Important 1922 photograph of what is essentially the birth of modern Hollywood as the new movie czar, Will Hays, is posed by the top producers and studio heads in the world as they brand new "Motion Picture Association of America" was formed. It was an effort to curb indecency but to also standardize the industry for the future. The implications of the organization was to take the "wild west" feel of early Hollywood and make it more legitimate. The men in the picture read like a "who's who" of early Hollywood and it was taken on March 10, 1922 with the offered example dated just about a week later from a newspaper archive. Pictured left to right, top row: Myron Selznick (Selznick Pictures), Winfield Sheehan (Fox Film), Courtland Smith (MPPDA), William Fox (Fox Film), Samuel Goldwyn (Goldwyn Pictures), J.J. Atkinson, Robert Cochrane (Universal Pictures). Bottom row: Lewis J. Selznick (Selznick Pictures), Earle W. Hammons (Educational Films), J.D. Williams (First National), William Hays (MPPDA), Adolph Zukor (Famous Players), Marcus Loew (Metro Pictures), Carl Laemmle (Universal Pictures). The photo is in nice shape overall and completely vintage, trimmed and mounted by an artist at a newspaper for publication and with a vintage date stamp on the back. There is a crease to the left but in general it presents beautifully. We know of exactly ONE other image from this event and it is in the Indiana State Library with this being the only example we have ever seen offered publicly!

Size: 3x8.5
Designation: Vintage 1
Condition: 4.5/5
Quality: 5/5
Overall Grade: 9.5/10