5 Strange Rules From Hollywood’s Hays Code
The golden age of Hollywood was an era of glamorous stars and timeless films, but behind the sparkle was a somewhat less romantic reality. From 1934 until the late 1960s, films were subject to strict moral scrutiny and censorship under the Motion Picture Production Code, better known as the Hays Code.
Named for politician Will H. Hays, who served as president of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, the set of rules was born from scandal. A series of high-profile controversies in the 1920s convinced the public that Hollywood was reckless, immoral, and a dangerous influence on the general public. Fearing government censorship, Hollywood studios opted to police themselves instead.
On paper, the Hays Code guidelines promised protection for impressionable viewers. In practice, this meant a long list of oddly specific rules primarily targeting crime, profanity, or anything sexual in nature, many of which reflected social anxieties of the era but seem outlandish and outdated today. Here are five of the strangest rules from Hollywood’s Hays Code days.
No “Raspberry” Sounds
It’s a sound most of us associate with children or silly teasing, but in 1930s Hollywood, making a “raspberry” sound was forbidden. The juvenile act of placing one’s tongue between the lips and blowing (also known at the time as the “Bronx cheer”) was deemed a “vulgar expression” and listed under the Hays Code’s profanity section. Other gestures of mockery were flagged as well, such as using the middle finger.
Of course, the rules didn’t just forbid gestures. Many words were also considered profane, including “cripes,” “lousy,” and “damn.” In fact, one of the most famous lines from 1939’s Gone With the Wind — “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn” — almost didn’t make it past censors the Production Code Administration office, who ultimately allowed the line due to its literary roots.
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No Funny Clergy
Hollywood had strict orders when it came to religion: Ministers, priests, and other clergy could not be portrayed as comic relief or sinister villains. This rule didn’t just reflect the societal norms at the time; it was also due to the personal influence of Hays, a pillar of the Presbyterian church, as well as Joseph Breen, who oversaw the PCA’s enforcement of the Hays Code for decades and was himself a devout Catholic.
This isn’t to say that clergy couldn’t be portrayed as flawed or unconventional, but they couldn’t be made into a laughing stock. Popular films such as Going My Way (1944) and The Bells of St. Mary’s (1945) fit the mold perfectly: Bing Crosby’s beloved character Father Chuck O’Malley was portrayed as approachable and human but always dignified. The rule extended to language, too: The words “God,” “Lord,” “Jesus,” and “Christ” could be said only if they were used reverently.
No Dancing While Feet Are Stationary
Dancing is everywhere in classic Hollywood films, and the Hays Code even recognized it as “an art” and “a beautiful form of expressing human emotions.” But even this beautiful art form had its limits at the time. Any dancing that suggested sexual activity or that was “intended to excite the emotional reaction of an audience” could get a movie canned. More specifically, dancing that “involved excessive upper-body movement while the feet stayed still” was considered indecent. Suggestive hip-swaying? No way, especially not without the added distraction of moving feet.
High-energy, dazzling routines full of spins, lifts, and fancy footwork were a hallmark of the era, however. Film critic David Denby has even suggested that the magic between screen legends Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers might never have been the same without the limitations of the Hays Code. According to Denby, what could have been rote “scenes of passion” were instead dance numbers that became their own form of courtship through dizzyingly dynamic sequences.
No Childbirth
It’s one of the most natural (and dramatic) moments of human life, but Hollywood was not allowed to depict childbirth “in fact or in silhouette” under the Hays Code. Pregnancy itself was not specifically off-limits in the official list of rules, but Olga J. Martin, one of Breen’s former secretaries, confirmed in her book Hollywood’s Movie Commandments that it was certainly frowned upon and was almost always removed from films since it was considered “improper for public discussions.”
A woman in labor did make it onto the big screen, however, and in an iconic film at that. In 1939’s Gone With the Wind, Olivia de Havilland’s character Melanie goes into premature labor. The audience doesn’t see much — a pained face and a vague silhouette. But given the bluntness with which the subject matter was banned, it’s a wonder the PCA, albeit after a back-and-forth with the film’s producer David O. Selznick, allowed the scene to exist at all.
No Toilets
Old Hollywood was a time of many taboos, but toilets might be the most absurd. For decades, in the name of decorum, bathroom interiors, especially toilets, did not appear on screen. Broader “toilet gags” — which encompassed any form of potty humor as well as certain bodily functions — were also banned under the Hays Code’s profanity section.
It wasn’t until Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 film Psycho that a toilet — and a flushing one at that — finally appeared on screen. It was just one of the film’s many snubs to the Hays Code, which at the time was being challenged by filmmakers and enforced less and less, a gradual process that began after Breen retired in 1954.
Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the Hays Code steadily lost influence and was enforced less and less — as television and foreign films outside of its jurisdiction became more accessible, filmmakers began pushing boundaries. By 1968, the code was officially replaced by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) rating system that is still in use today.
