"Give me the bird! Give me the bird!"
"If the Hays Office would only let me, I'd give 'im the boid all right!"
The Wiki entry on Mutual Film Corporation v. Industrial Commission of Ohio. And the TV Tropes page on the Hays Code.
To cut it short, in 1915 the Supreme Court of the United States had, in a landslide 9-0 decision, ruled motion pictures (live action, animation, what have you) to be a purely commercial endeavour and not art, in other words not protected by the First Amendment.
Fast forward 15 years. Scandals surroundings several big Hollywood stars and a growing public opinion that films were becoming too lewd and violent clashed together to form a movement in Congress to set up a national censorship board in America. To combat this, the major studios in Hollywood formed what became known as the Hays Code, to be enforced by the Hays Office. They would voluntarily censor their own product to show the public and the government that they didn't need censorship and could police themselves (if you have to live by rules, it's better to set them yourself). It worked, and the Hays Code dominated motion picture in America until the early-'50s, before gradually being neutered in its ability to restrict films and eventually replaced by the MPAA Film Rating System in 1968. This is often regarded as the start of 'New Hollywood', in all its filthy, tacky glory.
What if, way back in 1915, the Supreme Court had a change of heart, instead ruling 9-0 in favor of Mutual Film Corp on the premise that film was art and defended by the First Amendment? Would this stop any serious attempt to create a censorship board, and in turn Hollywoods OTL reaction to it? How would film and animations differ under a 'censorship-free' '30s, '40s and onwards?
"If the Hays Office would only let me, I'd give 'im the boid all right!"
The Wiki entry on Mutual Film Corporation v. Industrial Commission of Ohio. And the TV Tropes page on the Hays Code.
To cut it short, in 1915 the Supreme Court of the United States had, in a landslide 9-0 decision, ruled motion pictures (live action, animation, what have you) to be a purely commercial endeavour and not art, in other words not protected by the First Amendment.
Fast forward 15 years. Scandals surroundings several big Hollywood stars and a growing public opinion that films were becoming too lewd and violent clashed together to form a movement in Congress to set up a national censorship board in America. To combat this, the major studios in Hollywood formed what became known as the Hays Code, to be enforced by the Hays Office. They would voluntarily censor their own product to show the public and the government that they didn't need censorship and could police themselves (if you have to live by rules, it's better to set them yourself). It worked, and the Hays Code dominated motion picture in America until the early-'50s, before gradually being neutered in its ability to restrict films and eventually replaced by the MPAA Film Rating System in 1968. This is often regarded as the start of 'New Hollywood', in all its filthy, tacky glory.
What if, way back in 1915, the Supreme Court had a change of heart, instead ruling 9-0 in favor of Mutual Film Corp on the premise that film was art and defended by the First Amendment? Would this stop any serious attempt to create a censorship board, and in turn Hollywoods OTL reaction to it? How would film and animations differ under a 'censorship-free' '30s, '40s and onwards?