In 1907 Chicago's City Council passed an ordinance "prohibiting the exhibition of obscene and immoral pictures" It became the world's first regulated film censorship. The ordinance ordered that the Chief of Police (no I'm not making this up) watch every movie before its release and either give it an "exhibition permit" or not. If you dared showed your movie without a permit you would be fined $50 to $100 for every day it was shown without it. The first film to be outright banned was Macbeth (1908) by the Vitagraph company. Shown above, it starred William V. Ranous as that Scottish fellow with a thirst for power fueled by his even more power hungry wife. The reasoning provided by the Police was this: "Shakespeare is art, but it's not adapted altogether for the five cent style of art. The stabbing scene in the play is not predominant. But in the picture show it is the feature." * I've personally never seen it but I would be curious how the play was done in one reel (roughly twenty minutes) anyway. Maybe someone with more experience in that area could explain it to me.
Meanwhile, another Vitagraph Shakespeare production, Julius Caesar (1908), got off scott-free despite having as its centerpiece a gang stabbing. The Chicago Police are a fickle bunch indeed.
Oh, and when was the ordinance passed? Do I really have to tell you? November 4th.
So what is it about November? Why does November play so prominently in the history of film censorship? Is it because October, with its ghouls and goblins and celebration of sorcery and witchcraft, jades everyone so much that those in authority feel they have to clean everyone up once it's over? I don't have the answers myself. But if anyone has any working theories let me know. I'll be right here. As long as the web authorities don't censor my blog. It is November after all.
