Introductory Reference Entries
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The Production Code and the Hays OfficeHistory of the American Cinema, 1993
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Production Code (Hays Code, Breen Code)A Dictionary of Film Studies, 2020
Additional Resources
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Motion Picture Association of America Production Code Administration Records (Academy Library)Full documentation from a selection of 500 film titles in the Motion Picture Association of America Production Code Administration records. An accompanying index of films mentioned can be found here.
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Hollywood, Censorship, and the Motion Picture Production Code, 1927-1968The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) Production Code Administration Files collection documents forty years of self-regulation and censorship in the motion picture industry.
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Motion Picture Association of America Certificate Books (Academy Library)The collection contains 140 Production Code certificate books from the California office of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America. Each 10-inch by 10 3/4-inch book once contained 150 certificates, numbered sequentially, with three certificates per page. These are the original books from which the certificates were detached and given to the producers, once a film had been approved, leaving the stub behind.
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Motion Picture Association of America Clippings and Radio Transcripts (Academy Library)The collection consists of clippings on the Production Code Administration, censorship, SMPTE conferences, and legal opinions on California Proposition 18 concerning obscenity legislation.
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Motion Picture Association of America World War II Records (Academy Library)The Motion Picture Association of America World War II records span the years 1940-1957. There are files on the Hollywood Coordinating Committee, Hollywood Victory Committee, and the Office of War Information.
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Will Hays Papers 1900-1985Open for research at Indiana University. Collections consists of consists of the papers of Will Hays, Sr., Republican politician and the first President of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA), and his son Will Hays, Jr., author and Indiana mayor.
Books
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The Censorship Papers: Movie Censorship Letters from the Hays Office, 1934-1968
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ISBN: 9780396089032Date: 1988-01-01 -
The Dame in the Kimono: Hollywood, Censorship, and the Production Code
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ISBN: 9780813190112Date: 2001-07-06The new edition of this seminal work takes the story of the Production Code and motion picture censorship into the present, including the creation of the PG-13 and NC-17 ratings in the 1990s. -
The Hays Office
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Date: 1945This book is an account of what one industry has learned about governing itself in the form of the Hays Office, or more popularly identified as the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America. -
Hollywood's Censor: Joseph I. Breen & the Production Code Administration
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ISBN: 9780231143585Date: 2007-11-02As enforcer of the puritanical Production Code, Breen dictated "final cut" over more movies than anyone in the history of American cinema. Cultural historian Thomas Doherty tells the absorbing story of Breen's ascent to power and the widespread effects of his reign. -
New Courts of Industry: Self-Regulation Under the Motion Picture Code, including an Analysis of the Code
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Date: 1935"The book includes the full text of the "Code of Fair Competition for the Motion Picture Industry," an Executive Order approved by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in November 1933. For anyone attempting to truly understand the financial and legal workings of the Hollywood studio system during the 1930s, this volume is essential reading."
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Sin in Soft Focus: Pre-Code Hollywood
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ISBN: 9780810944756Date: 1999-10-01This text showcases the boldly creative pre-code period in Hollywood in the early 1930s, when defiant producers flouted the restrictions of the censors. Vieira draws on extensive research, interviews, and correspondence in the Production Code Administration files to tell the engaging, suspenseful, and often humorous story of the struggle between Hollywood and its reformers, weaving history, politics, and film into a full-blooded narrative. -
