly like Americans are very critical of other countries getting a 9.9 on on the uneven bars, and like, oh come on, she she perfectly or she didn't make that maneuver right or didn't finish that flip, or you know, her knees weren't tucked up properly, and like come on, dude. You you haven't even you didn't even know this was a thing until as they're eating a hamburger on the couch, yeah. Yeah, right. So so yeah, speaking of uh uh not having your knees tucked in and and uh landing properly on a on a mat. Um today's episode has absolutely nothing to do with that.

Kara

No, not at all. In fact, um today's episode is going to run a little bit parallel to the previous episode. So I do highly suggest you listen to last week's episode before you listen to this one. Last episode we talked about the evolution of film, the birth of Hollywood, and then we ended on Hollywood scandals that turned Tinseltown upside down. So, again, I do recommend that you listen to that before continuing on as this one runs parallel, and it covers the other side of the coin. So we're talking about censorship today, and we're talking about the different um attempts, I guess, to censor film and what was considered immoral and bad and awful, and we shouldn't be watching this filth. So that's what we're talking about today.

Ed

And the thing that gets me is that we're not talking about necessarily like a rating system, like, hey, if you're under the age of 13, parental guidance, and you know, it's not it's not that we're talking about, you know, this film cannot be produced if it has this kind of scene in it, or you need to delete this or cut it out altogether, like like the whole censorship thing in terms of like we have to alter the ultimate message of the film.

Kara

Yes.

Ed

That's wild.

Kara

We're talking about pure censorship. We're not talking about a rating system yet that was not in existence yet. Uh, remember, we're talking about early days of film, you know, 30, 40 years after the first film came out. This is the wild west. So we don't have any, you know, rating system or rules in terms of age and stuff like that. This is purely oh, this is uh not safe for anybody. Young virgin years, so nobody can see this. So you're gonna have to cut it, or we're not releasing it.

Ed

Yeah, it's just that I don't know. That to me, that's just this wild. I'm sure I will show my incredi incredulousness throughout this episode because it's just like really if you if it offends you, don't go see it.

Kara

Right, don't pay the 15 cents to ticket.

Ed

Oh yeah. My grandfather used to go see movies when he was a kid, like in the 30s, he would go see a movie for just a few cents.

Kara

Oh yeah, it was uh 15 cents, I think, in the 30s, and then by the time you get to like 46, 47, it was about 55 cents. Yeah.

Ed

Now going to a movie, like my wife and I, my family, we don't even go anymore because it's like a hundred dollars. Just too, that's a lot. Well, yeah, you think about the you gotta obviously get the tickets, that's like half of it there. And you gotta get the popcorn and then the soda and all that kind of stuff. Like that adds up fast.

Kara

Yeah, and you guys have kids, so when when my husband and I go, it's only like 50 bucks. Tops. That's if we go in splurge.

Ed

Still at 50 bucks.

Kara

We go every week. We love the movies.

Ed

I remember when it used to be just like $15 for uh two people to go.

Kara

Oh yeah. Anyway, here we are. Censorship, early film, 1910s, 1920s, my sweet spot. Um, I've been feeling the interwar period, so let's talk about it. Let's do it. Chapter one. Oh, also, today's um chapters are named after pre-code films. You're welcome. Pre-code films, please go watch it. These are all film titles. Yep, these are all film titles.

Ed

Forbidden. Off to a great start.

Kara

I think that one came out in 1932. Question mark.

Ed

Okay.

Kara

I think 32 or 34, something like that. It's in there.

Ed

Yeah, a long time ago in a in a country far, far away.

Kara

Almost a hundred years ago. Close enough. Chapter one, forbidden. All right, we're gonna start with a quote. It says, No medium has contributed more greatly than the film to the maintenance of the national moral morale, sorry, of the national morale during a period featured by revolution, riot, and political turmoil. And that is by William Hayes, the uh PR man, the head of the Hayes office, and the man who is in charge of what would be later called the Hayes Code and censorship between 1934 and 1968. Well, he wasn't in charge in that period. He was a different guy. He was just the uh the figurehead. But anyway, we'll get there, I promise. Now, censorship on film has been a conversation since the early days of filmmaking. Most of the calls for censorship came out of films depicting sex or violence or something that people thought came close to those two things. A majority of the groups calling for censorship came from religious civic groups, usually on the grounds, oh, uh yeah, okay. Religious civic groups, usually on the grounds to save the children's morality. So we're talking about, you know, people who are on the more conservative side of the spectrum, and they felt that they um they felt that that these films were not good for the um morale of the public, and they felt that it was almost sinful, right?

Ed

I think this is gonna be a recurring theme in this episode, and probably the next one where it's like, what determines if something is moral or not? Because uh being a school teacher, I've seen a lot of different kinds of parents out there, and some parents are very, very, very strict on what they let their kids have access to, and then there's other parents that are very lax. So, like, what makes something moral or immoral? And uh I feel like that's just a very vague statement that gets thrown around a lot.

Kara

Yeah, it gets thrown around a lot, and for for me, as somebody as a historian looking at it, it's my question is who is determining what's moral and what's immoral?

Ed

Yeah.

Kara

And why are they making those determinations and who gets to make those calls? So for me, it's not necessarily what is immoral and what is moral, because I can have my own opinions on that.

Ed

It's more like like what agenda is speaking up about this, yeah.

Kara

But in terms of this particular event, it's more like who can make that call, why can they make that call, and how do people respond to it? Yeah. Now let's be honest. Whenever you have any sort of like print or visual media, anything, you're gonna have some sort of element that has to do with sex. It's gonna come up always.

Ed

I'm glad that you you fixed it from what you originally had typed.

Kara

I did a little bit.

Ed

Because you're like, now let's be honest. Whenever you have any sort of print or visual media, you have sex.

Kara

So like Yeah, it's it's written that way.

Ed

You see anything visual or printed, you just head off to the bedroom. Let's go.

Kara

Not quite. No, it's more like people are going to immediately start either printing or filming or uh taking pictures of things that will arouse or whatever. Yes, and it's been around forever. It's just human nature. Oh, film's no different. Now, I don't mean that everyone was making hardcore porn. This is the late 1800s, early 1910s. I I mean we have some shoulder action, you know, uh, some shirtless boxers. That was pretty that was pretty risque. And maybe, maybe if you're lucky, because we're talking about the 1920s new women here, you get some ankle.

Ed

Yeah, oh yeah, like you see the swimsuits of the time period.

Kara

Yeah, that was bad.

Ed

I mean, yeah, like we're talking swimsuits that went all the way down to like the calves, and like absolutely nothing else was being exposed to the air.

Kara

Like, I will say though, uh, I make jokes, but if you do look at photographs from this time period, especially when you start hitting the 1920s, when you do have the era of the new woman, um, you do actually get you can find some very risque photos. You can find them. They are they are in existence, and I'm talking like full-on nudies, you know. You can find them, they're there, they exist. I'm not, yeah.

Ed

Yeah, well, and it's just interesting too because you look at the body types back then of what people thought was super hot and attractive compared to I think the worst was in the 90s, where it was women, you gotta be like six foot three and you gotta weigh like a hundred pounds and be malnourished. But back in the 1920s, it was the I don't want to say the exact opposite, but it was yeah, the these girls weren't tiny little twigs. Like they were they were they were they were normal, yeah, they're normal human beings.

