The Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA) is an extremely important tool in the current film industry. It helps studios to fight against piracy and copyright infringement and it is in charge of the film rating system. Without it, the film industry would not be what it is today. In 1922, the film industry was under a lot of scrutiny for its multiple celebrity scandals. The most famous of them was the Roscoe “Fatty Arbuckle scandal. Arbuckle was a famous physical comedian who mentored Charlie Chaplin. He was accused of murdering fellow film star Virginia Rappe during a labor day vacation. Despite the current consensus being that Arbuckle was innocent, Arbuckle’s fame and the greed of newspaper editors created a media frenzy that convinced people that Arbuckle was guilty. Luckily after two deadlocked juries, Arbuckle was ruled innocent, but his reputation would never recover.
Fearing their reputation would be ruined, the film industry created the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America in 1922. The film industry hired U.S. Postmaster General Will H. Hays as the president of the MPPDA. Hays “…a conservative politician and a leader of the Republican Party, was meant to align the movies with an older, Protestant, affluent, and Anglo Saxon idea of America.” (Alberti, 83), as opposed to a sleazy and scandalous industry. The MPPDA was basically put in place for the film industry to censor itself so their films could reach as many audiences as possible. It was also created to negotiate and object to other censorships imposed by outside sources such as religious groups and state governments.
Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA). 1922.
Logos.wikia.com, Fandom Lifestyle Community, logos.wikia.com/wiki/
Motion_Picture_Association_of_America. Accessed 6 Mar. 2017.
“MPPDA Digital Archive.” Flinders.edu, Flinders Institute for Research in the
Humanities, mppda.flinders.edu.au/. Accessed 6 Mar. 2017.
Alberti, John. Screen Ages: A Survey of American Cinema. Routledge, 2014.
Film Politics 