Gregory D. Black, Hollywood Censored: Morality Codes, Catholics, and the Movies, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1994.

'To Pacify religious organizations, especially the Catholic Church, Hays created a new MPPDA Hollywood censorship office in 1934-the Production Code Administration (PCA)- and gave it total control over film content.

Marjorie Heins, Sex, Sin and Blasphemy: A Guide to America's Censorship Wars, The New Press, New York, 1998.

'The Hays code was created for two basic reasons: first as a marketing device to persuade the public especially powerful church groups, that the industry was not a promoter of immorality; and second, to standardize censorship so that movies would not be faced with a bewildering array of different standards imposed by different government licensing boards.' (p.41)

'in the interests of uniformity and morality, the Hays Office began to impose a kind of homogenizing banality on film artists.' (p.41)

'By the 1960's, though, the code was finally losing most of its starch.  Increasingly, producers and directors were rebelling against the aesthetic and moral straightjacket it imposed.  Less rigid attitudes about sex, more tolerance for diversity, more intellecdtual curiosity, and less willingness to defer to the dogmas and doctrines of the major churches, all contributed to the code's demise.' (p.42)

Jon Lewis, Hollywood v Hardcore: How the Struggle over Censorship saved the Modern Film Industry, New York University Press, New York, 2000

'film censorship only incidentally and superficially regards specific film content' (p.2)

'the MPAA supervises the regualtion of film content solely to protect studio products in the market place' (p.3)

'the principle and sole virtue of such a system is that it insures that all MPAA films move freely and profitably through the vast entertainment marketplace.' (p.3)

'Censorship and regualtion, however inhibiting in the short term, offer along term structure to this uncertain and unpredictable business and offer the illusion of certainty and security to studio executives whose jobs hinge on the measurable succes of their studios' product lines' (p.4)

'the political and social utility of  film censorship is altogether secondary to its economic function.' (p.6)

'the studios self-regualte because they are convinced that self-regualtion is good for business' (p.7)