Kara

Uh this is always this is also where you get the the term peep show. So a lot of people when you hear the word peep show, you you think of like naughty, you know, vaudeville, scantily dressed, shirtless, whatever.

Ed

Um the peeping Tom.

Kara

Yep, that actually comes from the um that Edison thing we were talking about lap last episode, where you can like put your your face against the the wooden cabinet that shows you the the the very short like 30-second film. That's where that comes from. Uh so there is integrated into this like a side of it where it's you know sexual in nature. So it's it's always been there. It it doesn't go away.

Ed

Yeah, it's just like the internet, right? It's just whenever you got a new medium, the uh naked people were quick to follow.

Kara

Yes, and there's nothing wrong with that. I I have no judgments like you do you, if that's what you're into. I don't care. That's all you have at it, celebrate. I don't care, enjoy. In 1896, one of Edison's first films was a very short film called The Kiss. It's a very quick little film of two people cheering. A kiss. That's exactly what it is. I think it's endearing, but it's cute. In that same year, a film of a woman dancing fully clothed was released. The name is funny. It's called the uh the coochie coochie dance. But if you watch it, if you watch it, it is not what you think it is for my friends whose minds are in the gutter. It is literally a woman fully dressed. I think she has a midrift showing, but that's it. And she's just dancing on film. That's literally it. And before it was released, the sensors were placed on the film. So, like if you watch it, you can see it, you can find it online. Um, there's like super, super uh, what's the word I'm looking for? Antiquated like attempts at censorship over her.

Ed

Oh, okay.

Kara

Um, it's like white bars, it's really weird. It's not the black block censorship that you probably are thinking about. Um it's it's white s white squares. It's weird.

Ed

My guess is that's where they physically had to go into the film and they cut out.

Kara

Yeah.

Ed

They've they probably had to cut out the uh sensitive bits. Yeah, yeah. And therefore, when they go to when they go to expose it or to play it, it it just shows a white, like there's nothing there. There's physically no film reel there. It's been cut out.

Kara

So yeah, if you if you actually just go and look up uh coochie coochie dance, you can find it and watch it. I promise you, it's nothing like super crazy or risque. It's literally just a lady dancing.

Ed

And to show that we're so confident about this, we will have these these links in the uh show notes as well as on the day some free.com. So be sure to head over there and take a look at these super risque videos. You might might you might want to get your parents' permission if you're under the age of 60.

Kara

We'll we'll try to find a permission slip and put it on there.

Ed

I may just make one.

Kara

We'll put it, we'll put it in Google Forms and we'll call it a good.

Ed

Yeah.

Kara

All right. So early censorship came from the film studios themselves in order to keep public outcry and avoid government intervention on their operations. And this is going to be a theme throughout the entire thing. The film studios themselves did everything in their power to keep from government intervention and what they were doing. Censorship from the studios were generally implemented by organizations such as the Motion Pictures Patent Company, often called the Trust, and the National Board of Censorship of Motion Pictures. Some of these you will recognize um or have heard of. I'm not going to dive deep into how they were put together and what they do and all the legality of it, because I will put you all to sleep. Just know that they exist in their organizations to help the film studios um shield themselves from government intervention and protect filmmakers.

Ed

Yeah. I mean, the titles alone put you to sleep, let alone how they got started.

Kara

It's a lot. Uh I even I, when I was going through these through the history and I'm reading the names of these, like, oh, that's wonderful. But I also recognize some of them, so they're important. I have to throw them in.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

Kara

But censorship didn't remain a movie studio problem. Just like anything in entertainment, it spread like wildfire all the way up to the federal government. It's a thing. Despite the attempts to self-regulate, state and municipal governments still required certain censor guidelines before allowing a film to be distributed in that state or city. So a lot of filmmakers are on record in interviews or whatever, and they're saying it was hard sometimes to make a film because you had to worry about 30 different sensor boards to get your film to show in that particular city or state.

Ed

That's infuriating.

Kara

So they had to, it's infuriating. They had to think about how this was going to get through sensor boards in certain cities or states or whatever. And some cities or states were more lenient than others. Uh, so I think, at least if it were me, I'm assuming, I would probably aim for the most strict censor board because then after that they would probably pass all the other ones. That's just my logic of it.

Ed

But well, it's kind of like uh when you become a a lawyer in America. I think a lot of lawyers they try to pass the California state bar. Because if you can pass the bar in California, then because it's so hard, you're pretty much good to go for the rest of the nation.

Kara

Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. Similar to that. But yes, uh, to the filmmakers shagrin, the censor boards in different states and cities were different than other places, and that's just what they had to deal with.

Ed

I could only imagine how how tough it would be for us to make this podcast, and then we would have to send it out to like 30 different people to approve it before we can actually publish it.

Kara

Yep, that's basically what it was because you would make it, and then in order for it to show in a theater or in a state with the theater in the state or whatever, uh, it would have to pass those censor boards first.

Ed

I think the only reason why those censor boards were there, or a lot of them were just comprised of people that wanted to see movies for free.

Kara

I'm sure there's some of that.

Ed

Like, like, oh shucks, uh, gotta go watch this movie weeks before it comes out for free. Like, woe is me.

Kara

There was probably one or two of those people, yeah, I'm sure. So the first big federal policy regarding film came out of the Sims Act of 1912. On July 4th, 1910, and we're gonna flashback a little bit before this act that came into effect, so you have some context, and it's interesting. I'm not just going to blab on about laws and policy because that's boring. On July 4th, 1910, Jack Johnson, an African-American boxer, defeated James J. Jeffries in what was called the fight of the century. Now, Jeffries was a white man. The fight was filmed and distributed across the country, and to many who saw it, it had challenged the ideologies of white supremacy still permeating throughout the country and in other parts of the world. Historians have found reports of individuals claiming that they would attend the fight armed just in case Johnson had won. Like it was that big of a deal. If Johnson, the African American man, had defeated in a boxing match the white man, it was a big deal. And it was.

Ed

Yeah.

Kara

When he did win, his victory was both celebrated and incited race riots across the country. So he had a very mixed reaction to this. Johnson defended his title in a fight against another white man named Jim Flynn. This fight was scheduled to last 45 rounds, but was cut short on the ninth round by state police because Flynn was continuously headbutting Johnson during the fight. He was naturally disqualified.

Ed

Let's say you get somebody who's in their 60s or 70s who sees something like this. Like when there were when they were kids, like we're talking Civil War era America, like to go from that time period where slavery was still at the forefront of a conversation to a time where now you're seeing a black man make money and be successful beating up a white man, that that would have to be absolutely jarring for some folks.

Kara

Oh, yeah. I think for a lot of folks, and on top of that, they were being fed um propaganda all their lives saying that uh the white race is superior to all other races. And what what this does is it directly challenges that attitude and that ideology, the white supremacy ideology that is blatantly showing that that is not true.

Ed

Yeah.

Kara

And that like upends a lot of um attitudes at the time period.

Ed

Yeah, because it destroys a lot of world views that people had.

Kara

Yeah.

Ed

And uh people don't like that. People don't like to have their their worlds get turned upside down on them.

Kara

Well maybe they needed to.

unknown

Yeah.

Kara

Because honestly, in that regard, maybe they needed that reality check. I think they needed that reality check.

