Historical Development of the "Current" Ethos in Entertainment
Introduction
Pope
John Paul II said in his address to the entertainment community in Los
Angeles (1987) [speech to entertainment community] that “you have untold possibilities for good, ominous
possibilities for destruction.” The current state of
entertainment seems to be immersed in an environment that appeals and
promotes what John Paul II says is debased in people: dehumanized sex
through pornography, gratuitous sex and violence, greed through
materialism and consumerism or irresponsible individualism; anger and
vengefulness through violence or self-righteousness. The
current
state (ethos) of the entertainment culture is sinking into a toxic
environment that threatens to pull humanity down into the dark depths
of despair and death rather than lift it to into the lofty light of
eternal hope and life.
The current ethos of entertainment, as
experienced today in the Hollywood, has its roots from the turn of
the 20th Century in Los Angeles, California. Even the
early
years of Hollywood needed help from sinking into a pit of debase
addiction. The Church, particularly the Catholic Church in
America
could arguably be said to have played a key role in helping bring about
the “Golden Era” of
Hollywood in the 1940s and 1950s. But it could also be said
that
the current ethos in entertainment can be significantly attributed to
the narrow-minded attitudes the Church, Catholic and non-Catholic, and
political America had towards the artist community, particularly
in entertainment. These attitudes pushed the artist community
away from the Church, creating a sense of mistrust. The current
ethos in entertainment, in part, represents the relational gap that has
been created between the Church and the entertainment industry.
Early Years
Pre-Code Era:
City and state censorship ordinances are as
old as the movies themselves. However, after the United States Supreme
Court ruled in 1915 (Mutual Film Corporation v. Industrial Commission
of Ohio) that motion pictures were not covered by the First Amendment,
such ordinances banning the public exhibition of "immoral" films
proliferated. The studios feared that federal regulations were not far
off.
In the early part of the 20th
century, Good Housekeeping wrote that the movie theater was fast
becoming “a primary school for criminals.” (1910). Indecency
in
films (e.g., violence, sexuality) was increasingly becoming prevalent
in the first two decades of the century.  The Sins of
Hollywood
(1922), a best-selling book, chronicled much of the scandalous behavior
of movie stars like Mary Pickford and Fatty Arbuckle and soon Hollywood
became viewed as the “devils incubator.”
Mary Pickford
In the early 1920s,
three major scandals had rocked Hollywood: the manslaughter trials of
comedy star Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle who was charged with being
responsible for the death of actress Virginia Rappe at a wild party in
San Francisco during Labor Day weekend of 1921; the murder of director
William Desmond Taylor in February 1922 and the revelations regarding
his bisexuality; and the drug-related death of popular actor Wallace
Reid in January 1923.  Other drug-related deaths of stars Olive
Thomas, Barbara La Marr, Jeanne Eagels, and Alma Rubens resulted in
persistent calls for censorship and "cleaning up" of Hollywood all
through the '20s. These stories were sensationalized in the press and
grabbed headlines across the country. They appeared to confirm a
widespread perception that many Americans had of Hollywood — that it
was "Sin City". Large
Catholic dioceses
(e.g., Boston, Chicago, Detroit) began to set up independent censorship
boards in their respective dioceses to be vigilant over the abuses in
motion pictures.
Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle
   
1917
1918
1933
1934
[Movies, such as those
above, were under severe criticism for portrayal of immoral behavior,
such as Cleopatra (1918) which portrayed Theda Bara in risque costumes.
Soon the federal government was scrutinizing Hollywood for
obscenity laws. Hollywood (i.e., producers), “as
anxious
to make money as movies” and fearful of federal censorship, began an
industry code (self-censorship), called the “Thirteen
Points.”]
The advent of talking pictures in 1927 signaled the need for
further enforcement. Martin J. Quigley, the publisher of a
Chicago-based motion picture trade newspaper, began lobbying for a more
extensive code that not only listed material that was inappropriate for
the movies, but also contained a moral system that the movies could
help to promote. He
recruited Father Daniel Lord, a Jesuit priest from Chicago. In 1927, Fr.
Lord served as a consultant to Cecil B. DeMille for his silent
film, King of Kings. The advent of talkies alarmed him. "Silent smut had been bad," he would write in his autobiography, Played by Ear. "Vocal smut cried to the censors for vengeance."
