ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the efforts to protect vulnerable viewers by censoring the movies-efforts that significantly marked both the beginning and the ending of the twentieth century. The Progressive Era was a time of possibility; when women and men sought to understand, define, and regulate their roles in an increasingly industrialized world. On June 19, 1911, in reaction to what it saw as a failure by the National Board to provide the necessary moral authority, the Pennsylvania legislature became the first state legislature to pass laws on motion picture censorship. The Board disapproves of showing a good woman doing what would be considered a bad thing by the society of which she forms a part. The proposition was accepted, and the board decided to locate its main offices in Philadelphia, which was duly recognized as the geographic hub of the state's film industry.