Ed

Yeah. And it's just funny to watch it go down. Like the I can't remember the name of the the music performer, but there was like this really, really, really popular music or singer in the 50s or something like that. And like all the girls in America adored this guy. And then when television came out and they saw him perform on like on television and they saw that he was black like to to because they'll they only heard him on the radio. And then when they saw him live in person people were like oh this is awkward like why okay I mean I I I totally was into this guy's music before but now it's suddenly it's not that good like people who cares just crazy.

Kara

Oh this country will never learn sidebar at the height of his boxing career Johnson lived as a full blown celebrity. He drove expensive cars he wore expensive suits and to the annoyance of many people he dated lots of white ladies um he was a big celebrity big deal he um he has a very interesting life I I do suggest you look up Johnson and what he stood for and what he did. He was um a son of uh enslaved people from Texas and he rose to fame as a boxer and broke racial barriers in his sport. So uh yeah super interesting dude he died in night in the 1940s in a car accident so he died early but uh he he definitely made his mark in history for what he did yeah he was that stone in the in the lake that really made some ripples. Oh yeah yeah he's an interesting guy anyways as you can imagine prize fighting in this era was very intense hence the uh the head butting censorship on prize fighting being shown in theaters was a common enough occurrence because of its violence but when Johnson won in 1910 fair and square and again in 1912 because the other guy fought dirty the issue was taken up in Congress. It was it was such a big deal that it went to Congress. The Sims Act was introduced by House members from Tennessee and Georgia and then Senate members from North Carolina and Georgia there's a pattern there I hope you cut on yeah I mean I encourage you to have a map out of America and put little pins just on please where things are happening and you're gonna find all your pins won't fit in one spot. There is a pattern happening they justified the act by claiming the federal government had control of interstate commerce and could therefore put a ban on price fighting films being distributed. In other words didn't necessarily censor price fighting films themselves but what they did do is block the films from being distributed to specific states or over state borders. This was a very popular idea at the time it was also used for temperance and prohibition laws before the 21st amendment was passed in 1919. We do discuss that a little bit in the prohibition episodes 59 to 62 go check them out please I'm proud of that one.

Ed

Yes.

Kara

Some states had already had similar bans and censorship on prize fighting films. However the Sims Act was the earliest federal attempt to regulate the movie studios and what they did. The Sims Act would remain in place until 1940 1940 so from 1912 to 1940 we were not allowed to distribute prize fighting films between certain states as a federal uh law I guess well was this only for these fights or was it just for all movies in general it was only for the prize fighting films.

Ed

Got it okay okay I so this wasn't for like all of the film no it wasn't for all film or anything like that which is surprising but um yeah well not too surprising when when you get to to Warren a little later on uh I was thinking about the right after the depression hit those films were yes you know we'll get there those are my favorite yeah yeah to me it it's just like when when you have a law or an act like that in place think about okay think about the potential of motion capture in in film and think about like okay what can you archive with this stuff and now think about all the uh sporting events in it that were that are lost in that that was the two almost three decades yep from that being like people weren't allowed to to see it. And let me guess if it was a white man beating up a black man that was okay.

Kara

Yeah yeah probably yeah uh you can still see or find images of the the the fights the Johnson fights I think you can still also find the film footage I think you'd still watch it or at least clips of it maybe not the whole thing. So if you if you Google and if you Google those f or search for those fights I'm I'm sure you could find them. I I found photos I did not do a bunch of diggings to actually watch them but I think you can still find them I think yeah I'm sure you can or at least clips I don't know if you can find the whole thing.

Ed

I think parts of it were lost but I mean the internet in 1912 was pretty small. Yeah so it I mean it they there there's gotta be a server from the 1910s and 1920s sitting out there that has it on there.

Kara

I don't think that's how that works and once the Sims Act opened and once the Sims Act opened the door to film's relationship with politics it didn't close again. The racial tensions in American culture and film would reappear less than five years later on a much larger scale. Remember Birth of a nation we chatted about it briefly on the last episode I'm I'm gonna circle back to it because uh if if anybody knows anything about film history the birth of a nation is something that you need to talk about even if it's ugly and gross and we don't like it.

Ed

It's full of wholesome family values.

Kara

Oh my god I do not I don't know if I want to recommend you actually watch a birth of a nation it's three hours long it's a silent film and it's horrendously racist. If you want to watch it for educational purposes go for it just be aware of all the things I just said yeah you're gonna be known as that guy in the friend group that has won read birth of a nation and or not read but seen it as well as the dude that has read Mind Kampf.

Ed

Like you're just gonna be known as that guy.

Kara

Well here's the thing though it's not it depends on your intention right it's not necessarily a bad thing if you want to educate yourself and see what these things were and what they looked like because it's important to understand what it was and the impact of it and you know understanding the historical context what happened after that and why it was such an issue.

Ed

Yeah. But it's another thing to go in there and watch it and be like this is the greatest film ever made yeah no what what I'm talking about is like even people because I mean I've I when I was in college I I did have to read excerpts from Mind Kampf for one reason or the other. And then if you tell somebody at work oh yeah I've read parts of Mind Kampf they kind of like Yeah they look at you funny. Yeah oh okay what do you mean good for you like me so same thing like if you say yeah I I yeah I watched Birth of a nation and people and anybody who knows anything about that film is going to be like um why are are you okay?

Kara

Like or they just stop talking to you.

Ed

Yeah yeah they or they they just kind of go back to their emails or something. Like I it's one of those things where you're almost better off saying like dude last night I watched Human Centipede it was fantastic.

Kara

Yeah like that's a little more acceptable I think than birth of a nation yeah birth of a nation is it's a lot yeah a lot of face palming in that there's there's a lot going on with the birth of a nation like I said I you could spend an entire episode just talking about that film. You could spend an entire three episodes just talking about that film and its impact and how it was made and all of that stuff because it is a film that is um ingrained in American culture for better or for worse and the outcome of it is complex and interesting um I am going to talk about that a little bit but but yeah it's it's it's a lot and like I said please look it up educate yourself read about it it is interesting and fascinating. If you do want to watch it just be warned it's horrendously racist and it's three hours of silent film. So just prepare yourself if you plan on doing that. That's all I'm trying to say. Now Birth of a nation was released in theaters in 1915. Upon its release protests and race riots occurred in multiple states. African American author and filmmaker Oscar Michaud is on record saying quote there has been but one picture that incited color people to riot and still does that picture is Birth of a nation. I thought that was a very powerful quote. Three years later after the Sims Act was put into effect the NAACP lobbied for similar legislation to be put into place regarding the Birth of a nation film. Honestly that makes sense. The organization had compiled a 45 page pamphlet to protest the film from black and white members of the public and prominent figures. I read it it's very interesting. Newspapers across the country either condemned or celebrated the film depending on the publication letters were written to the government to protest the film. Cuts were made to the film in some states for it to be shown thanks to those efforts. However, despite the protests it was decided by the courts that Birth of a nation would be released and it became a box office hit along with a deeply problematic film that incited violence glorification and revival of the KKK and race riots.