In
1929, Fr. Lord began work on the Production Code, as envisioned
by Martin Quigley and bolstered by George Cardinal Mundelein,
Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Chicago.  "Here
was a chance to read morality and decency into mass recreation," Lord
wrote. He aimed "to tie the Ten Commandments in with the newest and
most widespread form of entertainment," aspiring to an ecumenical
standard of decency, so that "the follower of any religion, or any man
of decent feeling and conviction, would read it and instantly agree."
On March 31,
1930 the board of directors of the Motion Picture Producers and
Distributors of America (MPPDA), later to become the Motion Picture
Association of America (MPAA), formerly adopted it.
 Hollywood had been looking to make an alliance with a conservative leaning group
that would leave the federal government with the impression that no
intervention in the industry was necessary.
George Cardinal Mundelein
Fr. Daniel Lord, S.J.
Hollywood called
on
Will Hays, national chairman of the Republican Party and a Presbyterian
elder to enforce “the Code”
(“Hays Code” or “The Hollywood Production
Code").  In addition to Fr. Lord's Code, in 1927, Hays compiled a
list of subjects, culled from his experience with the various U.S.
censorship boards, which he felt Hollywood studios would be wise to
avoid. He called this list "the formula" but it was popularly known as
the "don'ts and be carefuls" list around town. In 1930 Hays created the
Studio Relations Committee (SRC) to implement his censorship code, but
the SRC lacked any real enforcement capability. The problem with
this
“self-censorship” was that there were not adequate powers in place to
enforce such a code.
Will H. Hays
Hollywood “self-censorship” did not win the confidence of the
Roman Catholic Church and The International Federation of Catholic
Alumnae was set up to refuse or recommend films that it reviewed.
[e.g., In 1929, 49% of the films it reviewed were refused]. Further,
from 1930 to 1934, Depression economics and changing social mores
resulted in the studios producing racier fare that the code, lacking an
aggressive enforcement body, was unable to redress. In response to such
movies as Warner Brothers' "Baby Face" (starring Barbara Stanwyck) and
Paramount Pictures' "I'm No Angel"
(starring and written by Mae West),
Quigley and Joseph I. Breen, Will Hays' Los Angeles-based assistant,
teamed together to persuade the Catholic Church to bring pressure on
the Hollywood
studios. They helped to spearhead the creation of the Catholic Legion
of Decency as well as boycotts and blacklists of the movies throughout
the country. In 1934, the studios bowed to this pressure and created a
new censorship body with real enforcement powers: the Production Code
Administration (PCA) with Breen as its head. Hence, the era of
Hollywood filmmaking from 1930-1934 is known as the "Pre-Code Era."
Joseph I. Breen (Head of Production Code Administration, 1934-1954)
The Enforcement Era:
The Legion of Decency started out candidly to be "a pressure group." Once a
year, in early December, U.S. Catholics rose as a body in church to
say: "I condemn indecent and immoral motion pictures," and promised not
to patronize theaters that consistently showed such films—a pledge that
zealous priests and bishops sometimes translated into open threats of
boycott. Films were judged on content alone, and given one of three
ratings.
A = Unobjectionable
B = Objectionable
C = Condemned (for suggestive dialogue,
lustful kissing, acceptance of divorce)
(How ratings developed further)
The
Legion of Decency had great success in influencing not only the films
Catholics would see, but also Hollywood producers and the types of
films made for distribution and general public exhibition. The Legion’s
success was attributed to a somewhat united Church effort to abide by
the “Pledge”, establishing significant leverage to boycott unfavorable
films. This “unified front” can be attributed to an official
Church backing as reflected in Pope Pius XI’s Encyclical Vigilanti Cura
which states in part, “An unceasing and universal vigilance must, on
the contrary, convince the producers that the "Legion of Decency" has
not been started as a crusade of short duration, soon to be neglected
and forgotten, but that the Bishops of the United States are
determined, at all times and at all costs, to safeguard the recreation
of the people whatever form that recreation may take.”
The
first major instance of censorship under the Production Code involved
the 1934 film Tarzan and His Mate, in which brief nude scenes involving
a body double for actress Maureen O'Sullivan were edited out of the
master negative of the film.  Another famous case of enforcement
involved the 1943 western The Outlaw,
produced by Howard Hughes. The
Outlaw was denied a certificate of approval and kept out of theaters
for years because the film's advertising focused particular attention
on Jane Russell's breasts. Hughes eventually persuaded Breen that the
breasts did not violate the code and the film could be shown. The
Code even had its effect on the cartoon sex symbol Betty Boop had to
change from being a
flapper, and began to wear an old-fashioned housewife skirt.
