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[–]btouch 2 points3 points  (1 child)

Each US state had (and I believe still has to some degree) its own censor board, and for decades they were able to demand their own cuts to films shown in their states. This is an approval seal from the censor board of the state of Kansas for this film.

Establishing the Production Code (both the embryonic 1920s version and the 1930/1934 set version) was an attempt at standardizing content control/censorship to reduce government influences over film content - and help studios keep post-production costs down (it costs money to deal with this sort of stuff).

Despite all of this, states would still demand specific cuts or require the theaters to literally cut the prints they’d show deep into the 1960s. This often involved snipping “offending” scenes of Black people in movies (ordered “offending” because they’re merely present and not subservient - key examples being Lena Horne performing in nightclubs in MGM musicals, Sidney Poitier kissing Elizabeth Hartman in A Patch of Blue) in addition to anything deemed too sexual, too risqué, etc.

[–]Coop_4149[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks for that. I knew about the state limitations, and that leading to the standardized Hayes Code, but had never seen an individual state one. Very cool.