June 5, 2026 • 12 mins
Ever wonder what movies were like before the ratings codes kicked in back in the 1930s? Some were so wild, so bloody, and so sexy, Hollywood quickly realized they had to police themselves or the feds would move in!
Feel free to DM me if you have a story you’d like me to cover . . on Facebook it’s Patty Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ah, the summer blockbuster season. We all have the newest
flicks in our favorite genre on our radar. Some are
great for kids and a lot of adults, but there
are a ton of them loaded with sex, violence, and
action that either draw you in or make you think twice.
Ratings can tell you what to expect, But one hundred
years ago, there were no ratings and Hollywood was literally
(00:23):
the wild West. I'm Patty Steele. What were they watching
back then? And where did the ratings we use today
come from? That's next on the backstory. The backstory is back.
If you're a movie buff, you've no doubt been thrilled
that the summer blockbuster season is underway. But how of
(00:46):
the flicks we get excited about today compared to movies
of one hundred years ago. You might think that the
film industry was pretty conservative in those days, but men,
are you wrong about that. Believe it or not. In
the early days of Hollywood, movies were kind of wild
before censorship arrived. Filmmakers were constantly pushing the boundaries of
(01:07):
good taste. They'd made gangsters look glamorous, romance was more
than suggestive. Violence was pretty intense for those days. It
was the Roaring twenties, and some of the movies just
ten years later would have shocked the conservative audiences of
the mid nineteen thirties. Some of the huge hits of
the pre code era included The Public Enemy, which was
(01:30):
super violent, the extremely sexy Gold Diggers of nineteen thirty three,
and the horror flick Freaks. There was the titillating flick
about a red hot young secretary turned prostitute called Safe
in Hell. Some of them showed interracial or gay relationships,
or they featured powerful, sexually liberated women. Topics included drug use, infidelity,
(01:54):
and abortion. But here's the thing. In the nineteen twenties,
Hollywood's reputation was quickly collapsing under scandal. There were drug cases,
sex scandals, mysterious deaths, and celebrity trials splashed across newspapers
around the country. One scandal involved silent film star Roscoe
Fatty Arbuckle, whose career was destroyed after he was accused
(02:18):
in a case splashed across the headlines. It involved the
brutal rape and death of a young actress. He was
eventually acquitted, sort of, but his career was destroyed. More importantly,
the damage to Hollywood's image was massive. America panicked. Religious
groups claimed Hollywood was corrupting society. Newspapers said immoral movies
(02:41):
were poisoning teenagers. Then politicians threatened to enact federal censorship.
And that's when the movie industry realized something terrifying. If
Washington stepped in, Hollywood might lose control of its own business.
The studios had to do something themselves before the Fed smooth,
so they created a system to police themselves, and for
(03:04):
the next thirty years, that system controlled pretty much everything
Americans saw on screen, and it transformed American cinema forever.
It all began with a man named will H. Hayes.
The film industry hired Hayes, a former politician, to clean
up Hollywood's reputation. At first, the rules were pretty loose.
(03:26):
Then the Depression hit and the wild party atmosphere began
to die out. In nineteen thirty Hollywood adopted what became
known as the Hayes Code, which by nineteen thirty four
had evolved into one of the strictest censorship systems in
entertainment history. The code controlled everything. Of course, no nudity.
