What Does Pre-Code Hollywood Really Mean?

As films became more violent and sexually charged, there were calls to boycott movies altogether, according to Pre-Code. In addition, a number of high-profile scandals helped to perpetuate an image of cinema immorality in the eyes of an increasingly conservative public. The most notable of these was the infamous scandal involving silent film star Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle.

Amid public pressure, movie studios formed the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, or MPPDA, and appointed former United States Postmaster General, William Hays, as the organization's leader. It was an attempt by the film industry to regulate itself, but it was met with challenges.

Films weren't protected under free speech at the time, so individual states and some larger cities had their own censorship boards, which complicated matters. It cost studios large sums of money to make different cuts of the same movie that adhered to each set of censorship rules imposed by other states. In this way, the Hays Code was a beneficial financial move for the movie industry as it was an attempt at standardizing censorship. 

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