Letter from Will H. Hays, pioneer in Hollywood Self-Censorship

For auction is a letter dated January 5, 1944 from Will H. Hays, thanking the addressee for his holiday greetings. Letter comes with the original envelope and is SIGNED by Hays. Letter measures about 5 5/8" x 7 3/4".

William Harrison Hays Sr. (1879–1954) was a pivotal figure in Hollywood's history.

Originally a Republican politician, as chairman of the Republican National Committee from 1918–21, Hays managed the successful 1920 presidential campaign of Warren G. Harding. Harding then appointed Hays to his cabinet as his first Postmaster General.

Hays resigned from the cabinet in 1922 to become the first chairman of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America. As MPPDA chair, Hays oversaw the promulgation of the Motion Picture Production Code (informally known as the Hays Code), which spelled out a set of moral guidelines for the self-censorship of content in American cinema.

The MPPDA's goal of was to improve the image of the movie industry in the wake of the scandal surrounding the rape and murder of model and actress Virginia Rappe, of which film star Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle was accused, and amid growing calls by religious groups for federal censorship of the movies. Hiring Hays to "clean up the pictures" was, at least in part, a public relations ploy and much was made of his conservative credentials, including his roles as a Presbyterian deacon and past chairman of the Republican Party.In his new position in Hollywood, Hays' main roles were to persuade individual state censor boards not to ban specific films outright and to reduce the financial impact of the boards' cuts and edits.

He developed a set of guidelines he called "The Don'ts and Be Carefuls". Catholic bishops and lay people tended to be wary of federal censorship and favored the Hays approach of self-censorship. Father Daniel A. Lord S.J. authored a code that was presented to Hays in 1930, and Hays enthusiastically adopted it -- later known as "The Production Code", "The Code", and "The Hays Code".

Ultimately the movie studios granted MPPDA full authority to enforce the Production Code, creating a relatively strict regime of self-censorship that endured for decades. The Code was set aside in the 1960s when the MPAA adopted the age-based rating system in force today.

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Our father was a bibliophile who collected rare books, letters, and ephemera for more than 60 years.

For now and into the foreseeable future, we will be listing rare paper items from his estate. 

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