![“The watershed that demonstrated the Legion [of Decency]’s new commitment to mature works and forced the industry to abandon the [Production] Code was the most expensive non-spectacle film of its time, Warner Brothers’ Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? With the appropriately brash ‘screw you,’ Martha and George not only ushered in Nick and Honey but dispatched a whole era of film censorship.”
“The necessary changes included, among other things, the elimination of over twenty ‘goddamns,’ seven ‘bastards,’ five ‘sons-of-a-bitch,’ and assorted anatomical phrases such as ‘right ball,’ ‘monkey nipples,’ and ‘ass.’ The [Warner Bros.] studio was confident that [Edward] ‘Albee is sufficiently inventive and creative to substitute potent and pungent dialogue that could prove highly effective, even though possibly reducing somewhat the ‘shock’ impact of this highly regarded play.’ “
Leonard J. Leff (1980). A test of American censorship: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Cinema Journal, 19(2), 41–45.
Leff cites Warner executive Steve Trillig in a letter to Albee’s agent regarding the necessary changes needed to the screenplay for it to pass the Production Code. The 1963 letter was found among 26 boxes of uncatalogued materials pertinent to Virginia Woolf in the Ernest Lehman Collection, Hoblitzelle Theatre Arts Library, Humanities Research Center, The University of Texas at Austin.
Goddamn, I love great scholarly research! —Visual Turn](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lijwwsmEY91qzowgeo1_500.jpg)
“The watershed that demonstrated the Legion [of Decency]’s new commitment to mature works and forced the industry to abandon the [Production] Code was the most expensive non-spectacle film of its time, Warner Brothers’ Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? With the appropriately brash ‘screw you,’ Martha and George not only ushered in Nick and Honey but dispatched a whole era of film censorship.”
“The necessary changes included, among other things, the elimination of over twenty ‘goddamns,’ seven ‘bastards,’ five ‘sons-of-a-bitch,’ and assorted anatomical phrases such as ‘right ball,’ ‘monkey nipples,’ and ‘ass.’ The [Warner Bros.] studio was confident that [Edward] ‘Albee is sufficiently inventive and creative to substitute potent and pungent dialogue that could prove highly effective, even though possibly reducing somewhat the ‘shock’ impact of this highly regarded play.’ “
Leonard J. Leff (1980). A test of American censorship: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Cinema Journal, 19(2), 41–45.
Leff cites Warner executive Steve Trillig in a letter to Albee’s agent regarding the necessary changes needed to the screenplay for it to pass the Production Code. The 1963 letter was found among 26 boxes of uncatalogued materials pertinent to Virginia Woolf in the Ernest Lehman Collection, Hoblitzelle Theatre Arts Library, Humanities Research Center, The University of Texas at Austin.
Goddamn, I love great scholarly research!
—Visual Turn
Source: jstor.org
