1996
From the opening of the first cinema in New York in 1894, movie makers realized that sex and scintillation sold tickets. The Kiss (1896) was a scandal and considered an attack on public morals as was the film of the belly dancer in Fatima (1897). Censorship began take shape leading the mayor of New York City to cancel all licenses to show motion pictures in 1908. Theda Bara appeared in A Fool There Was (1915) and instantly became the screen's first sex symbol and made 40 films over the next 4 years. After a 1915 ruling by the US Supreme Court that movies were not protected under the Constitution, censorship began in earnest. The movie industry moved west and Hollywood became the center of the American movie industry. Actors such as Pola Negri, 'Gloria Swanson' and 'Rudolph Valentino' made the screen sizzle. Tinseltown continued to produce scandals however and none was greater than the Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle murder case. Although he was found not guilty, Arbuckle's career was in ruins. The studios formed the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America and hired Will H. Hays to police the industry.
1996
The focus is on the early years of the talkies in Hollywood and particularly some of its biggest female stars including Jean Harlow, Marlene Dietrich and Mae West. The Hays office was in a constant battle battle with the movie studios to delete any sexually suggestive scenes or dialog but the movies moguls knew what would sell and pushed it to the limit. As the films got racier however, politicians and social groups began to demand a greater degree of censorship changing the movies for years to come.