Golden Era - Beginning of Fractured Relations- Emerging Current Ethos
Good Times [1940s - 1950s]:
The
Legion’s influence could point to a surge of films that contributed to
Hollywood’s “Golden Era” [e.g.,
Casablanca
(1942), Going My Way (1944), Stagecoach( 1939), Song of Bernadette
(1943)].
Signs of Fractured Relations [1950s]:
Unfortunately,
The Legion’s (1934-1971) tone and “arbitrary
censorship” widened a relational gap between Hollywood and the Church
(films were judged by those without an eye for artistic quality, few if
any of the reviewers were “Hollywood Professionals”). Some Legion
members didn't help relations with their vocal judgmental attacks on
the people of Hollywood, calling moviemakers, “the Herods of our day”
engaged in a
“massacre of innocents." The Legion’s image quickly became viewed
as a negative approach to influencing the entertainment industry.
The Legion would ban whole movies for a couple of suggestive scenes,
looking only for moral content and disregarding artistic merit (e.g., Gone With the Wind).
The Legion’s reputation as “censor” was dubbed by the industry as “that
stern old guardian of movie morals.” And Hollywood was not necessarily
too quick to abide by the Code. Their temptation to make money,
and in some sense, to survive, was too great.
Hollywood
was faced with very serious competitive threats. The first threat
came from a new technology, television, which did not require Americans
to leave their house to watch moving pictures. Hollywood needed to
offer the public something it could not get on television, which itself
was under an even more restrictive censorship code. In addition
to the threat of television, there was also increasing competition from
foreign films, like Vittorio de Sica's The Bicycle Thieves (1948), the Swedish film Hon dansade en sommar (English title: One Summer of Happiness) (1951), and Ingmar Bergman's Sommar med Monika
(Summer with Monika) (1953). For De Sica's film, there was a censorship
controversy when the MPAA demanded a scene where the lead characters
talk to the prostitutes of a brothel be removed, regardless of the fact
that there is no sexual or provocative activity. The Swedish films were
the first to include nude love scenes, and made an international
sensation.
Vertical integration in the movie industry had been
found to violate anti-trust laws, and studios had been forced to give
up ownership of theatres by the U.S. Supreme Court in United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc.
(1948). The studios had no way to keep foreign films out, and foreign
films weren't bound by the Production Code. The anti-trust rulings also
helped pave the way for independent art houses that would show films
created by people such as Andy Warhol and others working outside the
studio system.
Further, the MPAA revised the code in 1951, not
to make it more flexible, but to make it more rigid. The 1951 revisions
spelled out more words and subjects that were prohibited, and no doubt
increased the opposition of movie-makers to the code. In 1952, in
the case of Joseph Burstyn, Inc. v. Wilson, the U.S. Supreme Court
unanimously overruled its 1915 decision and held that motion pictures
were entitled to First Amendment protection, so that the New York Board
of Regents could not ban Roberto Rossellini's The Miracle.
This became known as the "Miracle Decision" due to its connection to
Rossellini's film. That in turn reduced the threat of government
regulation that justified the production code.
At the forefront of challenges to the code was director Otto Preminger, whose films violated the code repeatedly in the 1950s.  His 1953 film The Moon is Blue,
about a young woman who tries to play two suitors off against each
other by claiming that she plans to keep her virginity until marriage,
was the first film to use the words "virgin", "seduce" and "mistress",
and it was released without a certificate of approval. He later made The Man with the Golden Arm (1955), which portrayed the prohibited subject of drug abuse, and Anatomy of a Murder
(1959) which dealt with rape. Preminger's films were direct assaults on
the authority of the Production Code and, since they were successful,
hastened its abandonment.
Otto Preminger
In 1954,
Joseph Breen retired and Geoffrey Shurlock was appointed as his
successor. Variety noted "a decided tendency towards a broader, more
casual approach" in the enforcement of the code. Billy Wilder's Some Like It Hot (1959) and Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho
(1960) were also released without a certificate of approval due to
their themes, and further weakened the authority of the code.
