Hays Code

The Hays Code, named after Will Hays, is a series of rigid censorship restrictions imposed on films by the Motion Picture Production Code (MPPC) beginning in mid-1934, and enforced/administered by Joseph Breen (in the Breen Office). The code had existed since the late 1920s but wasn't vigorously enforced, and it lasted until the late 1960s. The Code explicitly prescribed what couldn't be shown in films, i.e., "nakedness and suggestive dances," "methods of crime," "alleged sex perversion," "illegal drug use," "scenes of passion," "excessive and lustful kissing...", "miscegenation," "pointed profanity," etc.