In 1919, Hollywood was already under scrutiny. In the eyes of hanky-wringing, ultra-conservative watchdog groups, the film business had become a haven for sex and violence, presenting lascivious and salacious material to an unwitting, impressionable public. By 1921, the government was already proposing dozens of pieces of legislation to censor film content and reign in the indecency. The bulk of the proposed laws were draconian and terrible, and several states began forming specialized media censorship boards, each with their own rules. The film industry wouldn't have been able to comply with them all, as each state had a different decency standard. In response to the widespread moral panic, the film industry at large agreed to a means of self-censorship, hiring a conservative Presbyterian minister named Will H. Hays to oversee studio content and make sure no one was being naughty. 

Initially, Hays met with Hollywood muckety-mucks E.H. Allen of Paramount, Irving G.