Many Catholics these days are concerned about the dearth of quality, family friendly entertainment media. It was not so different in Archbishop John F. Noll's time.In 1933, the Our Sunday Visitor founder was among four bishops named to the Legion of Decency, which classified movies based on their morality. Movie moguls at the time cried foul and accused the Legion of censorship. "Nonsense," Bishop Noll replied. "Each viewer is allowed to make up his own mind as to what he wishes to watch."
Soon after its founding, the Legion's influence began to grow. A "C" classification (for condemned) persuaded many a Catholic to stay away from a movie and spurred movie studios to create their own code of moral standards though the Production Code Administration, which is now known as the Motion Picture Association of America.
Bishop Noll published the classifications in Our Sunday Visitor. See the image below for the list of classifications in a 1939 issue of OSV.
Here's a fun fact: Some of the now-classic films that earned the "C" classification from the Legion include the Marilyn Monroe-Jack Lemmon-Tony Curtis comedy "Some Like it Hot," the Kirk Douglas epic "Spartacus" and the Alfred Hitchcock thriller "Psycho."