Ed

I think this is one of the uh these cases where and I and I don't know the origin behind it but there's this there's this marketing thing out there that states that any publicity is good marketing. Meaning if you put something out there and even if people hate it or think it's stupid or whatever them talking about it is giving you like free advertising in a way it's going to bring more and more eyes to it. Kind of like when um when Apple released that that tower computer and they sold these aluminum wheels for like $700 for aluminum wheels and the media just jumped all over it and was like this is the most ridiculous thing that you could spend $700 for on a computer that is plugged into the wall why why do you need wheels but it went through all the media all the all the reviews and everything and Apple was laughing all the way to the bank because people were seeing it wanted to know what the hype was all about $700 later they got a piece of it so like in a way when we look at birth of a nation all this talk all this publicity all this um the protesting and all that stuff is just this is gonna in in an indirect way it's just gonna get more and more people to watch it.

Kara

Yes and I agree and also it illustrates the complex nature and attitude of that particular subject matter in the United States at the time in in 1915 and how people viewed um Civil War history and how they viewed certain things of that nature. So it in in the public response of Birth of a nation is to me is what's really interesting because you have a mix of people who were deeply upset by it understandably and then you have a mix of people who celebrated it. Also in some ways technically that film did a lot in terms of how it was shot um you know the how it was panned and the music that was added to it and all of that stuff um did a lot of things that films do today on a technical level.

Ed

Yeah yeah technical level it's pretty impressive but what was it used for though that that's the right that's the issue. And the thing that like I I fancy myself as somebody that knows a little bit of history or at least enough to get me into a lot of trouble. One thing I never realized until just recently uh like literally uh like that meme like I was today old when I found out um when I think of race riots I think of like the 1960s the race riots for like you know uh Malcolm X the you've got Martin Luther King those like that's when I think that the race riots actually started but they were going on in the early 1900s.

Kara

Even before that the year there were it depends on how you want to define it. So if you really want to go back you can talk about uh slavery revolts in oh yeah 16th to the 18th century um and then after slavery was abolished you can talk about race riots that occurred in the 1800s so in the 19th century and on uh it was a consistent constant thing and I think a a misinterpretation of that particular subject matter is well why didn't why didn't slaves revolt?

Ed

They did yeah they did they resisted they did what they were able to in their particular positions a big one that occurred was the Haitian revolution in Haiti Haiti is technically a country founded by slaves after a revolt which freaked everybody out freaked all the white people out of course yeah which also is a fascinating story I might do an episode on that but yeah it's um it's race riots and racial tensions are something that go back to before the United States was the United States yeah and I get well yeah and I I know like before the Civil War a lot of the those were those riots were more like the premise behind that was survival like you're killing us kind of a thing and we don't want to be treated like this in terms of like being chained up and and all that after the civil war it really turned into in in my mind it turned into like hey we are free men and women just like anybody else why can't we have a fair go? Like what why is this why are we being held back why are we being segregated why are we being treated this way and it wasn't so much a fight for survival as much as it was before the Civil War but I don't know to me it just seems like and maybe it's just because I've lived under rock for a little bit but in all the history courses I took through high school and in and college I I don't know I kind of built in the back of my head that like okay yeah African Americans after the Civil War were kind of like good little boys and they just took it and I think a lot of them did but not I didn't really think that there was a lot of pushback from the community at that time it was I I think a lot of people have that idea in their head that oh yeah it was 1960s when the race riots really started to come to a head no it was long before long before it really reconstruction I was going to say reconstruction and the failure that was reconstruction and I do I do really truly want to spend some time talking about reconstruction and the impact of that because we still feel those impacts today yeah of reconstruction and the lost cause mythology uh that came after the Civil War from the South and all of that good stuff uh which I do mention here right now because lost cause mythology is everywhere and it's infuriating.

Kara

So while the NAACP failed to censure Birth of a nation something incredible did come out of it. Despite all of the horror that film had inspired African American filmmaking was coming to a um a head for most of the 1910s African Americans appeared on film as servants, butlers or slaves catering to the lost cause mythology there it is from the Reconstruction era after the Civil War. However, in the mid-1910s and into the 1930s small film productions and studios that were built by and for African Americans were making their way into the industry. These films were dubbed as race films, a term coined by director and novelist Oscar Michaud we just talked about they held African American characters in a much more positive light African American filmmaking would continue to grow and evolve throughout the interwar period. A note on Mr Michaud he's considered America's first major black filmmaker. He made it a point to portray African American people as realistically as possible making his characters complex and his narrators relevant to the African American experience in the 20th century. His film called Within Our Gates in 1920 was a direct challenge to a birth of a nation he made that film just to say F you to a birth of a nation and it's fantastic. But while black filmmakers were breaking new ground the studios were still stirring up trouble on other fronts another film I sorry to to interrupt here but I I I kind of want to go on a tangent here.

Ed

Yeah like I just see the look on your face you're like oh crap here we go let's hope let's hope we can just leave uh we can just edit all this out I I like and I'm kind of drawn to this idea of the African Americans like putting together their own films and and movies and everything uh because you you know Mia like my role in this podcast is I I I like to dive into like how it's made how do you like the sound waves it uh editing and I I really look at the industry and the nuts and bolts on it. Uh and one of the things I love about podcasting is that it is something that can be grassroots. It is something that it doesn't matter how much money you have you can you can get into it and in some cases be very very successful. And this is a perfect example of this this to me this is the American ingenuity here right that this Oscar Michaud he's like okay if I get my hands on one of these cameras then what's stopping me from doing my own thing and as a result that like for us podcasters or anybody who really wants to try to get something of their own going look at like Michaud because I mean I I'm not I'm not getting into the to the racial piece of it as as good as it is I'm just looking at it in terms of like he kind of opened the door for people to be like wait a second I can actually do this myself I don't have to rely on a big studio or a big budget. I can create something and tell a story on my own without anybody else's permission.

Kara

Yeah it's like what we talked about the last episode with all of the women who were involved in filmmaking and all of the um immigrant people who were getting into filmmaking because it is like a something that they were able to do and get into and be successful at it.

Ed

Yeah and there's nobody that really says sorry you can't do that. Not yet well yeah except for the censorship part here we are but yeah but there's nobody really saying like yeah Oscar you can't you're not allowed to buy a camera and do this maybe not yet um but you're like oh but the episode is still so young but just we can but yeah I I kind of wanted to go on a little tangent there because it is really really important for anybody who's kind of stuck like if you're in a rut or something like that like pay attention to people like Michael or the the early women pioneers because they show that you don't have to be reliant on another person to tell your story. You actually have the authority and the right to do it yourself.

Kara

So by the time he retired uh in the 1940s or 50s 50s Michot made 44 movies.

Ed

Yeah. Yep. So and here we are, episode 79. Go us. So yeah. Anyways, that's my tangent. I need to make a soundbite for that. Like, oh dear, Ed's on a tangent kind of a thing.

Kara

With a little music cue.

Ed

Yeah. Like a little like elevator music playing in the background.

Kara

Another film that drove.

Ed

I'll off my soapbox.

Kara

Okay. All right. Another film that drove censorship conversations was a movie called The Cheat, directed by Cecil B. DeMille in 1915. He's another very famous director. You can watch this one online as well. It's also free on Tubi, which I found out yesterday. In a nutshell, a Japanese lord enters an adulterous affair with a white woman trying to make money. He becomes jealous and possessive and eventually spins out of control into sexual assault and violence. It is quite awful, actually. You can watch it. Some of it you can see on screen, some of it is implied. This film leaned very heavily into Asian stereotypes that were common of the period. This is before World War II, but after or during World War One, the actor who played the lead male role, his name was help meh. His name was Sasue Sasue Hayakawa. Yeah, Sasue Hayakawa. He gained celebrity status in the United States, but he was denounced in Japan, even though it was not released there. Yeah. Um, understandable, especially if you watch it. By 1918, this film became such a hot button issue that they had to rewrite the name of the male lead to a Burmese name to keep political relations with Japan on good terms just after World War One.

