Editing Hays Code (section)

{{Short description|U.S. film studio self-censorship rules (1930–1967)}}
{{redirect2|Production Code|Hays Commission|TV episode numbering|Production code number|the 1937 investigation by Arthur Garfield Hays|Ponce massacre}}
{{Use American English|date=March 2023}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2023}}
[[File:Motion Picture Production Code.png|thumb|200px|Motion Picture Production Code]]

The '''Motion Picture Production Code''' was a set of industry guidelines for the [[self-censorship]] of content that was applied to most  motion pictures released by major studios in the [[Cinema of the United States|United States]] from 1934 to 1968. It is also popularly known as the '''Hays Code''', after [[Will H. Hays]], president of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA) from 1922 to 1945. Under Hays's leadership, the MPPDA, later the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the [[Motion Picture Association]] (MPA), adopted the Production Code in 1930 and began rigidly enforcing it in 1934. The Production Code spelled out acceptable and unacceptable content for motion pictures produced for a public audience in the United States.

From 1934 to 1954, the code was closely associated with [[Joseph Breen]], the administrator appointed by Hays to enforce the code in Hollywood. The film industry followed the guidelines set by the code well into the late 1950s, but it began to weaken, owing to the combined impact of television, influence from foreign films, controversial directors (such as [[Otto Preminger]]) pushing boundaries, and intervention from the courts, including the [[Supreme Court of the United States|U.S. Supreme Court]].<ref name="mcgmain">McGilligan (2004), p. 376.</ref><ref name="H:325">Sperling et al (1998), p. 325.</ref> In 1968, after several years of minimal enforcement, the Production Code was replaced by the [[Motion Picture Association film rating system|MPAA film rating system]].