America went thru at least two situations in film and entertainment where suggestive material was censored.
The first one happened in the mid-1930s, with something called the Hays office (named after the guy who formed it), where innuendo, suggestiveness, drug use, effemininity and various other questionable, suggestive material wasn't allowed.
A very popular stage play about two female teachers who were accused of being lesbians was made into a movie, but with one of the women being turned into a man. other than that, the play was virtually intact, yet this was done because of the Hays office, apparently.
Heck, if you ever saw Fried Green Tomatoes, with Jessica Tandy and Kathy Bates, hints of lesbianism between the two young women was removed. I believe it was in the book, written by Fanny Flagg, a woman who was remotely funny in the 1970s.
There was a picture of a woman with a cigarette in her mouth, her leg propped up and it was all stuff that wasn't supposed to be allowed in movies, about eight items. One I recall was her inside thigh couldn't be shown.
We were handed from this the 'One Foot on the Floor Each' rule, in which if a man and a woman were in bed, or on the bed, they each had to have a foot on the floor.
Two movies I've noticed this in are Adam's Rib, in which at the end, Kate Hepburn has both of her feet on the floor, but Spencer Tracy is kneeling on the bed beside I her. I guess two feet were on the floor, but they were both hers.
A Doris Day movie did an interesting bit with the suggestion she was in bed with a man, the camera panned down to her hand, holding another hand, then we see him, but we never saw them side-by-side. That was a 1950s movie. This is how long that rule was enforced.
The second one occurred in the 1950s with McCarthyism, in which anyone who was accused of being different (in this instance, a communist, which many, but not all, in Hollywood had joined the communist party during the 1930s) was guilty for refusing to answer the question.
This led to a strange, watering-down of entertainment, resulting in fodder like the Elvis Presley movies, Jerry Lewis, and the like.
Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon.
I watch old English movies and marvel at how open they tend to be sometime. I even watch some light-hearted comedies and they have more going for them than any American equivalent.
The 'two fingered salute' I saw in an old 1940s movie, Foreman Went to France, done by Tommy Trindle.
Then I would see it in a 1950s Eiling comedy, Titfield Thunderbolt.
Then of course you have it endlessly done on Are You Being Served?
You still won't see a single finger shown on American tv like that.
"Someone might be offended!"
Jonny Quest was a mid-1960s cartoon about a young boy whose father was an American scientist and the fear was the enemy (in this instance, communists) would try to kidnap the boy to influence the father, so Jonny had a body guard, Race Bannon. Jonny also had a dog, Bandit.
eventually an episode would introduce an Arabian boy, Hadji, thereby giving Jonny another kid to interact with.
Very intense adventures involving mummies, invisible monsters, voodoo, spider robots and various other creatures, this cartoon would see much of its "violence" edited in the 1970s (a fate that fell worst on Bugs Bunny cartoons. All gunfire was cut out).
The later joke was, since no mother was ever shown for Jonny, that Dr. Quest and Race were a gay couple.
A poll for favorite cartoon moms found Race either winning or very high in the list.
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