Ed

Yeah, because they were they were rising fast after World War One.

Kara

Yep. The fact that the film had caused international political responses should really tell us something about the responses in the States.

Ed

Yeah, actually, that's a good point. Yeah, because it was only released in the States, but then now like the rest of the world started to speak up about it. It really does kind of kind of give you an idea that America is on the rise.

Kara

Like But also like calm, calm yourself down with your stereotypes.

Ed

Yeah, yeah.

Kara

Chill out.

Ed

Yeah, yeah, yeah. There is that. Yeah, that is true. And and the only and I think the only reason why they would be that way is because America wasn't this podunky little experiment in the 1800s. It was starting to get some recognition overseas, good or bad. But yeah, that that's a prime example of where does America sit in its maturity. It's like a it's right now it's like a loud teenager and it's saying all sorts of stupid stuff because it can.

Kara

Yeah, and also at the same time, globalization in this era was a lot more prominent than people.

Ed

Yeah, yeah. Having mechanically powered ships and not sailing ships and all that stuff, really. And then having a telegraph wire under the ocean.

Kara

Yeah, there's that that helps.

Ed

That helps.

Kara

So at this point, the morality question becomes legal, not just cultural. Attempts at film censorship and it's an opposition amongst the film industry continue through the 1910s. In 1915, the Supreme Court ruled in the case Mutual Film Corporation versus Industrial Commission of Ohio. Or mutual versus Ohio. You're welcome.

Ed

So exciting.

Kara

Yes.

Ed

Mutual versus watching a movie on that.

Kara

I mean, there is a movie called Twelve Angry Men that you can watch.

Ed

Oh, yeah, but that's a classic. I love that movie. That's that's wonderful. That's not Twelve Angry Men is way more enticing than uh Mutual Film Corporation versus Industrial Commission of Ohio.

Kara

Honestly, fair, but this is important. I'll tell you why.

Ed

Yeah.

Kara

All right. So this court, this Supreme Court ruled that the film industry was a business and only a business. The ruling explicitly states that movies were, quote, direct quote from the ruling, business, pure and simple. It allowed censorship in states to continue and an increased the fear of possible federal intervention. In other words, unlike paintings or books, movies were not considered protected speech under the First Amendment. The decision would remain in place until it was overturned in 1952.

Ed

So that's wild. That is so crazy to think about. That's a that's a heck of an interpretation there.

Kara

It is. Usually when we think of film, we think of it as an art form, right? It's an expression of, you know, the people who are making it. Uh they didn't really see it that way in these early days. They were like, this just makes a lot of money.

Ed

Yeah, I mean, I I guess because you I mean you produce something like that for the sole purpose of making money. Uh obviously to tell a story, but if you can make a buck off of it, cool.

Kara

Yeah. And I think it just depends on who you ask. If you're looking at somebody who's not a filmmaker and they're just seeing this institution making a butt ton of money.

Ed

Not to mention, too, like typically when you're writing a book, you don't have hundreds of people working for you when you're writing a book or giving a speech or something like that. And in this case, when you're making a movie, you have I mean, heck, go to any Marvel movie and watch the ending credits. It goes on for 16 miles.

Kara

Yeah, but that's why film is so unique because it is still an art form, it's still an expression of a group of people, not necessarily one person, it's one person and all of these other people who help make it happen.

Ed

And that's why that's why I can I can kind of see where they're coming from that it's a business. You have to hire all these people on to make this thing.

Kara

But is it though, if you're just like a small group of people who really believe in the message that you're trying to make?

Ed

Yeah.

Kara

Because this is 1915. Like you have people like you know, D.W. Griffith and Cecil Bamil and and Lewis Weber who are making these huge films with all of these extras and all of these actors and all of that stuff. But at the same time, a lot of those people do believe in the film that they're making. Yeah. They do believe in the message that they're trying to get across. So just because it's not made by one person doesn't mean that it's not an expression of art.

Ed

Oh, yeah. No, I'm I'm I'm not I'm not contesting that.

Kara

No, no, I know. I'm just I just want to point out the other side of the argument.

Ed

Yeah. I was just pointing out, like, I I can kind of see how they could say it's a business, especially like those big productions. You do have to hire so many people. But then again, though, it's just like the podcasting industry. You can have a show like us where it's just a couple of people versus say like the Joe Rogan experience, where there's like a couple dozen that are all working on it, and you know how successful that show is. So it's like, yeah, I I can I can see why they would assume that it's a business, but they probably didn't really uh consider the fact that a majority of it was being uh a majority of the work that was being done were by a handful of people that had a message they wanted to convey.

Kara

What what's crazy to me is it wasn't overturned until 1952.

Ed

Yeah.

Kara

That's crazy. That remained in place for almost 40 years. Nuts.

Ed

Yeah. They did. Yeah, I kind of wonder what happened in the late 40s, early 50s to We'll talk about it next episode. Okay.

Kara

When it all blows up. Yay! By the early 1920s, studios were putting in more guidelines and censorship to appease those calling for more censorship in film. Around this period, between 1921 and 23, Hollywood was dealing with the moral scandals that we discussed previously. Meanwhile, in Europe, horror films, my love, such as Nosferatu and Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, please go watch them, made tidal waves in the film industry on a global scale. Their depictions of violence and madness likely added to the growing concern of morality of film in film, however you want to phrase it, from certain populations in the United States. Instead of waiting for the government to step in, the studios try to control it themselves. Again, this is going to be a recurring thing over and over and over again. Get those pins ready because there's going to be certain states that feeling the pressure, Hollywood studios began amping up their attempts at self-censorship. In 1921, 36 states were already working on film censorship legislation, and federal censorship seemed to be the expected next step. But censorship, I'm saying censorship a lot, but regulation wasn't the only thing involving at the dawn of the jazz age.

Ed

Okay, you know what I'm gonna do, Kara? I'm gonna bleep you every single time you say censorship.

Kara

That's amazing. Censor me, please.

Ed

Out of that's gonna take forever, but yeah, I want to do that.

Kara

I stayed up until 2 a.m. and then did more this morning, and I still didn't catch the fact that I say censorship like a hundred times. All right. Chapter two. Hoopla. That's a fun one. That one came out in 1930 something. Uh, the quote for this chapter There are no rules in filmmaking, only sins. And the cardinal sin is dullness. That's from uh Frank Capra.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

Kara

I just like that quote because it's so ironic and uh the opposite of what we're about to talk about. I love it. All right, and it also what what what that quote does, at least for me, is it it shows you the different sides of this argument. Because today we're talking about the chip side, and we don't like this and we have to cut everything, but the filmmakers and the artists are like, no, we need to do all this to get the message across.

Ed

Well, yeah, because like if if you adhere to everything that they wanted these filmmakers to do, it would literally be two people drinking coffee for breakfast, reading a newspaper.

