Evening star., 1945-12-02
Hays Solved
Many Cinema
Problems
By Trudi McCuLIouqh
NEW YORK

Hays personality that it nRy be a
long time before the Hays Office"
is known generally by any other
name. The possibility is made more
likely by the fact that Hays, though
he was resigned as president, still
is around as S100,000-a-year con-
sultant.
Properly, it is the Office of the Mo-
ton Picture Producers and Dis:
tributors of America, Inc. Popu-
larly, there have been a scattered
few references to the Johnston Of
flee" as the logical designation since
Eric Johnston, president of the
United States Chamber of Com
merce, succeeded Hays.
OF the Office, which he admins
tered for nearly "a years. Hays says
Most people thought of it as the Of
fee which stops the length of the
kisses and was the head devil"
Actually. riding herd on the moral
content of pictures is only one of
the functions of the MPPDA. Other
than his head devil" role, neither
the public nor the industry, for
very good reason, knew much about
Hays activities. They were the
kind of activities that better were
accomplished by personal effort
than by publicity.
When Hays went to Hollywood in
1922, seven States had passed CEN
sorship laws and 80 others had bills
pending The backwash of the
murder of Director William Dean
Tanner (also known as Taylor was
at its height. The Fatty Arbuckle
scandal had broken, and one of
HollyWood's most picturesque figures
succinctly had described the indus
try: This isn't business, it's dis
sipation"
1t. Had to Mend Its Ways.
Public reaction had exploded right
in the. movie makers faces. This
vivid new medium had become
everybody's business, and it was
about to become the Government S.
The bewildered producers diScov-
cred that public opinion could
strike like a rattlesnake, envelop
like poison gas, shatter like shell.
:. It could act through newspapers
as we'll as through governments,
through magazines, pulpits, schools,
clubs and welfare associations. 1t
could sweep away dollars, credit,
business standing, personal reputa-
ton, personal happiness"
Hollywood knew 1t had to mend
Its ways, but where was the man to
mend them?
Schooled in the roughhouse of
Indiana politics, tempered in the
courts as a lawyer and in politics
as conductor of national presiden
tial campaign, Will Hays knew how
to deal with people While Post
master General in 1921 and 1922 it
was his custom to leave his Office
door open. To any one who came
in he would hand his desk calendar
showing his appointments for the
day and invite the newcomer to
pick his own slice of the time that
was left.
AS his first job in Movieland,
bantamlike Hays, whose voice has
a range and variability of tone that
Is made for the courtroom, had to
persuade the moviemakers to self
regulation.
He contended that the cost of
tailoring score of pictures to- scores
of censor boards was greater vastly
than using a halter in the home
corral. He said, There's an election
every day at the box Office and you'd
better have it right" He drew up
list of don is" and be carefuls." The
MPPDA was financed by propor-
tionate contributions from mem
bers, but in the beginning, for sub
nitting their scripts to the Hays
office for its stamp of approval,
Hays says. I'VE didn't charge the
little fellows we just wanted them
to get in under the umbrella"
Production Code Established.
censorship bill that became a test
case. With its defeat, Hays knew
he had persuaded the public to give
Hollywood a chance at self-regula-
ton. In 1926 Federal censorship
bill was defeated. But Hays knew,
despite the victory, that weeds grow
and you have to hoe the corn" and
that the "donts" and ''be carefuls'
weren't doing the job.
In 1890 the production code was
established. Three years later an
agreement reaffirming> faith in the
code was signed, but not until 1884
when the MPPDA agreed to S25 900
penalty for violation, was there any
enforcement machinery.
During the years some companies
occasionally have threatened to re-
sign from the Hays. Office Until this
year, when United Artists and
Warner Bros. broke away, they never
did. Warner Bros. has just rejoined.
So well did Hays answer the pub
lies demand to get the movies on
the straight and narrow that the
job is about to come full circle. An
increasing number of public voices
now are being raised to ease up on
the restrictions in the interest of
greater authenticity.
Hays has not had to meet censor
ship on moral grounds alone. Short
ly before Pearl Harbor, he, with
Wendell Willkie as counsel, was de-
ate resolution that the movies con-
tanned propaganda designed to get
us into the European war. Hays
brilliant personal testimony, which
can be seen in printed form, was
never delivered. December 7, l941.
interrupted the proceedings.
In the interests of free SCREEN"
Hays had to busy himself when Mis-
souri, enacted a new constitution
which included all forms of COM
munication in the State bill of
rights and with the price control
bill of 1912 which exempted motion
pictures from licensing, along with
newspapers, books and periodicals.
The registry of titles, the reduc-
ton of fire losses, advertising, fnan-
cial dealings with foreign govern
ments Tor foreign markets, excessive
taxation-all are dragons Hays has
had to tame.
If, indeed, the time has come for
some changes in the policy of the
MPPDA they are primarily Eric
Johnston's responsibilities. For the
job of the last quarter century the