jack valenti r.i.p.

from bbc news

"Jack Valenti, Hollywood's film industry lobbyist who developed the modern US movie ratings system, has died aged 85.
He died of complications resulting from his stroke in March at his Washington home, said Seth Oster of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). Valenti had led the MPAA for 38 years, introducing the G, PG, R and X film ratings system. He retired in 2004.

As the man who represented the Hollywood industry in Washington, Valenti was a fierce opponent of film piracy, crusading for copyright enforcement.

He also abolished the industry's restrictive Hays code, which prohibited explicit violence and sex on the screen. The film ratings system that Valenti laid out in the 1960s generally has remained intact, although some changes have been added over the decades.

Hollywood directors and actors paid tribute to Valenti, with Stephen Spielberg calling him "a giant voice of reason" and "the greatest ambassador Hollywood has ever known". Kirk Douglas said that Valenti had been "a loyal and caring friend to many people".

Valenti once said that the 1966 film A Man For All Seasons was his favourite movie. "I'm the luckiest guy in the world, because I spent my entire public working career in two of life's classic fascinations, politics and Hollywood," he said. "You can't beat that.""

i learned about the hays code from the musical 'a day in hollywood/a night in the ukraine'. there is not a lot about this musical online, and the usual places one may find lyrics do not cover it. all i can offer you, therefore, is from my swiss cheese of a memory:

nudity can never be permitted
as being necessary for the plot
the effect of nudity on the average audience is immoral

transparent material
translucent material
aaaaaand a silhouette
are even more suggestive than exposure!

and here is from the original:

VI. Costume
General Principles:
4. Nudity can never be permitted as being necessary for the plot. Semi-nudity must not result in undue or indecent exposures.
5. Transparent or translucent materials and silhouette are frequently more suggestive than actual exposure.

basically, the company tapdances a rhythm while reciting a precis of the code. as usual, the part of my brain that adores trivial information has kept snippets of these lyrics in my memory for over 25 years.

why am i going on about this? because dick vosburgh died also in the past few days. he wrote the book and lyrics for the show. the independent obit notes:

"Vosburgh made no secret of the fact that having a show on Broadway was one of the greatest thrills of his life. A Day in Hollywood, A Night in the Ukraine started life at the New End Theatre in Hampstead before transferring to the Mayfair Theatre. Devised and written with the actor and composer Frank Lazarus, it was a two-part musical that combined a revue, centred on the fads and foibles of Hollywood, with a pastiche Marx Brothers movie entitled A Night in the Ukraine.

The first section included an inspired number devised by Vosburgh and Lazarus, in which the cast of eight, while tap dancing, recited the risible Production Code devised by censors in 1930s Hollywood. The brilliant pastiche of a Marx Brothers movie, which comprised the show's second half, resulted in a lawsuit from the heirs of two of the brothers, who claimed plagiarism and were shocked to discover that everything in the script was pure Vosburgh. (Though the case dragged on for months, Vosburgh and Lazarus ultimately won.)"