Kara

I'm so excited to get in the next episode because we're going to talk about all the ways we get around these stupid laws. Codes. They're not laws, they're not laws, they're they're studio uh self- self self-ship codes that were put into place. But it's gonna be great. We're gonna talk about the code.

Ed

It's kind of like prohibition where they had to where they got creative on how they got around all the Yes!

Kara

Yes, this was so great. All right, so before we get there though, in 1921, Jesse Lasky, founder of Paramount Studios, drafted a 14-point production code. Paramount and the National Association of the Motion Picture Industry encouraged other studios to follow suit. Now, here are the points. I'm going to read them one by one because they are fantastic. And also, it is a starting point for codes that are written after the fact. So by the time we do get to 1930 and 1934, this should all sound very familiar and I don't have to keep repeating it. All right, first one. No pictures showing sexual attraction in a suggestive or improper manner will be presented. Two pictures dealing with quote white slavery, unquote, will not be presented. Stories having as their basic theme an illicit love affair will be produced only if they convey a moral lesson, the cheat. Nakedness will be banned. Prize fighting. Insight dances will be eliminated. The dance one. That one's crazy. Inciting dancing will be what what do you what kind of dancing? Is it just like that's the thing? Fun dancing? What fully clothed, like stripping? What kind of dancing are we talking about?

Ed

I almost wonder if like uh Kevin Bacon's what was it, Footloose from the 80s? Yeah. I almost wonder if that because it is, it's it, you know, the guy comes into town and he starts this dancing thing and it really upsets the hard conservative folks of the town, and and it causes all these problems. I almost wonder if like, you know, when may that like the producers of that movie were thinking of inciting dances will be eliminated.

Kara

Like honestly, Footloose. It on the surface it seems really silly and and cutie, but it has something to say.

Ed

Yeah, there is a message. Yeah. A lot of 80s films were like that.

Kara

Yeah. All right. The next one unnecessarily prolonged, passionate love scenes will not be shown. And when they say love scenes, it's like making out or hugging. Maybe laying in a bed. That's it. Nothing else. Yeah. Stories predominantly concerned with the underworld of vice and crime should not be produced. Uh-huh. Okay. That'll be broken. No picture. Oof. Or all the gangster movies that are going to be coming out in the next five years.

Ed

All the what?

Kara

The gangster movies. Those are going to be huge in the next couple bullet points.

Ed

Oh, okay. I thought I thought you said all the gay movies that are coming out. Well, like, okay. I had no idea, but there were a couple.

Kara

Uh, we're gonna talk about that. Anyway, uh, no picture should be shown which makes drunkenness or gambling attractive. Prohibition, friends, prohibition. No picture should be made which might instruct the moral moral the morally feeble in the methods of committing crime.

Ed

I love that one. If you're stupid, you can't watch this because uh it's gonna make you do stupid things.

Kara

If you are somebody who just needs to commit a crime, you can't help yourself. Don't watch this movie.

Ed

So Jackass, like the because it jackasses released a new movie off the books for yeah, can't watch that. For for the morally feeble.

unknown

Cut it.

Kara

No story or incident should be presented on the screen, which needlessly offends the holders of any religious belief.

Ed

Oh boy.

Kara

No incident showing a shocking disrespect. It's very strong language. A shocking disrespect for an object of religious belief will be presented. Suggestive comedy business will be eliminated. I love that one. Suggestive comedy.

SPEAKER_01

What is comedy business will be eliminated?

Kara

What the heck does that even mean? That means okay. Like dirty jokes? Dirty jokes, innuendos, all the things that everybody is going to be using after the comedy.

Ed

Sorry, I was thinking of like workplace jokes.

Kara

Oh, yeah, all the dirty jokes that you hear at work about somebody in accounting or all of the jokes that are said when the haze codes are enforced, which was great. Unnecessary depiction of bloodshed is to be avoided.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

Kara

And uh the last one is salacious titles, stills in advertising must not be used. So they went so far as to talk about the marketing of the film as well as the film itself. Okay. So those are the 14 points. Um, they acted more as suggestions and and not really enforceable laws.

Ed

Well, was this like put in place to be like, hey, hey, movie makers like try to follow these guidelines, otherwise the government's gonna come after you? Is that kind of what it was?

Kara

That's exactly it. It was please try to follow these, otherwise, um, the pressure from these certain groups of people in in the general public are going to pressure the government, and we don't want the government to get involved because we we just can't make movies once the government gets involved. It's just a game over. Uh okay. Yeah, so that was the general attitude. And for the most part, studios did try to abide by the guidelines. Some suggested sexuality but didn't explicitly show it. Same thing with violence or any other issue that censors found immoral. Though there were still plenty of exceptions in the early 1920s that made filming interesting, artistic, and meaningful. They did talk about some of those things in the last episode, especially with Lois Weber and other filmmakers. Please go listen to that if you haven't yet. In 1922. All right, here we go. In 1922, the motion picture producers and distributors of America, which is still around today, the MPPDA, was established by the studios. Its purpose was to assist the studios in regulation and film censorship to protect the studio's public image and filmmakers from government intervention. The organization appointed Will Hayes, former postmaster general, employee of the Harvey administration and church leader to head the organization and its operations. It would become known as the Hayes Office. Often described as a figurehead and only a figurehead, Hayes did actually play a role in applying censorship requirements throughout the 1920s. By 1925, in an interview, he proudly claimed that he had stopped 160 films from being made from various pieces of literature or plays or what have you. Um and I think the total amount of money that was to be estimated and put into those films was in the millions, and that's in the 1920s.

Ed

So what an accomplishment. Yeah. He stopped art. Okay.

Kara

He stopped art from being made. Good job, bud. He's um, yeah, he's he's he's an interesting dude. He's not the worst of them, though.

Ed

I feel like him and Senator McCarthy would get along great.

Kara

You know, he's not the worst of them. He's oh really the reason he's described as just a figurehead is because there is another gentleman who's going to take over enforcement in 1934 who's worse. Not more strict. Uh no, no, he's worse. I'm gonna say it, he's worse.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

Kara

We're not gonna talk about him this episode. He is going to come up next episode, but yeah, he's uh that that gentleman is the reason that Hayes is just considered a figurehead today, even though he proudly stopped 160 films from being made in a matter of like three years. Crazy. All right. So in 1927, there was a pivotal moment in film history. Does anybody know why? Guesses. I'll take your guesses, your votes. 1927, why is it important?

Ed

I'm going to assume that YouTube back then uh had audio.

Kara

Yes and no. All right.

unknown

Sam.

Ed

This is where they they were able to put audio.

Kara

Yeah.

Ed

And they were like the they were now talkies.

Kara

Talkies, not just movies.

Ed

No, not not the corn snack either. Correct.

Kara

Sam Warner of Warner Brothers Studio had an idea. They thought he was crazy, but he thought it could work. They said, what, are you gonna make them color now too? Are you insane? Sam Warner invested immense amounts of studio money into new technology that would synchronize sound to film. And after what I would imagine to be an infuriating discussion, after infuriating discussion, Warner Brothers released The Jazz Singer on October 6, 1927, the first Hollywood film with sound. And unfortunately, Warner died the day before uh it premiered. So he was not able to see the fruits of his labor. R.I.P. Mr. Warner. But what he did was uh ground breaking for all of film and film history. With the advent of talkies, came concern about the new possibilities of immorality in dialogue, let alone the controversy and concerns that came along with the new technology, which we will gloss over for our purposes today. But with that came the desire to test the new technology with not only dialogue, but sound effects too. Gangster films in the midst of prohibition were on the rise. And what better way to test sound than with Tommy guns? Because heck yeah.

