Mae West & costar Barry O’Neill of Broadway play “Sex” on trial for obscenity, Jefferson Market Courthouse, NY, 1927
1933 SHE DONE HIM WRONG
Mae West quotes!
• I believe in censorship. After all, I have made a fortune out of it. • Is that a gun in your pocket? Or are you just glad to see me! • When women go wrong, men go right after them! • When I’m good, I’m very good, but when I’m bad, I’m better! • Goodness has nothing to do with it! • Marriage is a great institution. I’m not ready for an institution. • It’s not the man in your life that counts, it’s the life in your man. • When caught between two evils, I generally pick the one I’ve never tried before. • Why don’t you come on up and see me some time?
Early Censorship
Hollywood Scandals of 1920s
• William Desmond Taylor 1872-1922
• Wallace Reid 1891-1923
• Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle 1887-1933
Will Hays -- 1921
Will Hays & the MPPDA
The Legion of Decency The Production Code Administration - PCA
Joseph Breen
Joseph Breen -- 1939
Joseph Breen (with Michael Balcon) August 3, 1946
1937 PCA Breen memo on SISTER CARRIE
Late 1930’s; 5 cent theater next to flop house
Midcity Theater, Washington DC Dec 1937 African American owned theater
Leland, Mississippi June 1937 Photograph by Dorothea Lange
Broadway Theater, Washington DC Underworld (1937) directed by Oscar Micheaux