Purplcx - ⠀

Pre-Code Hollywood refers to the era in the American film industry between the introduction of sound in the late 1920s and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code (usually labeled, albeit inaccurately after 1934, as the “Hays Code”) censorship guidelines. Although the Code was adopted in 1930, oversight was poor and it did not become rigorously enforced until July 1, 1934. Before that date, movie content was restricted more by local laws, negotiations between the Studio Relations Committee (SRC) and the major studios, and popular opinion than strict adherence to the Hays Code, which was often ignored by Hollywood filmmakers. As a result, films in the late 1920s and early 1930s included sexual innuendo, miscegenation, profanity, illegal drug use, promiscuity, prostitution, infidelity, abortion, intense violence and homosexuality.

Ramón Novarro in the 1920s.

William A. Wellman’s The Public Enemy (1931) opening credits

SAFETY LAST! (1923)

Dir. Fred C. Newmeyer and Sam Taylor

Orson Welles resting on a sculpture of Shakespeare.

Photographer: Cecil Beaton

Vanity Fair

Portrait of a beloved loaf. Ca. 1865 - 1880. Source.

El Paso Herald, Texas, January 6, 1928

Norma Shearer in The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934)