Hollywood’s Horrific “Moral Code”

In September 1921, Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle was charged with manslaughter. This shook Hollywood to its core, and it was a scandal that could never happen again. To make sure of this, a morality clause was written, and thousands of stars willingly signed their lives away.

[@jupiterkansas]

I wish this is what Babylon was about instead of a half-baked Singing in the Rain.

[@whenthepicturesgotbigger]

Yeah, I would have loved to see Babylon get more into the morality clause. I think Mank ultimately does a better job of showing early Hollywood than Babylon does.

[@KaelCrawfordProd5554]

Gentlemen I hate to disagree with you but Babylon is a masterpiece

[@thebanditking8502]

dude this was an amazing video i was shocked to see you don’t have more subs 👍

[@whenthepicturesgotbigger]

Thank you so much!! Comments like this mean so much to me and make it all worth it :) I’m glad you enjoyed the video!

[@daniellajones2188]

Your inserts of SpongeBob clips always make me laugh 😂 great video !! It truly is sad how many people’s lives were completely ruined by Hollywood. Wouldn’t be surprised if things similar to this are still happening today, especially in the music industry! Just think about how so many huge pop stars have different images to match what is in at the time! They have to try to hard to maintain relevance.

[@whenthepicturesgotbigger]

That’s a great point! It’s so sad…

[@dartymcfly22]

9:04 Buster Keaton looks so young in that photo. Lovely find

[@oldhatcinema]

Interesting video! However, I'm surprised that in my (so far) six years of studying Hollywood's Golden Era, I've never come across any details as extreme as this. Especially the "black box" for child actors - that seems rather incredible and I find it hard to believe that even a somewhat corrupt studio would engage in such mistreatment of minors. I mean, how would they feel if the public back then found out about THAT? Oh, and also, I can say for a fact that there are movies in which Katharine Hepburn is clearly wearing pants. "The Philadelphia Story" (1940) is one example. I feel like maybe some of the details here are sensationalized . . .

[@sarahrozaner3494]

Love this video. Idk how I feel abt Fatty Arbuckle getting acquitted. Do you think he was innocent 👀

[@whenthepicturesgotbigger]

Tough to say for sure! The case seems more mysterious than anything. I don’t know if he killed her or not, but I don’t think he’s fully innocent.

[@acdragonrider]

Teresa Wright

[@beejls]

Ugh. Why did you use that picture from Hollywood Babylon of the supposed room where Virginia rappe was found? It's not the room where she was found. Please tell me you read something besides Hollywood Babylon to learn about the incident.