The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) had long opposed efforts at censorship and continued to do so in the early 1960s. As films became increasingly "adult," however, the demand for some sort of ratings system grew. One model was the recently enacted system in England, which labeled movies as appropriate for all audiences, for children in the company of adults, and for adults only. Some communities and individual theaters adopted their own systems, but studios were apprehensive that any ratings system would limit the potential audience for a film. Eventually, many came to see this as preferable to protests from censorship forces, at first labeling some of their own films as inappropriate for children. The MPAA, however, countered efforts in the mid 1960s to impose mandatory labeling on motion pictures, such as that proposed by the state of New York that would...