Circumstances Leading Towards The Hays Code

In the 1920s, Hollywood was under mounting pressure for it's tarnished image of scandal ridden stars most notably the case of Fatty Arbuckle and the death of actress Virginia Rappe plus there had been some risqué movies made during that time. The general public were under the impression that there were no moral standards in Hollywood. Everybody was corrupt, immoral and downright nasty pieces of work. It was up to the studios to clean up their image and they did so by enlisting Presbyterian elder by the name of William Hays who quickly earned the nickname of being the Tsar of Motion Pictures.

Over the ensuing years and up to 1930, there was a clean up operation that involved the Production Code that attempted to maintain a guideline of standards with which all film-makers must follow. These include items such as "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," and "The technique of murder must be presented in a way that will not inspire imitation," among others. As a guideline it was an effective way in which cinema had operated for the next 20 years. Many films operated under this in order to get their films seen by as wide an audience as possible.