1927-when movie producers reluctantly ap-proved a Hays associate's list of "Eleven Don'ts and Twenty-Six Be Carefuls" for filmmakers-re- formers were also supporting legislation to ban "block booking" and thus let local exhibitors refuse movies they found offensive. Independent exhibi- tors, struggling with large, studio-owned theater chains for survival, joined the reformers.
At that critical moment, Couvares writes, "a powerful ally appeared from the unlikeliest quar-...