Pennsylvania State Board
Censorship—Not Approved.
of
Censors,
Certificate
of
Source Analysis [Teacher Guide]
Student Worksheets:
Key Components [Teacher Guide]
Film Censorship Code [Teacher Guide]
The Don’ts and Be Carefuls
Student Handouts:
The Motion Picture Production Code (1930) Parts 1 through 5
Motion Picture Rating System (1968)
Modern Motion Picture Ratings
Background Information for Teachers: The banning of
public forms of entertainment, whether through theater or
film, was nothing new to Pennsylvania. The First Continental
Congress, meeting in Philadelphia in 1774, banned all
theatrical performances “and other expensive diversions and
entertainments” as a wartime measure.1 That prohibition
would remain in place until 1789. But Pennsylvania would
revisit this type of ban again in 1911, this time focusing on the
new medium—film.
Established under P.L. 1067 signed by Governor John Kinley
Tener on June 19, 1911, the Pennsylvania State Board of
Censors was the first such body in the United States and also
one of the strictest. It was responsible for reviewing all films
prior to release in Pennsylvania and with approving only
“such [films] as shall be moral, and to withhold approval from
such as shall tend to debase or corrupt the morals.” Though
the board was funded in April 1913, Governor Tener did not
appoint the first board members until 1914. The initial law
was amended by P.L. 534, the Act of May 15, 1915, to increase
the board from two to 22 members. The size of the paid staff
fluctuated throughout the board’s history, and it maintained
offices in Philadelphia, Harrisburg, and Pittsburgh. Almost
all film screening took place in the Philadelphia office,
with the Harrisburg office providing fiscal supervision and
the Pittsburgh office distributing the seals of approval or
disapproval for films shown in Western Pennsylvania.
Ohio and Kansas soon followed Pennsylvania’s lead,
adopting similar boards in 1913. In 1915, the U.S. Supreme
Court reviewed the Ohio law giving government the right
to censor films. At that time, the Supreme Court limited its
1
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Withington, Ann Fairfax. Toward a More Perfect Union: Virtue and the Formation of
American Republics. City: Oxford University, 1991.
NATIONAL HISTORY DAY 2015
free-speech consideration to the guarantees contained in
the Ohio Constitution and concluded that movies were an
entertainment medium distributed for a profit and not a
protected form of communication.
It was this 1915 decision that opened the doors to local
censorship boards nationwide. The first national censorship
board began in 1922, with the creation of the Motion Pictures
Producers and Distributors Association, under the direction
of former U.S. Postmaster General William Hays.
The State Censorship Board required that all films submitted
for review be accompanied by scripts, and foreign films had to
have notarized affidavits swearing that their translations were
accurate. Section 22 of the Standards of the Board required
all movie advertising to meet the same standards as the film
itself. Records at the Pennsylvania State Archives that cover
fiscal years 1935 through 1949 reveal that the Pennsylvania
State Board of Censors reviewed a total of 24,235 films during
that period. During that same period, the Board ordered that
eliminations be made in 2,226 different films and banned 76
films outright.
The extensive list of specifically banned subject matter
included such items as prostitution or “white slavery,” nudity
or sexually suggestive use of exposed body parts, men and
women living together without benefit of marriage, adultery,
sensual kissing or lovemaking, lewd or immodest bathing or
dancing, sexually su ggestive use of cigarettes by women, use
of profane or objectionable language, or vulgarities of a gross
kind such as often appeared in slapstick and other screen
comedies. Banners and posters used to advertise motion
pictures were required to meet the same standards.
When the board determined that scenes should be removed,
the film distributor was notified that changes were necessary
and the board would generally work with the film company in
finding ways to edit out offensive material or restructure the
film. The Sunset Strip Case, also known as the Sunset Murder
Case, was approved for viewing in Pennsylvania only after a
number of scenes were removed. Several of the eliminations
are listed on the board’s Eliminations sheet dated December
1, 1938. The advertising handbill depicting Sally Rand in
costume for her “Dance of the Peacocks” in the movie Sunset
Strip Case is clearly marked as disapproved.
The film Ecstasy, originally produced and released in
Czechoslovakia in 1933, stars Hedy Lamarr in her pre-Hollywood
days as a young bride who has an affair. Pennsylvania’s Board of
Censors banned the film the day after it was first received on July