Finally, a boycott from the Legion of Decency no longer
guaranteed a commercial failure, and thus the Code prohibitions began
to vanish when Hollywood producers ignored the Code and were still able
to earn profits.
The Hollywood "Blacklist" Episodes:
Mention
must be made about the "Blacklist" trials before the House on
Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). The result of these
trials created much distrust and animosity between conservative
politics and the
Hollywood creative community, much of what remains today. The
"Hollywood Left" could be said to have arisen from these trials,
where conservative politics can have a tendency to be seen as
an enemy to the creative process.  The
"Hollywood Blacklist" was list of screenwriters, actors, directors,
musicians, and other U.S. entertainment professionals who were denied
employment in the field because of their political beliefs or
associations, real or suspected, especially as it related to the
Communistic party. 10 refused to cooperate with the proceedings
and were jailed for contempt. The Hollywood Blacklist episodes
effected many careers where no more than 10% would be able to
return to studio work. Charlie
Chaplin, for one, was hunted down and not allowed to re-enter the
US following trip to Europe
until 1972 when apologetic Hollywood honored him at the Oscar’s with a
Life
time Achievement Award.
Protestors
opposing the jailing of the Hollywood Ten
in 1950 (from the 1987
documentary Legacy of
Hollywood
Blacklist)
Chaplin,
as well as many other suspects in Hollywood, ended up not being members
of the Communistic Party and were mostly liberal and radical thinkers.
these radical thinkers advocates of social change, and critical of
foreign policy (full story).
A "Current Ethos" in Filmmaking Takes Shape [1960s - 1970s]:
A change of climate was taking place both within Hollywood and the Catholic Church. On the forefront of the Second Ecumenical Vatican Council (1962-1965), Pope Pius XII issued in 1957 the encyclical Miranda Prorsus
(MP). This document reflected the pastoral approach the Vatican
Council would generally take in its approach to the modern world.
MP suggested that
Catholics should focus more on encouraging good media under the
guidance of sound Church principles (i.e., films, television, radio)
than just condemning the bad media.  Consequently,
the ranks
of Legion reviewers, previously dominated by a coterie of middle-aging
Catholic college alumnae, were expanded to include knowledgeable lay
and clerical "film buffs," ranging from Jesuit professors of
communications arts to English teachers, writers and admen.
But
again, where were the “Hollywood Professionals” in this mix? The “Pledge”
lost its influence with consumers, especially as Catholics became less
united and trustworthy of the Legion’s recommended and seemingly
arbitrary boycotts. A relaxation in the “Pledge effect"
eventually lead to a total relaxation in filmmakers’ adherence to the
Hollywood Production Code. The film Bonnie & Clyde (1967) and especially the R-rated film Easy Rider (1969)
point to this turning point in the types of American films put into
general distribution. Easy Rider was a story about two
counterculture bikers who travel from Los Angeles to New
Orleans, searching for America and her freedom, but can’t find
it. The film captured the era in a raw, jump cutting fashion,
including dope smoking and sex.
Enforcement
had become impossible as the Production Code was abandoned entirely.
The MPAA began working on a rating system, under which there would be
virtually no restriction on what could be in a film. The MPAA film
rating system went into effect on November 1, 1968 with four ratings:
G, M, R, and X. In 1969 the Swedish film I Am Curious directed
by Vilgot Sjöman, was initially banned in the U.S. for its frank
depiction of sexuality; however this was overturned by the Supreme
Court. The M rating was changed to GP in 1970 and to the current
PG in 1972. In 1984, in response to public complaints regarding the
severity of horror elements in PG-rated titles such as Gremlins and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,
the PG-13 rating was created as a middle tier between PG and R. In 1990
the X rating was replaced by NC-17, in part because the X rating was
not trademarked by the MPAA whereas pornographic bookstores and
theaters were using their own trademark X and XXX symbols to market
their products.
Further Development of "Current ethos" in Entertainment [1970s]:
1970s opened with Hollywood facing a financial slump, reflecting the
monetary woes of the nation as a whole during the first half of the
decade. Despite this, the seventies proved to be a benchmark decade in
the development of cinema, both as an art form and a business. The
young filmmakers of the 1970s began taking greater risks and
restrictions regarding language and sexuality lifting, Hollywood
produced what has come to be some of its most critically acclaimed and financially
successful films since its supposed "golden era."
