1930’s Depression & New Deal

Stock Market Crash 1929 October Great Depression 1930’s

Exhibition – The Candy Counter The Double Bill & the “B” Movie

National Industrial Recovery Act National Recovery Administration

Code of Fair Practices

Hollywood in the Depression

•  Bankruptcy / receivership for Paramount, Fox, RKO & Universal

Guilds & Unions

•  Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences

•  Screen Actors Guild •  Directors Guild •  Writers Guild

Mae West & Censorship

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

Oscar Micheaux 1884-1951

John Barry 1933-2011