In 1934 the MPAA voluntarily passed the Motion Picture Production Code, more generally known as the Hays Code, largely to avoid governmental regulation. The code prohibited certain plotlines and imagery from films and in publicity materials produced by the MPAA. Among others, there was to be no cleavage, no lace underthings, no drugs or drinking, no corpses, and no one shown getting away with a crime.
Larry of The Daily Mirror sent me an L.A. Times article from October 28, 1979. It was written by Teet Carl, who describes his experiences trying to stay within the boundaries the Hays Code allowed and some of the ridiculous problems he encountered.
According to Teet, A.L. Shafer, the head of photography at Columbia, took a photo that intentionally incorporated all of the 10 banned items into one image. Here’s the image and the top 10 no-nos:
The photograph was clandestinely passed around among photographers and publicists in Hollywood as a method of symbolic protest to the Hays Code.
While the Hays Code is no longer in effect, the movie This Film Is Not Yet Rated makes it clear that the MPAA still functionally censors certain content by requiring directors to take out certain types of content to get a PG-13 rating, including allowing more female nudity than male nudity and rating scenes of gay sex more harshly than heterosexual sex. Clearly we’re in no way whatsoever still living under a version of the Hays Code, but the MPAA hasn’t given up its prerogative to define what is inappropriate, often based in sexism and homophobia.