The early '70s brought a rebirth of the gritty crime
film. The French Connection,
starring Gene Hackman as a drug detective while Get Carter featured
gratuitous nudity and A Clockwork Orange featured a rape scene and much blood and gore
to complement its complex story. An adaptation of a Mario Puzo
novel, The Godfather, became one of the best-loved and most respected
works of cinema upon its release in 1972.
Beyond the violence and drama were themes of love, pride, and greed.
Throughout
the seventies, the horror film developed into a lucrative genre of
film. It began in 1973 with the terrifying The Exorcist, directed by
William Friedkin and starring the young Linda Blair. The film saw
massive success, and the first of several sequels was released in 1977.
1976 brought the equally creepy suspense thriller, Marathon Man, about
a man who becomes the target of a former Nazi dentist's torment after
his brother dies. The same year, the Devil himself made an appearance
in The Omen, about the spawn of Satan. 1978's Halloween was a precursor
to the "slasher" films of the eighties and nineties with its
psychopathic Michael Myers. Cult horror films were also popular in the
seventies, such as Wes Craven's early gore films Last House on the Left
and The Hills Have Eyes, as well as Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chain Saw
Massacre.
 There were the blockbuster film franchise successes of Jaws and George Lucas science-fiction epic Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and the superhero Superman.
Younger
audiences were also beginning to be the focus of cinema, after the huge
blockbusters that had attracted them back to the theater. John Travolta
became popular in the pop-culture landmark films, Saturday Night Fever,
which introduced Disco to middle America, and Grease, which recalled
the world of the 1950s. Comedy was also given new life in the
irreverent Animal House, set on a college campus during the 1960s. Up
in Smoke, starring Cheech and Chong, was another irreverent comedy
about marijuana use became popular among teenagers.
The decade
closed with two films chronicling the Vietnam War, Michael Cimino's and Francis Ford Coppola's The
Deer HunterApocalypse Now.
Provisions of the Code:
The Production Code enumerated three "General Principles" As Follows:
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.
Specific restrictions as "Particular Applications" of these principles:
1. Nudity and suggestive dances were prohibited.
2. The
ridicule of religion was forbidden, and ministers of religion were not
to be
represented as comic
characters or villains.
3. The depiction of illegal drug
use was forbidden, as well as the use of liquor, "when
not required by the plot or for proper characterization."
4. Methods of crime (e.g. safe-cracking, arson, smuggling) were not to be explicitly presented.
5. References
to alleged sex perversion (such as homosexuality) and venereal disease
were forbidden, as were depictions of childbirth.
6. The
language section banned various words and phrases that were considered
to be
offensive.
7. Murder scenes had to be filmed in a
way that would discourage imitations in real life,
and brutal killings could
not be shown in detail. "Revenge in modern times" was not to be
justified.
8. The sanctity of
marriage and the home had to be upheld. "Pictures shall not imply that
low forms
of sex relationship are the accepted or common thing." Adultery and
illicit
sex, although recognized as sometimes necessary to the plot,
could not be explicit or
justified and were not supposed
to be presented as an attractive option.
9. Portrayals of miscegenation were forbidden.
10."Scenes
of Passion" were not to be introduced when not essential to the plot.
"Excessive and lustful kissing" was to be
avoided, along with any other treatment that might "stimulate the
lower and baser element."
11. The flag of
the United States was to be treated respectfully, and the people and
history of other nations were
to be presented "fairly."
12. The treatment of "Vulgarity,"
defined as "low, disgusting, unpleasant, though not
necessarily evil, subjects" must be "subject to the dictates of good
taste." Capital
punishment, "third-degree
methods," cruelty to children and animals, prostitution and
surgical operations were to
be handled with similar sensitivity.
Other Particular Applications of the Code:
I. Crimes Against the Law
These
shall never be presented in such a way as to throw sympathy with the
crime as against law and justice or to inspire others with a desire for
imitation.
1. Murder
a. The technique of murder must be presented in a way that will not inspire imitation.
b. Brutal killings are not to be presented in detail.
c. Revenge in modern times shall not be justified.
2. Methods of Crime should not be explicitly presented.
a. Theft, robbery, safe-cracking, and dynamiting of trains, mines, buildings, etc., should not be detailed in method.
b. Arson must subject to the same safeguards.
c. The use of firearms should be restricted to the essentials.
d. Methods of smuggling should not be presented.
