Books: Movies & Morals

THE HAYS OFFICE—Raymond Moley —Bobbs-Merrill ($3.75).

One lobby billboard advertised "brilliant men, beautiful jazz babies, champagne baths, midnight revels, petting parties in the purple dawn." Across the nation, marquees blazed with titles like Red Hot Romance, Give Her Anything, The Fourteenth Lover. Hollywood was being denounced on the floor of the U.S. Senate and censorship bills were being pressed in 36 state capitols.

In Hollywood itself, Comedian Fatty Arbuckle was being tried for the death of an actress following a pajamaed "orgy." There, too, a small group of men who knew less about show business than fur dealing (Marcus Loew), jewelry merchandizing (Lewis...