The Birth of a Baby explained

The Birth of a Baby
Director:A. E. Christie
Producer:Jack H. Skirball
Cinematography:George Webber
Studio:Christie Productions
The American Committee on Maternal Welfare, Inc.
Distributor:Special Pictures Corporation
Language:English
Country:United States
Gross:$750,000 (rentals)
Budget:$50,000[1]

The Birth of a Baby is a 1938 American educational film about childbearing.[2] [3] [4] [5] It was directed by famed Canadian producer of silent shorts Al Christie.[6] The film stars Eleanore King, Richard Gordon, Ruth Matteson, and Josephine Dunn. The film's original negative was lost in the Fox vault fire of 1937.[7]

Censorship

The film featured scenes of actual childbirth and this caused issues for the Hays Office. The filmmakers tried to get around the need for a Seal of Approval from the Hays Office by appealing directly to local and state censorship boards for approval to show the film in mainstream theaters.[8] [9] The film was banned in New York State in 1939 by a court ruling that scenes of childbirth were too indecent for public entertainment.[9]

Notes and References

  1. 13. Inside stuff. Variety. 13 September 1939. 9 August 2024.
  2. Web site: The Birth of a Baby (1938). Turner Classic Movies. December 15, 2015.
  3. Sartain . Geraldine . The Cinema Explodes the Stork Myth . The Journal of Educational Sociology . 12 . 3 . 142–146 . 2261881 . November 1938 . 10.2307/2261881 .
  4. News: Regent Theatre To Show "The Birth of a Baby" . The Ottawa Journal . Ottawa, Canada . June 9, 1942 . 15 . Newspapers.com. December 15, 2015 .
  5. Book: Ooten. Melissa. Race, Gender, and Film Censorship in Virginia, 1922–1965. 2014. Lexington Books. Lanham, Maryland. 9780739190296. 892878763. 153–155. December 15, 2015.
  6. http://www.afi.com/members/catalog/DetailView.aspx?s=&Movie=4162 The AFI Catalog of Feature Films:..The Birth of a Baby
  7. 'Life' banned for "Birth of a Baby" pictures . Motion Picture Herald . 131 . 3 . April 16, 1938 . 18 . July 9, 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160427200704/http://archive.org/stream/motionpictureher1301unse#page/n648/mode/1up . April 27, 2016 . live .
  8. Strassfeld. Benjamin. 2013-08-18. A Difficult Delivery: Debating the Function of the Screen and Educational Cinema through The Birth of a Baby (1938). The Velvet Light Trap. en. 72. 1. 44–57. 10.7560/VLT7205. 191794984. 1542-4251.
  9. Kirby. David A.. David A. Kirby. September 2017. Regulating cinematic stories about reproduction: pregnancy, childbirth, abortion and movie censorship in the US, 1930–1958. The British Journal for the History of Science. en. 50. 3. 451–472. 10.1017/S0007087417000814. 28923130. 0007-0874. free.

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