Reforming Hollywood : How American Protestants Fought for Freedom at the Movies.

Cover -- Contents -- Preface and Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Reforming the Movies: What Could Possibly Go Wrong? -- 2. The Federal Council of Churches Enters the Frame -- 3. Putting a Presbyterian in Charge of Hollywood -- 4. On the Trail of the Serpent: Will Hays and the Protestant Crusade -- 5. Protestants and Hollywood at the Crossroads -- 6. The Worst That Could Happen: A Catholic Legion of "Decency" -- 7. One Foot in Hollywood: The Protestant Film Commission -- 8. Movie Consulting-Protestant Style -- 9. High Noon in the Broadcasting and Film Commission -- 10. And the Winner Is: The Protestant Film Awards -- 11. No Longer a Dirty Word: This Film Will Now Be Rated -- 12. A Changing of the Guard -- 13. The Curious Case of Evangelicals -- Conclusion -- The Cast -- Abbreviations Used in Notes -- Notes -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Y -- Z.

In Reforming Hollywood, William Romanowski tells the long and complex story of the relationship between Protestants of all stripes--from Episcopalians to evangelicals--and the American film industry. Drawing on personal interviews and previously unexamined primary sources, he chronicles Protestant efforts to exert influence on the industry and use movies to promote the moral health of the nation. At the same time, Romanowski shows, mainline Protestants were surprisingly averse to censorship, which they saw as intruding upon individual conscience and antithetical to American democracy--of which they saw themselves as the guardians.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2024. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.