(03:47):
You couldn't show passionate kissing, and it could only last
a few seconds. At that sexuality was heavily restricted, and
no gay relationships could even be hinted at. You couldn't
show married couples sharing a bed. They had to sleep
in twin beds with a night table in between. If
one person was in bed, their partner could only sit
(04:07):
by them or lean over them, but they had to
keep at least one foot flat on the floor at
all times. Bad guys couldn't appear to win. In the end,
drug use course off the table. Even certain words were
in no no, especially cursing, including the word damn and
if you're wondering how In nineteen thirty nine's Gone with
the Wind, Clark Gable got away with saying frankly, my dear,
(04:31):
I don't give a damn to scarlet. It really wasn't
that easy. First, the studio had to pay a five
thousand dollars fine for saying that word, but they also
had backups shot where he said Frankly, my dear, I
don't give a straw, another one that said my indifference
is boundless, another one it makes my gorge rise, and finally, Frankly,
(04:53):
my dear, I don't give a whoop Gable did not
want to say any of those lines. The idea was simple,
movies should protect public morality or they couldn't be shown
in theaters. And for decades Hollywood followed the rules, but quietly,
filmmakers were constantly fighting back by implying what they couldn't
(05:15):
say out loud. Instead of showing things directly, they used shadows, dialogue,
and suggestion. That's why a lot of classic black and
white films feel loaded with hidden tension, because directors were
sneaking ideas past the sensors in really creative ways. By
the nineteen fifties and sixties, America itself was changing. TV
(05:38):
had arrived, along with rock music, the Vietnam War, and
the civil rights movement. Young audiences had no interest in
sanitized stories where everything felt safe, sweet, and a little fake. Plus,
filmmakers were frustrated since European movies began showing content that
American films couldn't. Foreign directors explored violence, section usuality, and
(06:00):
psychological darkness in ways Hollywood avoided entirely. Suddenly, American movies
looked old fashioned, so they decided to fix them. They
made movies that pushed Hollywood toward Rebellion. Psycho shocked us
with its wild shower murder scene. Bonnie and Clyde showed
us glamorous outlaws who were brutally violent. The Graduate tackled
(06:24):
sticky adult relationships and generational disillusionment. These flicks became hits
partly because they felt dangerous. Audiences were changing faster than
the censorship system could handle, so Hollywood was now facing
a major problem. The Hayes Code was becoming impossible to enforce.
(06:45):
Directors ignored most of it, studios wanted more freedom, and
younger viewers again wanted realism. Plus there was another problem,
more and more the courts were defending free speech protections
around films. In nineteen sixty eight, the old system simply collapsed.
In its place, the Motion Picture Association introduced the Movie
(07:08):
Ratings System. Instead of censoring films, Hollywood started classifying them
by age appropriateness G for general audiences, any age M
for mature audiences, meaning parental guidance was advised, which is
why it was eventually changed to pg R restricted, so
that kids sixteen and under had to have an adult
(07:29):
with them, and X No one under sixteen was admitted
no matter what. Since the porn industry snagged that untrademarked
letter offering triple X features. Hollywood change their X rating
to NC seventeen in nineteen ninety. The new system offered
a lot more leeway for everybody, but almost immediately it
(07:51):
created yet another problem. Because ratings controlled money, A G
rated flick could attract families, an M or PG was
just confusing, and our rating restricted younger viewers. And an
X rating, again originally intended simply for adult audiences, quickly
became associated with porn, all of which terrified studios. A
(08:15):
single rating decision could destroy a movie financially, so directors
began battling ratings boards. Seen by scene, a few extra
seconds of violence, the rating changed, one extracurs word, the
rating changed too much sexuality, The rating definitely changed, and
there wasn't any consistency because it was often subjective. Some
(08:37):
filmmakers accused the ratings board of hypocrisy, allowing extreme violence
while punishing sexuality more harshly. Others believed certain studios received
softer treatment than independent filmmakers, and some legendary directors became
obsessed with fighting the system. Stanley Kubrick constantly pushed boundaries.
(08:59):
Martin's Or says, battled censorship concerns with gritty urban violence.
Stephen Spielberg helped trigger a major ratings change after movies
like Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom and Gremlin's
Frightened Children despite not being fully adult films. That controversy
led to the creation of the PG thirteen rating in
(09:21):
nineteen eighty four. Studios loved it because PG thirteen films
could attract teenagers and adults at the same time, not
too childish, not fully restricted. It was the financial sweet
spot for Hollywood. Entire blockbuster franchises were designed around getting
exactly that rating, but critics continue to argue that studios
(09:44):
still edit films strategically rather than creatively, to avoid that
tougher classification. These days, it's even more complicated thanks to
streaming services. Violence standards keep evolving. Meantime, different countries apply
radically different rules, and debates about censorship, morality, and media
influence still explode whenever controversial films appear. What makes the
(10:09):
story fascinating is that Hollywood's rating system was never just
about protecting children. It was about control and of course money.
