"BANNED IN KANSAS: EARLY MOTION PICTURES FACED CENSORS"

A Moment in Time

Kansas Historical Society

A monthly series from the Kansas Historical Society

Even though All Quiet on the Western Front earned Academy Awards for best director and best picture in 1929, it failed to gain support from Kansas censors. A board of review, appointed to protect all Kansans from obscenity and other evil influences, deleted from the popular movie a scene that showed a boy being paddled by his teacher.

In 1927 Emil Jannings won an Oscar for best actor in The Way of All Flesh but lost out with the review board. Two scenes containing the sign "Adulterer" and three bedroom shots were eliminated.

For nearly half a century the board met each day in the basement of the Kansas City, Kansas, city hall recording comments on film review cards. Although a national censorship board had been established, Kansans, involved in prohibition and progressive movements, wanted more restrictions on films. The board, formed in 1917, usually was composed of women with family ties to prominent politicians. They considered lust, crime, violence, racial inferiority, and alcohol consumption unwholesome viewing for Kansas audiences.

Although critically acclaimed, the committee caused D.W. Griffith's epic film The Birth of a Nation to be banned from 1915 until 1923 for promoting racism and historical inaccuracies.

The board slashed scenes with diaper changing, a man in his underwear, and suggestive dancing. Tarzan, hanging by his feet in the 1922 film The Adventures of Tarzan, was considered too revealing.

Drops of blood on the snow from the 1927 movie The Bells was too violent. Scenes of a safecracker working a combination on Below the Dead Line in 1929 and the sound of an execution in the 1928 film Across to Singapore were unsuitable.

The 1929 films The Alibi, showing a man thumbing his nose at an officer, and Affairs of a Rogue with a German actress speaking the words "My God," were antisocial.

Decisions by the U.S. and Kansas Supreme Courts brought an end to state censorship in 1966. In one of its last actions, the board sent the film review cards and other related documents to the state archives, ensuring that its recommendations be remembered.

Eighty thousand cards are being preserved in sixty eight acid-free containers, each the size of a shoe box. The collection is among the state archives holdings available for researchers of all ages at Society's Center for Historical Research, 6425 S.W. Sixth Avenue, Topeka, 913-272-8681, ext. 117; TTY 913-272-8683.