The Catholic Legion of Decency was set up in 1934 to combat the trend of immoral films. While having no direct influence over the studios, the Catholicclergy could persuade churchgoers not to see certain films. The Legion was often more conservative in its views on films than the Hay's Office's Production Code For other uses see film (disambiguation) Film refers to the celluliod media on which movies are printed Film — also called movies, the cinema, the silver screen, moving pictures, photoplays, picture shows, flicks, or motion pictures, — is a field that encompasses motion pictures as an art form or as part of... A studio is an artists workroom. ... Catholic is a term generally used in relation to the members, beliefs and practices of the Roman Catholic Church. ... Clergy is the generic term used to describe the formal religious leadership within a given religion. ... Conservatism or political conservatism is any of several historically related political philosophies or political ideologies. ... The Production Code (also known as the Hays Code) was a set of guidelines governing the production of motion pictures. ...
The Legion was founded in 1933 as the CatholicLegion of Decency (CLOD) in response to an address given by apostolic delegate Amleto Cicognani at the Catholic Charities Convention in New York City.
Mae West, an early target of the Legion, may have had the Legion in mind as the model of the fictional Bainbridge Foundation in her satire on censorship, The Heat's On (1943).
In 1938, the league requested that the Pledge of the Legion of Decency be administered each year on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception (December 8).