So who decides what audiences are allowed to see the
loudest voices. It seems in the deepest pockets that battle
has been raging for about a century, and every generation
(10:30):
gets a new line not to cross. Differently, a movie
once considered scandalous can later look harmless, a film once
banned can later become a classic, and some once considered
classics can be canceled. That's censorship, a product of the
morals of the moment. It constantly changes with culture itself.
(10:52):
It actually reflects the culture, And maybe the most ironic
part of the entire story is this. The harder Hollywood
tried to suppress controversy, the more audiences became fascinated by it.
Because forbidden movies create curiosity, restricted films feel dangerous, and
throughout Hollywood history, danger has often sold tickets a whole
(11:16):
lot better than safety. Ever could The war over movie
ratings never truly disappeared. It just evolved from censorship boards
to rating labels, to streaming algorithms to endless debates about
what entertainment should or shouldn't show, and behind it all
remains the same uneasy question Hollywood has wrestled with since
(11:36):
the beginning. How much freedom can movies have before society
becomes afraid of them again. I hope you like The
Backstory with Patty Steele. Please leave a review. I'd love
it if you'd subscribe or follow for free to get
new episodes delivered automatically, and feel free to dm me
if you have a story you'd like me to cover.
On Facebook, It's Patty Steele and on Instagram Patty Steele.
(12:08):
I'm Patty Steele. The Backstory is a production of iHeartMedia,
Premiere Networks, the Elvis Durant Group, and Steel Trap Productions.
Our producer is Mike Paeseglia. Our writer is Jake Kushner.
New episodes are out every Tuesday and Friday, and feel
free to reach out to me with comments and story
suggestions on Instagram at reel Patty Steele and on Facebook
(12:30):
at Patty Steele. Thanks for listening to the Backstory with
Patty Steele. The pieces of history you didn't know you
needed to know.
Ah, the summer blockbuster season. We all have the newest
flicks in our favorite genre on our radar. Some are
great for kids and a lot of adults, but there
are a ton of them loaded with sex, violence, and
action that either draw you in or make you think twice.
Ratings can tell you what to expect, But one hundred
years ago, there were no ratings and Hollywood was literally
(00:23):
the wild West. I'm Patty Steele. What were they watching
back then? And where did the ratings we use today
come from? That's next on the backstory. The backstory is back.
If you're a movie buff, you've no doubt been thrilled
that the summer blockbuster season is underway. But how of
(00:46):
the flicks we get excited about today compared to movies
of one hundred years ago. You might think that the
film industry was pretty conservative in those days, but men,
are you wrong about that. Believe it or not. In
the early days of Hollywood, movies were kind of wild
before censorship arrived. Filmmakers were constantly pushing the boundaries of
(01:07):
good taste. They'd made gangsters look glamorous, romance was more
than suggestive. Violence was pretty intense for those days. It
was the Roaring twenties, and some of the movies just
ten years later would have shocked the conservative audiences of
the mid nineteen thirties. Some of the huge hits of
the pre code era included The Public Enemy, which was
(01:30):
super violent, the extremely sexy Gold Diggers of nineteen thirty three,
and the horror flick Freaks. There was the titillating flick
about a red hot young secretary turned prostitute called Safe
in Hell. Some of them showed interracial or gay relationships,
or they featured powerful, sexually liberated women. Topics included drug use, infidelity,
(01:54):
and abortion. But here's the thing. In the nineteen twenties,
Hollywood's reputation was quickly collapsing under scandal. There were drug cases,
sex scandals, mysterious deaths, and celebrity trials splashed across newspapers
around the country. One scandal involved silent film star Roscoe
Fatty Arbuckle, whose career was destroyed after he was accused
(02:18):
in a case splashed across the headlines. It involved the
brutal rape and death of a young actress. He was
eventually acquitted, sort of, but his career was destroyed. More importantly,
the damage to Hollywood's image was massive. America panicked. Religious
groups claimed Hollywood was corrupting society. Newspapers said immoral movies
(02:41):
were poisoning teenagers. Then politicians threatened to enact federal censorship.
