Is it true that there was censorship in Hollywood?

Yes. Until the middle of the 20th century, films had to obey a series of prohibitions that became known as the Hays Code. In the early 1920s, Hollywood was seen by the rest of the United States as the «Sin City». This image got even worse when the most popular comedian of the time, Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle, was accused of raping and killing an aspiring actress in 1921. by prior self-censorship and chose lawyer Will Hays to lead the new mission. By 1924, all productions had passed through his scrutiny – and, in 1930, the censorship rules were made official in the so-called Hays Code. The application of this kind of conservative guideline reached its peak in 1934, when the department responsible for the moral control of films fell into the hands of religious activist Joseph Breen.

Dubbed “the Hitler of Hollywood,” Breen fought a bitter battle with director and producer Howard Hughes after attending a preliminary screening of the 1941 film The Outlaw. ten years of critical film analysis, I have never seen anything as unacceptable as the bust shots of the character Rio (Jane Russell)”. Breen had 37 close-ups of the actress’ breasts cut. Hughes, however, refused to modify the work and, defying the censors, released the film in 1946 with provocative publicity: he hired planes to write the title of the film in the sky inside two balloons with a small circle in the middle, in a clear reference to Jane Russell’s breast attributes. With challenges of this type, the Hays Code gradually lost its force. Officially, it ran until 1966 – but it had fallen into disuse much earlier. Two years later, the system was definitively replaced by classification by age group.

– Have any stars been removed from the Walk of Fame?

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