July 07, 1934: In response to pressure from Catholic bishops, the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America adopted a strict policy that barred filmmakers from depicting "excessive and lustful kissing, ... methods of crime, ... seduction or rape, ... profanity, ... illegal drug traffic, ... sex perversion, (or) miscegenation," i.e., interracial romance. Religious leaders were not to be portrayed as "comic characters or as villains." The censorship office was run by Joseph I. Breen, a moralistic, anti-Semitic Catholic from Philadelphia who had previously served commissioner of the National Catholic Welfare Conference. Breen once declared that "I am the code!" and he described himself as the only person "who could cram decent ethics down the throat of the Jews" who controlled the major movie studios

 

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