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"Complete Nudity Is Never Permitted": The Motion Picture Production Code of 1930

Read the Fine Print
Author:
Subject:
Humanities
Institution Name:
American Social History Project/Center for History and New Media
Collection:
Many Pasts (CHNM/ASHP)
Grade Level:
Secondary, Post-secondary
Abstract:

Mae West spent her career on the stage and screen skirting--and sometimes transgressing--the boundaries of sexual and moral propriety. In 1926 and 1927, she outraged some critics (and landed herself in jail) with two sensational Broadway productions, Sex (a play she wrote about a Montreal prostitute, in which she also starred) and The Drag (a "homosexual comedy-drama" that she wrote and staged). In 1928, New York police arrested her again, this time for her play about a troupe of female impersonators, Pleasure Man. In 1932, she brought her brand of ribald humor to the movies. West's move from Broadway to Hollywood was surprising, given the substantially tighter moral scrutiny under which the film industry operated. Adopted in 1930 by the Association of Motion Picture Producers, the Motion Picture Production Code, excerpted below, spelled out in detail what was and was not permissible in the nation's most popular form of entertainment.

Languages:
English
Material Type:
Primary Source
Media Format:
Text/HTML
Conditions of Use:
Custom License
Fair Use for educational purposes
Copyright Holder:
Copyright 1998-2005 American Social History Productions, Inc. All rights reserved.

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