1 option
Freedom of the screen : legal challenges to state film censorship, 1915-1981 / Laura Wittern-Keller.
Van Pelt Library PN1995.62 .W58 2008
Available
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Wittern-Keller, Laura, 1951-
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Motion pictures--Censorship--United States--History.
- Motion pictures.
- Motion pictures--Censorship.
- United States.
- History.
- Motion pictures--Law and legislation--United States.
- Motion pictures--Law and legislation.
- Motion picture industry--Law and legislation--United States.
- Motion picture industry.
- Motion picture industry--Law and legislation.
- Physical Description:
- xi, 356 pages ; 24 cm
- Place of Publication:
- Lexington, Ky. : University Press of Kentucky, [2008]
- Summary:
- Between 1907 and 1980, many state and local governments empowered motion picture censor boards with the legal authority to keep any movie they considered obscene, indecent, or harmful from being shown. Although the mainstream American film industry accepted the form of censorship known as "prior restraint," independent distributors and exhibitors challenged the government censors in court. In Freedom of the Screen, Laura Wittern-Keller tells the story of those who fought prior restraint on movies. By drawing attention to this inequity--film was the only medium so constricted by the 1950s--the distributors pushed a reluctant judiciary to square its interpretation of movie expression with the rights of other media. As these legal interpretations gradually became more sympathetic to artistic freedom--largely because of the independent distributors' lawsuits--Hollywood was free to discard its outmoded restraints and deliver provocative, relevant movies to American audiences.
- Contents:
- Introduction
- The origins of governmental film censorship, 1907-1923
- The courts provide no relief, 1909-1927
- Hollywood and the Legion of Decency, 1922-1934
- Early challenges to state censors, 1927-1940
- The first amendment resurfaces, 1946-1950
- The strange case of The miracle, 1950-1952
- La Ronde, 1951-1954
- The tide turns against the censors, 1953-1957
- The seventh case in seven years, 1957-1959
- The curtain coming down, 1957-1964
- Fight for freedom of the screen, 1962-1965
- Denouement, 1965-1981
- Conclusion.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 331-341) and index.
- ISBN:
- 9780813124513
- 0813124514
- OCLC:
- 154692330
The Penn Libraries is committed to describing library materials using current, accurate, and responsible language. If you discover outdated or inaccurate language, please fill out this feedback form to report it and suggest alternative language.