And that's when the movie industry realized something terrifying. If
Washington stepped in, Hollywood might lose control of its own business.
The studios had to do something themselves before the Fed smooth,
so they created a system to police themselves, and for
(03:04):
the next thirty years, that system controlled pretty much everything
Americans saw on screen, and it transformed American cinema forever.
It all began with a man named will H. Hayes.
The film industry hired Hayes, a former politician, to clean
up Hollywood's reputation. At first, the rules were pretty loose.
(03:26):
Then the Depression hit and the wild party atmosphere began
to die out. In nineteen thirty Hollywood adopted what became
known as the Hayes Code, which by nineteen thirty four
had evolved into one of the strictest censorship systems in
entertainment history. The code controlled everything. Of course, no nudity.
(03:47):
You couldn't show passionate kissing, and it could only last
a few seconds. At that sexuality was heavily restricted, and
no gay relationships could even be hinted at. You couldn't
show married couples sharing a bed. They had to sleep
in twin beds with a night table in between. If
one person was in bed, their partner could only sit
(04:07):
by them or lean over them, but they had to
keep at least one foot flat on the floor at
all times. Bad guys couldn't appear to win. In the end,
drug use course off the table. Even certain words were
in no no, especially cursing, including the word damn and
if you're wondering how In nineteen thirty nine's Gone with
the Wind, Clark Gable got away with saying frankly, my dear,
(04:31):
I don't give a damn to scarlet. It really wasn't
that easy. First, the studio had to pay a five
thousand dollars fine for saying that word, but they also
had backups shot where he said Frankly, my dear, I
don't give a straw, another one that said my indifference
is boundless, another one it makes my gorge rise, and finally, Frankly,
(04:53):
my dear, I don't give a whoop Gable did not
want to say any of those lines. The idea was simple,
movies should protect public morality or they couldn't be shown
in theaters. And for decades Hollywood followed the rules, but quietly,
filmmakers were constantly fighting back by implying what they couldn't
(05:15):
say out loud. Instead of showing things directly, they used shadows, dialogue,
and suggestion. That's why a lot of classic black and
white films feel loaded with hidden tension, because directors were
sneaking ideas past the sensors in really creative ways. By
the nineteen fifties and sixties, America itself was changing. TV
(05:38):
had arrived, along with rock music, the Vietnam War, and
the civil rights movement. Young audiences had no interest in
sanitized stories where everything felt safe, sweet, and a little fake. Plus,
filmmakers were frustrated since European movies began showing content that
American films couldn't. Foreign directors explored violence, section usuality, and
(06:00):
psychological darkness in ways Hollywood avoided entirely. Suddenly, American movies
looked old fashioned, so they decided to fix them. They
made movies that pushed Hollywood toward Rebellion. Psycho shocked us
with its wild shower murder scene. Bonnie and Clyde showed
us glamorous outlaws who were brutally violent. The Graduate tackled
(06:24):
sticky adult relationships and generational disillusionment. These flicks became hits
partly because they felt dangerous. Audiences were changing faster than
the censorship system could handle, so Hollywood was now facing
a major problem. The Hayes Code was becoming impossible to enforce.
(06:45):
Directors ignored most of it, studios wanted more freedom, and
younger viewers again wanted realism. Plus there was another problem,
more and more the courts were defending free speech protections
around films. In nineteen sixty eight, the old system simply collapsed.