Ed

Yep. Very iconic sounding.

Kara

Yep.

Ed

Little did they know that like trying to record audio for guns was really, really hard to do.

Kara

Yes, but somehow they pulled it off. It's not bad. Even if you watch them today, it's like, oh, you know, that's not bad.

Ed

Yeah, because they had to match it up with like the muzzle flashes. And that was the other thing, too, is how do you get a gun to behave in a certain way that doesn't actually kill people? Like there were there was a lot of thought and engineering that'd go into it, let alone like when people got shot. Like uh, you know, how do you show somebody getting shot? And like, do they is it like a Quentin Tarantino where blood is spraying everywhere? Or do they just like grab their chest and go to the ground? Like there's there's a lot to that as well, like squibs and and all that kind of stuff. It's it's it's pretty interesting to the the science and engineering behind shooting somebody in a movie is it's complicated.

Kara

The depictions of violence, while extremely popular for many movie goers, was also a sign of concern for those worried about the here's that word again, about the morality of what was being shown on screen. And the movie studios had their thumb on those worries. Their fear of government censorship would continue to grow with the public's concerns of morals in Hollywood. In 1927, the Hayes office would roll out the quotes, and I quote, code of purity, unquote, which was basically a list of prohibited film content, usually sexual or violent in nature, and a list of content which required extreme care. These guidelines are better known in the industry as the don'ts and be carefuls and remain voluntary measures, so they were not enforced. They're really trying. Hayes also introduced the Studio Relations Committee or the SRC, a committee that would review film scripts and scan them for possible issues in the eyes of censors before they were made into films. By 1929, they would be re be reviewing a large portion of the scripts making their way through the Hollywood studio system. But again, they They were only suggestions. That same year, Hayes met with a Martin Quigley. Martin Quigley was a staunchy, a staunchly Catholic editor. Staunchy. That's a good word. He was staunchly Catholic. He was a good thing. He was the editor and journalist of the Motion Picture Herald paper and a Jesuit priest. Oh, and they met with a Jesuit priest on top of Quigley. Together, they uh the men drafted up a new set of codes that would later become the motion picture codes of 1930, better known as the Hayes Codes. Now, the Hayes Codes we'll be talking about quite frequently and a lot. They are very similar to the 14 points or the do's and don'ts, which uh both kind of evolved into this uh Hayes Codes situation. What exactly are these codes? I'll read a few excerpts so you get the gist of it. Here we go. It's a doozy guys. Quote Hence, though regarding motion pictures primarily as entertainment without any explicit purpose of teaching or propaganda, they know that the motion picture within its own field of entertainment may be directly responsible for spiritual or moral progress, for higher types of social life, and for much correct thinking. Unquote. In other words, what they're saying is that film, they believed film had a direct impact of the morality of the people watching it. That's what that means in so many words.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

Kara

Here's another one. Quote No picture shall be produced which will lower the moral standards of those who see it. Hence the sympathy of the audience shall never be thrown on the side of crime, wrongdoing, evil, or sin. Correct standards of life, subject only to the requirements of drama and entertainment, shall be presented. Law, natural or human. What does that even mean? Law, natural or human, shall not be ridiculed, nor shall sympathy be created for its violation. And then it goes on to list a bunch of things that are not allowed to be on film, such as here we go, murder, white slavery. Ew, very gross. Uh crimes and misdemeanors. They detail this further, but like it goes on. Um scenes of passion. Nice.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

Kara

Profanity, including using the Lord's name in vain, and so on and so forth. I I'm not going to list all of it because it is a lot and we will be here for a long time, but I will include the link of the codes uh so you can read it yourself. I'll put them on the website as well. It's wild. It's so much. Please go read them. Oh, and one one more. One more. Criminals should not be made heroes, even if they are historical criminals. So much for the anti-hero.

Ed

Yeah. That's kind of funny because uh like wasn't Jesus crucified as a criminal at the time.

Kara

But he came back and became a moral guy. So it in the end, it it you know it worked out.

Ed

I guess, yeah, but it was for what he was dying for, that's what made him so famous. But like, it's just so funny, like, yeah, you can't glorify a criminal because that would be bad.

Kara

Yeah. And the reason I'm not getting into the weeds of these codes, even though this is what we are talking about, is because I am going to kind of go into the codes next episode and how they worked in practice versus how filmmakers got around them. So I'm not gonna spend a lot of time just reading them to you here.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

Kara

When the next episode we're going to talk about how they worked, what they were supposed to do, and why the golden age of film is full of gosh darn it's and coffee drinking instead of what we see now. Throughout the 1920s and into the early 1930s, the strength of censorship and code enforcement from the studios were revised and suggested, but enforcement was another animal altogether. Without that, the tensions between censorship and art would continue to increase. Now, once you add economic hardship into the mix, get ready for the for a big explosion.

SPEAKER_01

All right.

Kara

Which I love. Chapter three, Babyface. Babyface is a very famous pre-code film about a uh a woman who uses her sexual prowess to get ahead. Okay. Please go watch it. It's uh like a cornerstone peak pre-code film. Uh the quote for this chapter is by none other than Mae West, Queen. Uh, she says, Those who are easily shocked should be shocked more often. Okay. I love it. Fair enough. She's great. Go read about Maid West. I'm giving you a lot of homework this episode, I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_01

Right. Yeah.

Kara

All right. When we hear the term pre-code film, it could be a bit misleading, and depending on the historian, the dates of pre-code vary. I personally like the timeline of film between 1927 with the arrival of talkies and 1934, with the arrival of enforcement measures of the Hayes Codes, so we're gonna roll with that. Talkies brought dialogue and sound effects, which worked wonders for gangster films. Their rise in popularity and depictions of violence became widespread with sound. Horror movies also began to crop up thanks to our filmmaking friends in Europe, with Edgar Allan Poe depictions being a Hollywood favorite in the late 1920s. But with that comes violence, fear, and madness. Not exactly the family-friendly types of entertainment that other portions of the public were very fond of. And then there was the matter of sex and sexual content. Believe it or not, talkies brought lots of sexual innuendos and jokes about sex and gender comedies in which actors would dress up as the opposite sex and were magically flipped in terms of gender roles. And there was even gay and queer representation. Was it stereotypical? Yes, it was very stereotypical, but it was there. Uh, even queer couples in Hollywood living together, making films together. It wasn't really an issue until the 1930s. And then the stock market crashed. When the stock market crashed in 1929, go listen to the episode, and the Great Depression slowly began to spread like an economic cancer. Film studios had to be creative to get people to keep going to the movies. And you know what sells even today? Sex and violence.

Ed

Yeah.

