Topic: Entertainment

Dec 24,

1908

Protect the City’s Morals! NYC Mayor Revokes All Movie Licenses

Feb 18,

1915

President Wilson Enjoys His First Movie: “Birth of a Nation”

Aug 1,

1921

New York Motion Picture Commission Begins Work – Censorship Ahead

Dec 8,

1922

“Birth of a Nation” Denied Permit in New York City

Feb 19,

1930

Early Hollywood Censorship Code Adopted

Mar 31,

1930

Hollywood Censorship: Early Production Code Adopted

Jun 13,

1934

Notorious Movie Censorship Code Adopted

Jul 27,

1935

“Ecstasy” is Burning!

Apr 20,

1937

From Internee to Star Trek to Same-Sex Activist: George Takei Born

Jun 13,

1937

“Cradle Will Rock” Defies Government Censorship, Opens in Different Theater

May 27,

1944

First Television Censorship!

Dec 3,

1947

Hollywood Blacklist Begins

May 12,

1950

It’s a Strike for Equality! American Bowling Congress Abolishes All-White-Male Policy

Jun 22,

1950

“Red Channels” Report Names Alleged Communists, Leads to Blacklisting

Apr 8,

1952

ACLU Files FCC Complaint Over Radio & TV Blacklisting

May 26,

1952

“The Miracle!” Movies Protected by First Amendment

Jul 30,

1952

Classic Film “High Noon” Released – Co-Producer/Writer’s Name Deleted (Carl Foreman)

Dec 8,

1952

“I Love Lucy,” But Just Don’t Say She’s ‘Pregnant’

Jan 19,

1953

“Lucy Goes to the Hospital” – Just Doesn’t Say Why

Jul 8,

1953

Eeek! A Virgin! The Film “The Moon is Blue” Premiers in New York

Jul 28,

1954

Film “On the Waterfront” Premieres – Cold War Debate Energized

Oct 26,

1954

Save the Children! Comic Book Code Adopted

Apr 21,

1955

“Inherit the Wind” Opens on Broadway

May 17,

1955

Rock Around the Quad! 1,000 Princeton Students “Riot” Over “Rock Around the Clock”

May 22,

1955

Lock Up Your Teenagers! Fats is Coming

Sep 1,

1955

Huck Finn Whitewashed – No Slavery, No African-Americans in TV Movie

Oct 24,

1955

Can We Say “Virgin”? Supreme Court Okays Film “The Moon is Blue”

Jul 1,

1956

Report Condemns Blacklisting in Movies and Television

Sep 9,

1956

From the Waist Up: Elvis Censored on Ed Sullivan Show

Nov 5,

1956

Nat King Cole Show, First to Star an African-American, Debuts on NBC television

Oct 11,

1957

“Don’t Put the Tilet Set On TV”

Jun 19,

1958

Joe Papp, Future Theater Great, Takes the Fifth Before HUAC – Is Fired by CBS

Nov 12,

1958

Joseph Papp, Fired and Blacklisted, Ordered Reinstated in Job at CBS

Oct 4,

1961

Lenny Bruce, Pioneering Comedian, Arrested for Obscenity in San Francisco

Sep 14,

1963

Pete Seeger Refuses to Sign Loyalty Oath, Is Barred from “Hootenanny” TV Show

May 20,

1964

FBI Can’t Decode “Louie Louie” Lyrics; U.S. Will Not Prosecute

Nov 4,

1964

Lenny Bruce, Radical Comedian, Convicted of Obscenity in New York City

May 5,

1965

Music Giant Duke Ellington Denied Pulitzer Special Citation

Nov 1,

1968

Rated “X” – New Movie Ratings System Goes Into Effect

Nov 22,

1968

First Interracial Kiss on National TV

Apr 4,

1969

CBS Cancels Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour

Sep 30,

1970

“A Rock Group of Some Sort:” FBI Investigates The Grateful Dead

Nov 14,

1972

“Maude’s Dilemma” – An Abortion Mentioned on a TV Sitcom

Nov 21,

1972

Maude Has An Abortion, Part 2 – No Controversy Results

Oct 30,

1973

Cover Your Ears! George Carlin’s Seven Dirty Words Broadcast

May 2,

1975

Eighteen Years Late, Blacklisted Dalton Trumbo Receives His Oscar

May 24,

1976

“Hollywood on Trial” Shown at Cannes Film Festival

Apr 21,

1985

“The Normal Heart,” By Gay Rights Activist Larry Kramer, Opens Off-Broadway

Dec 23,

1988

FCC Bans All “Indecency” on Radio and Television

Dec 23,

2003

Lenny Bruce Pardoned, Thirty-Nine Years Later

Sep 14,

2008

George Takei, Star Trek’s Mr. Sulu, Marries His Same-Sex Partner

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