3. Illegal drug traffic must never be presented.
4. The use of liquor in American life, when not required by the plot or for proper characterization, will not be shown.
II. 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, sometimes necessary plot material, must not be explicitly treated, or justified, or presented attractively.
2. Scenes of Passion
a. They should not be introduced when not essential to the plot.
b. Excessive and lustful kissing, lustful embraces, suggestive postures and gestures, are not to be shown.
c. In general passion should so be treated that these scenes do not stimulate the lower and baser element.
3. Seduction or Rape
a. They should never be more than suggested, and only when essential
for the plot, and even then never shown by explicit method.
b. They are never the proper subject for comedy.
4. Sex perversion or any inference to it is forbidden.
5. White slavery shall not be treated.
6. Miscegenation (sex relationships between the white and black races) is forbidden.
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.
III. Vulgarity
The
treatment of low, disgusting, unpleasant, though not necessarily evil,
subjects should always be subject to the dictates of good taste and a
regard for the sensibilities of the audience.
IV. Obscenity
Obscenity
in word, gesture, reference, song, joke, or by suggestion (even when
likely to be understood only by part of the audience) is forbidden.
V. Profanity
Pointed
profanity (this includes the words, God, Lord, Jesus, Christ - unless
used reverently - Hell, S.O.B., damn, Gawd), or every other profane or
vulgar expression however used, is forbidden.
VI. Costume
1.
Complete nudity is never permitted. This includes nudity in fact or in
silhouette, or any lecherous or licentious notice thereof by other
characters in the picture.
2. Undressing scenes should be avoided, and never used save where essential to the plot.
3. Indecent or undue exposure is forbidden.
4. Dancing or costumes intended to permit undue exposure or indecent movements in the dance are forbidden.
VII. Dances
1. Dances suggesting or representing sexual actions or indecent passions are forbidden.
2. Dances which emphasize indecent movements are to be regarded as obscene.
VIII. Religion
1. No film or episode may throw ridicule on any religious faith.
2. Ministers of religion in their character as ministers of religion should not be used as comic characters or as villains.
3. Ceremonies of any definite religion should be carefully and respectfully handled.
IX. Locations
The treatment of bedrooms must be governed by good taste and delicacy.
X. National Feelings
1. The use of the Flag shall be consistently respectful.
2. The history, institutions, prominent people and citizenry of other nations shall be represented fairly.
XI. Titles
Salacious, indecent, or obscene titles shall not be used.
XII. Repellent Subjects
The following subjects must be treated within the careful limits of good taste:
1. Actual hangings or electrocutions as legal punishments for crime.
2. Third degree methods.
3. Brutality and possible gruesomeness.
4. Branding of people or animals.
5. Apparent cruelty to children or animals.
6. The sale of women, or a woman selling her virtue.
7. Surgical operations.
[Return - Work on Production Era]
The Pledge
In 1933, Archbishop John McNicholas composed a membership pledge for the Legion, which read in part:
I
wish to join the Legion of Decency, which condemns vile and unwholesome
moving pictures. I unite with all who protest against them as a grave
menace to youth, to home life, to country and to religion. I condemn
absolutely those salacious motion pictures which, with other degrading
agencies, are corrupting public morals and promoting a sex mania in our
land. … Considering these evils, I hereby promise to remain away from
all motion pictures except those which do not offend decency and
Christian morality.
The pledge was revised in 1934:
I
condemn all indecent and immoral motion pictures, and those which
glorify crime or criminals. I promise to do all that I can to
strengthen public opinion against the production of indecent and
immoral films, and to unite with all who protest against them. I
acknowledge my obligation to form a right conscience about pictures
that are dangerous to my moral life. I pledge myself to remain away
from them. I promise, further, to stay away altogether from places of
amusement which show them as a matter of policy.
In 1938,
the league requested that the Pledge of the Legion of Decency be
administered each year on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception
(December 8).
[Return - Legion of Decency Section]
How Legion of Decency Ratings Developed Further
The A rating was subsequently divided:
A-I: Suitable for all audiences
A-II: Suitable for adults -- then, with the introduction of A-III -- suitable for adults and adolescents
A-III: Suitable for adults only
A-IV: For adults with reservations
In 1978, the B and C ratings were combined into a new O rating for "morally offensive" films.
[Return - Legion of Decency Section]
[Return to Top]
|