The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures is an organization in
the United States dedicated to discussing and selecting what its
members regard as the best film works of each year.[not verified in
body]The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures was founded in
1909 in New York City, 14 years after the birth of cinema, to protest
New York City Mayor George B. McClellan Jr.'s revocation of
moving-picture exhibition licenses on Christmas Eve 1908. The mayor
(son of Civil War general George B. McClellan) believed that the new
medium degraded the morals of the community. To assert their freedom
of expression, theatre owners led by Marcus Loew and film distributors
(Edison, Biograph, Pathé, and Gaumont) joined John Collier of the
People's Institute at Cooper Union and established the New York Board
of Motion Picture Censorship. Following general criticism after the
United States Supreme Court decision in Mutual Film Corp. v.
Industrial Commission of Ohio (1915), which held that the free speech
protections of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution
did not extend to films, the Board on 10 March 1916 changed its name
to the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures to avoid the
controversial word "censorship".
the United States dedicated to discussing and selecting what its
members regard as the best film works of each year.[not verified in
body]The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures was founded in
1909 in New York City, 14 years after the birth of cinema, to protest
New York City Mayor George B. McClellan Jr.'s revocation of
moving-picture exhibition licenses on Christmas Eve 1908. The mayor
(son of Civil War general George B. McClellan) believed that the new
medium degraded the morals of the community. To assert their freedom
of expression, theatre owners led by Marcus Loew and film distributors
(Edison, Biograph, Pathé, and Gaumont) joined John Collier of the
People's Institute at Cooper Union and established the New York Board
of Motion Picture Censorship. Following general criticism after the
United States Supreme Court decision in Mutual Film Corp. v.
Industrial Commission of Ohio (1915), which held that the free speech
protections of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution
did not extend to films, the Board on 10 March 1916 changed its name
to the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures to avoid the
controversial word "censorship".
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