Production Code Administration
The Production Code Administration (PCA) was responsible for ensuring that Hollywood complied with restrictions that existed then on the political, religious, social, economic, and sexual content of movies. The collection contains records on approximately 500 movies produced between 1930 and 1964. It chronicles the activities of the PCA in relation to films submitted to the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) for approval. Records are arranged by film title and contain correspondence between representatives of the film studios, the PCA, and special interest groups; internal memoranda-of-record, news clippings, script extracts, song lyrics, film reviews, Code certificates, reports on foreign censorship, copies of advertisements and promotional materials, analysis charts, synopses, credit sheets, theater and book reviews, censor board reports and photographs of interest to the PCA (costumes, for instance). The collection serves numerous academic disciplines: Film Studies, American Studies, Ethnic Studies, Popular Culture, Women's studies, Cultural Studies, Literature. Related PSM and SR products include Gallup Looks at the Movies: Audience Research Report, 1940-1953; D.W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation; Warner Brothers Screenplays, 1930-1950; Film Daily & Film Daily Yearbook The Complete Collection, 1915-1970. [Gale-Thomson]
These reels contains files from the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) Production Code Administration documenting over forty years of self-regulation and censorship in the motion picture industry.
Thanks to Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, you can see which titles are on what reels on their Gould Guide.
We now have approximately 1,000 titles available online from GALE and the Margaret Herrick Library.
Hollywood, censorship, and the Motion Picture Production Code, 1927-1968 by Call Number: Electronic resourceThe Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) Production Code Administration Files collection documents forty years of self-regulation and censorship in the motion picture industry. The Production Code was written in 1929 by Martin J. Quigley, an influential editor and publisher of motion picture trade periodicals, and Reverend Daniel A. Lord, a Jesuit advisor to Hollywood filmmakers.
Production Code Administration records by Call Number: Electronic resourceFull documentation from a selection of 500 film titles in the Motion Picture Association of America Production Code Administration records. Will Hays, as president of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA) in 1930, introduced the Production Code, a document designed to help the industry regulate itself by following certain moral principles and guidelines. Hays chose Joseph Breen to oversee the administration of the Code in 1934. ...- History of cinema. Series 1, Hollywood and the production code byCall Number: Library Depository #5076r reels 1 - 33There is an accompanying guide.
Finding resources about the Hollywood Production Code in the library's collections
You can use this subject heading to start your research in the online catalog:
Book(s) about the Production Code
Hollywood's censor: Joseph I. Breen & the Production Code Administration by Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995.62 .D64 2007ISBN: 9780231512848Cultural historian Thomas Doherty recounts the untold tale of the man who dictated "final cut" over more movies than anyone in the history of American cinema. Empowered by industry insiders and millions of like-minded Catholics, Joseph I. Breen oversaw the editing of A-list feature films, low-budget B movies, short subjects, previews of coming attractions, and even cartoons. Populated by a colorful cast of characters, including Catholic priests, Jewish moguls, visionary auteurs, hardnosed journalists, and bluenose agitators, Doherty's insightful, behind-the-scenes portrait brings a tumultuous era; and an individual both feared and admired-to vivid life.
Policing cinema: movies and censorship in early twentieth-century America by Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995.62 .G75 2004ISBN: 9780520239661White slave films, dramas documenting sex scandals, filmed prize fights featuring the controversial African-American boxer Jack Johnson, D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation--all became objects of public concern after 1906, when the proliferation of nickelodeons brought moving pictures to a broad mass public. Lee Grieveson draws on extensive original research to examine the controversies over these films and over cinema more generally. He situates these contestations in the context of regulatory concerns about populations and governance in an early-twentieth-century America grappling with the powerful forces of modernity, in particular, immigration, class formation and conflict, and changing gender roles. ...- The world according to Hollywood, 1918-1939 byCall Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995.62 .V37 1997ISBN: 9780299151942The most visible cultural institution on earth between the World Wars, the Hollywood movie industry tried to satisfy worldwide audiences of vastly different cultural, religious, and political persuasions. The World According to Hollywood shows how the industry's self-regulation shaped the content of films to make them salable in as many markets as possible. In the process, Hollywood created an idiosyncratic vision of the world that was glamorous and exotic, but also oddly narrow. ...
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