The Don'ts List below was put together by the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America in October of 1927 to be implemented for productions starting in November (and I bet you thought my piece on Call Her Savage, released in November of 1932 was just random - Not at all - November is Sex, Drugs and all things Pre and Post Code here on Cinema Styles, or haven't you noticed from the sidebar). This list (which preceded the much more stringent Production Code, adopted in 1930 but not enforced until 1934) included both things forbidden and things to be careful about. Here I'll just show the Don'ts with commentary in italics but if you'd like to check out the Be Carefuls too go here for the full list taken from The Movies in our Midst: Documents in the Cultural History of Film in America, edited by Gerald Mast. This list was only barely followed by the industry which is why the Production Code was devised and then, finally, enforced._________________________________________
The Don'ts
Resolved, That those things which are included in the following list shall not appear in pictures produced by the members of this Association, irrespective of the manner in which they are treated:
1. Pointed profanity-by either title or lip-this includes the words "God," "Lord," "Jesus" "Christ" (unless they be used reverently in connection with proper religious ceremonies), "hell," "damn," "Gawd," and every other profane and vulgar expression however it may be spelled;
"By either title or lip" - This would explain the infamous title change of Chaplin's Modern F***ing Times to Modern Times. Really, even today, how often is profanity in the title? To be fair, they were primarily referring to inter-titles in silent films as well, as sound productions had just barely begun.
2. Any licentious or suggestive nudity-in fact or in silhouette; and any lecherous or licentious notice thereof by other characters in the picture;
Yeah, we wouldn't want anybody to notice nudity now would we? It might mean the characters are human beings.
3. The illegal traffic in drugs;
Now this is curious. Are they against it because it's a crime? Because if so then you can't show people robbing banks or shooting someone which was common in crime dramas of the time. And what if you showed it to make the point that it was damaging to the characters involved?
4. Any inference of sex perversion;
So basically, except for a man kissing a woman (who he's married to) on the cheek, don't show anything.
5. White slavery;
White slavery?!? Are you serious? This is number five? First of all, who the hell cares if you put this in a movie? Are you afraid it's going to increase the incidence of it? Do you not want to offend the White Slavers? It's a crime. Let people show it if they want to. Christ! (oops, I think I just broke rule number 1.)
6. Miscegenation (sex relationship between the white and black races);
Now the list is really showing its age. A nice mix of puritanism and Jim Crow laws rolled into one. The same idiots who supported rules like this have simply moved on to hating gays and barring them from getting married. And they'll look just as foolish when the history books are written.
7. Sex hygiene and venereal diseases;
So how do you show a venereal disease? And sex hygiene? Were douche scenes so common that they had to make a rule eliminating them. Personally, I can't recall seeing any. Maybe I just blocked it out.
8. Scenes of actual childbirth-in fact or in silhouette;
You mean babies don't come from storks??!!!!? Goddamn you Dumbo! Goddamn you to hell! (oops, broke number 1 again.)
9. Children's sex organs;
Okay I really don't have a problem with this rule but if they're talking about not showing a baby in a bathtub or something like that then it's a little stupid. Outside of that though I have to admit, filming a child naked just doesn't need to happen. However, I think Donner's Superman broke this one if I recall correctly.
10. Ridicule of the clergy;
So much for troupe Monty Python's career. And Peter Cook? He would've been burned at the stake. Good thing Bunuel wasn't making movies in America.
11. Willful offence to any nation, race or creed;
Wouldn't rule number six itself be a willful offence to race? And how about Stepin Fetchit? Gone with the Wind? Buckwheat? I think by "nation, race or creed" they meant "America, whites and christians."
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So there it is - what a load of garbage. Filmmakers ignored most of it as well as its offshoot, the Production Code, for years until Joseph Breen took over the Motion Pictures Producers and Distributors Association in 1934. After problems with the distribution in America of the Czech film Ecstasy with the future 
Hedy Lamarr (born November 9th) he came up with the idea of Production Certificates that films were required to have before gaining distribution. The studios agreed, preferring self-censorship to the slash and burn censorship of local censorship boards. The code became known as the Hays Code simply because Will Hays, former Postmaster General, was the Head of the Production Office when it was adopted. As a result he's earned a bad name in the industry but the truth is Hays didn't care. While he was president from 1922 to 1933 very little censorship occurred. He preferred to wag his finger and say, "Watch yourself" rather than actually enforce anything. Breen was the one that took it seriously and effectively puritanized American film for the next twenty to thirty years. Fortunately, there was an abundance of talent in the country that found a way to produce great art without it, or found ways to work it in that puritanical blockheads like Breen were too dense to notice.
By the time the country had made it through a depression and a World War of immense proportions back to back, people were weary of the movies not reflecting what they knew to be reality. The restrictions started to loosen. Mild profanity could be heard from time to time. By
1954 Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando) could tell a priest (Karl Malden) to "go to hell" and not be cut (On the Waterfront). Eventually the restrictions were so loose as to be non-existent. The Pawnbroker (1965) showed female frontal nudity, used profanity and even hinted at a homosexual relationship between a black man and a white man. With films like this, as well as The Leather Boys (1963), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1966), Blow-Up (1966) and The Graduate (1967) it was clear a new plan was needed. Upon taking office in 1966 Jack Valenti began working on a ratings system. The idea was simple: Put whatever the hell you want in your movie and we will rate it so moviegoers know what's in it. It wasn't perfect (and has itself been the subject of controversy for decades) but it allowed filmmakers more freedom than they had ever had before. And when was it officially adopted? November 1st, 1968.