Kara

After the stock market crash and the pressure from the newly implemented but unenforced codes of 1930, filmmakers were notably more daring and explicit, in many ways, more progressive as well. And I, for one, really love pre-code films. They are fan-freaking tastic. If you sit down and watch them, especially the more famous ones, because they are a little more uh risque. Some of it you'll be like, how, how did they get away with this in 1931? It's crazy. So, in direct violation of violence, we have gangster films. So we have films like Little Caesar, Public Enemy, and Scarface in the early 1930s, just to name a few. And they're either the most famous or most infamous, depending on how you want to look at it. These films were gruesome, they were violent, they were unafraid to depict the mob in violent and sometimes sexy ways. Scarface, in particular, is famous for being so violent. Sensors halted its release until the ending was changed to show that the mobsters were not the winners in the story. So they could not release that film until they changed the ending. Another direct violation of violence was horror, my favorite genre. So we have, and these are going to ring a lot of bells, Dracula and Frankenstein in 1931 are classic universal horror movies. And uh this one is one of my favorites. The Island of Lost Souls in 1932. That movie is wild, and I don't know how they got away with making it, but they did. Are there those are just a few examples of pre-core horror code horror for? Like, what was it just so graphic or it was really graphic for the time period, and there's a lot of like animal stuff and sexy stuff that's going on.

Ed

Animal stuff?

Kara

Yes, it's a lot. There's so much going on. It's a play on the island of Dr. Moreau. Um, okay. From HG Wells. But that movie is insane. Please, if you have some time, it's like an hour and a half, Tobbs. Go watch it. It's it's ridiculous, but in a great in a good way. Uh Frankenstein famously has the scene with a little girl. Um, this was especially effective. And like I said, the basically the entirety of Island of Lost Souls is uncomfortable. In direct violation of gender and sex. You have the strong female lead character. God forbid we have strong leading ladies, right? So we have that, oh, awful. We have blonde Venus in 1932, redheaded woman in 1932, and babyface, which I mentioned in 1933. These movies all portray a female lead who has control and power over her sexuality, and she promptly uses it to get ahead in life. Many film historians agree that pre-code film was a big movement for powerful women. And then, last but not least, and there is many more, these are just to name a few, indirect violation of sex is comedy. Of course. That's still like that today. Uh, we have I'm no angel and she done them wrong, which both came out in 1933, and they are May West classics, full of innuendos, and Mae West just being her awesome self. Please go look her up. Just look up her quotes. Like, okay, hold up. Just because I can. I know I'm running over time because it's dumb. But Mae West quotes. And then you're gonna get some fun ones. Uh, let's see. When I'm good, I'm very good, but when I'm bad, I'm better.

Ed

Oh, that's actually I like that one.

Kara

That one's a good one. Uh, goodness had nothing to do with it, dearie. Between two evils, I always pick the one I'd never tried before.

Ed

That is yeah.

Kara

This one's good too, and it's it's relevant. Uh, she says, I believe in censorship after all. I made a fortune out of it. Okay. She's a queen. Mae West. She's great. All right. So, with all this immorality and naughtiness happening on screen, the Hayes office and the conservative religious groups that supported them were likely horrified and probably very frustrated. Their guidelines were being completely ignored, and think of the children, for goodness sakes. Clutchy pearls.

Ed

Yeah, children who can't actually see this without some sort of parent involvement.

Kara

Now, to be fair, this is before the rating system. And at this point, it's one extreme versus another extreme. We have two opposing forces colliding, and in 1934, the Hayes office would use their power over the studios to gain momentum and finally enforce the codes they put into place in 1930. But how do they do it? What external pressures forced them into censoring their own studios with an iron fist? And how did filmmakers respond? We will answer all of those questions in the next episode as we see the Hayes Code's power under enforcement and how creativity took all of that power away. So we are done with censorship in this episode. Nice. I hope it wasn't a drag talking about legal stuff and nonsense. I tried to make it as uh scantalously enjoyable as possible.

Ed

Well, it it does a good job setting the stage for the third part, which, like you said, it it's really going to focus on how they got around all these requirements and these unrealistic or super vague restrictions they put in place. Yes. So I think that is that is like how you innovate is by having those restrictions, those rules, and how do you how do you still put something together that people want and not have those rules like kill your whole your whole project?

Kara

Well, what's so ironic about it and what's so fun about it is in that period when uh just after those codes were put into place, they call it the golden age of Hollywood.

Ed

Okay.

Kara

So that should really clue you in as to how creative it got. And you do get some classics.

Ed

Oh, yeah, I bet, yeah. Because now now you're talking about a whole industry that's like, now they're just doing this out of principle.

Kara

Yes.

Ed

How can they get around all this?

Kara

Yes. By the time you get to the 1950s when that uh law was overturned in 1952, then you start to get things like some like it hot with Marilyn and uh some queer folks, and you get uh things like no Rosemary's Baby was after, but you get things like uh oh, what's that movie called? Oh I didn't think of it. Whatever happened to Baby Jane in 1962.

Ed

Okay.

Kara

That movie's wild. So you get some some interesting ones, and and just to put the cherry on top, you get psycho, you get Alfred Hitchcock, and what he does, he has a brilliant explanation of how he fits in his sexual innuendos, in his films, that I will explain. So, yes, we get we get all kinds of fun goodies in this next episode.

Ed

And do we get into like television at all?

Kara

Or I'm not going to talk about television for this because it's a different um, it's technically a different industry.

Ed

Okay.

Kara

And the television industry is a little more um conservative in terms of how they make their films, or not their films, but how they make their entertainment because it's for a wider audience. Okay. Movies is a little bit different because you pay to see it, whereas TV you can just switch it on.

Ed

Yeah, like you could stumble across it.

Kara

Yeah, so the rating system is is a lot different.

Ed

Okay.

Kara

But yeah, film. Love it. It's a good time.

Ed

So alrighty, yeah. So yeah, if you like this, uh and you haven't listened to part one, I encourage you to go check out part one. We will have links for everything in the show notes. Go to uh the days dumpster fire.com for all your other dumpster fiery needs. Uh, we've got articles on there, we are revamping titles, we are putting more suggested episodes in there for other episodes that you may find interesting. Yeah, Kara and I have been putting in a ton of time on the website, really uh making it uh a lot more updated and uh hip, as the kids would say.

Kara

Yep. So go check it out, see it for yourself. It's cool, quite proud of it. But yeah, I yes.

Ed

Yep, so yeah, go check that out. And um, if you want to support the show um in your own little way, uh we have links in the uh show notes as well as on our website uh where you can donate a few dollars uh to help support your favorite dumpster fire podcast. I think we're the only ones.

Kara

Uh and if you can't do that, just leave a a review or or a comment or a like or a lot of it. Yeah, that's it.

Ed

Yeah, that that works too. Uh we're real big on the whole value for value thing. So, you know, if we educated you, made you laugh, uh even made you cry, I guess. If you just find this interesting and you got a few dollars sitting around, uh that can go to help pay for this show. It would be handy to uh maybe someday quit our day jobs, but that's probably a little ways away, unless we get one one donor that is just like has a very, very, very open checkbook with a lot of spaces for zeros on there, then we can we can definitely talk. But uh, but yeah, yeah, be sure to uh um if you can leave any sort of comment for us, send us an email, like you know, daysimplifier gmail.com. If you've got suggestions, uh please let us know because we've actually gotten a couple of episodes out from uh from the listeners. So yeah, if you've got an idea, uh hit us up. So so yeah, that's all I got.

Kara

Well, we'll see you in the next one. I hope you enjoy.

Ed

Yeah. And don't uh don't get yourself censored.

Kara

Yeah, don't do that.

Ed

Yeah, that'd be bad. See you all later.