In its place, the Motion Picture Association introduced the Movie
(07:08):
Ratings System. Instead of censoring films, Hollywood started classifying them
by age appropriateness G for general audiences, any age M
for mature audiences, meaning parental guidance was advised, which is
why it was eventually changed to pg R restricted, so
that kids sixteen and under had to have an adult
(07:29):
with them, and X No one under sixteen was admitted
no matter what. Since the porn industry snagged that untrademarked
letter offering triple X features. Hollywood change their X rating
to NC seventeen in nineteen ninety. The new system offered
a lot more leeway for everybody, but almost immediately it
(07:51):
created yet another problem. Because ratings controlled money, A G
rated flick could attract families, an M or PG was
just confusing, and our rating restricted younger viewers. And an
X rating, again originally intended simply for adult audiences, quickly
became associated with porn, all of which terrified studios. A
(08:15):
single rating decision could destroy a movie financially, so directors
began battling ratings boards. Seen by scene, a few extra
seconds of violence, the rating changed, one extracurs word, the
rating changed too much sexuality, The rating definitely changed, and
there wasn't any consistency because it was often subjective. Some
(08:37):
filmmakers accused the ratings board of hypocrisy, allowing extreme violence
while punishing sexuality more harshly. Others believed certain studios received
softer treatment than independent filmmakers, and some legendary directors became
obsessed with fighting the system. Stanley Kubrick constantly pushed boundaries.
(08:59):
Martin's Or says, battled censorship concerns with gritty urban violence.
Stephen Spielberg helped trigger a major ratings change after movies
like Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom and Gremlin's
Frightened Children despite not being fully adult films. That controversy
led to the creation of the PG thirteen rating in
(09:21):
nineteen eighty four. Studios loved it because PG thirteen films
could attract teenagers and adults at the same time, not
too childish, not fully restricted. It was the financial sweet
spot for Hollywood. Entire blockbuster franchises were designed around getting
exactly that rating, but critics continue to argue that studios
(09:44):
still edit films strategically rather than creatively, to avoid that
tougher classification. These days, it's even more complicated thanks to
streaming services. Violence standards keep evolving. Meantime, different countries apply
radically different rules, and debates about censorship, morality, and media
influence still explode whenever controversial films appear. What makes the
(10:09):
story fascinating is that Hollywood's rating system was never just
about protecting children. It was about control and of course money.
So who decides what audiences are allowed to see the
loudest voices. It seems in the deepest pockets that battle
has been raging for about a century, and every generation
(10:30):
gets a new line not to cross. Differently, a movie
once considered scandalous can later look harmless, a film once
banned can later become a classic, and some once considered
classics can be canceled. That's censorship, a product of the
morals of the moment. It constantly changes with culture itself.
(10:52):
It actually reflects the culture, And maybe the most ironic
part of the entire story is this. The harder Hollywood
tried to suppress controversy, the more audiences became fascinated by it.
Because forbidden movies create curiosity, restricted films feel dangerous, and
throughout Hollywood history, danger has often sold tickets a whole
(11:16):
lot better than safety. Ever could The war over movie
ratings never truly disappeared. It just evolved from censorship boards
to rating labels, to streaming algorithms to endless debates about
what entertainment should or shouldn't show, and behind it all
remains the same uneasy question Hollywood has wrestled with since
(11:36):
the beginning. How much freedom can movies have before society
becomes afraid of them again. I hope you like The
Backstory with Patty Steele. Please leave a review. I'd love
it if you'd subscribe or follow for free to get
new episodes delivered automatically, and feel free to dm me
if you have a story you'd like me to cover.
On Facebook, It's Patty Steele and on Instagram Patty Steele.
(12:08):
I'm Patty Steele. The Backstory is a production of iHeartMedia,
Premiere Networks, the Elvis Durant Group, and Steel Trap Productions.
Our producer is Mike Paeseglia. Our writer is Jake Kushner.
New episodes are out every Tuesday and Friday, and feel
free to reach out to me with comments and story
suggestions on Instagram at reel Patty Steele and on Facebook
(12:30):
at Patty Steele. Thanks for listening to the Backstory with
Patty Steele. The pieces of history you didn't know you
needed to know.
Host
Patty Steele
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