Behind 'Babylon's' Debauchery ... And What Led to Its End

At a time when Prohibition loomed largely, and the thriving film industry was still experiencing growing pains, "Babylon" stops at nothing to showcase the debauchery of Hollywood during the latter part of the 1920s when movies were transitioning from silent to sound.

It was a time when actors were plucked from the street to star in silent films that marked the height of entertainment during the fast-paced 1920s. In his film, director Damien Chazelle reveals a long-forgotten time in Hollywood when sexuality could be shown in movies with minimal hesitation. And he does so through Margot Robbie's starstruck and indulgent character of Nellie LaRoy.

You wouldn't know it from the film's trailer or many reviews the awards contender has generated since its pre-Christmas release, but "Babylon" is chock full of sexuality in various lights. Chazelle does a fantastic job of recreating this time in Hollywood when the invention of sound in movies nearly obliterated the careers of once-famous stars. Many silent stars found themselves in the unenviable position of needing to memorize a script and act their scenes as if in a play, needing to do so in front of a camera with a full orchestra behind them. Conversely, the advent of sound was a boom for New York stage actors, who were well-versed in memorization skills, flocking to Hollywood.

Numerous stars of the day lost their jobs due to audiences' reactions to their actual voices and poor acting skills. According to the Los Angeles Times, Chazelle drew upon the career of silent matinee idol John Gilbert for the character of Jack Conrad (Brad Pitt). "Conrad embraces sound as essential to the art form to which he has dedicated his life. Ironically, it does him in," writes the Times.

A leading star in the 1920s, Gilbert had a famously rocky transition to sound when his affected manner of speaking and high-pitched voice was said to have led to his demise. His death at the age of 38 in 1936 was said to be attributed to issues surrounding his voice. Ironically, many film historians later said that his "light" speaking voice was fine, and it was personal and financial issues, including assaulting MGM czar Louis B. Mayer, that led to his Hollywood demise. "More likely, studio honchos saw an opportunity to cut loose an actor with a fat contract when Gilbert's movies began to stumble at the box office," adds the Times.

"His whole style and look didn't work in the early '30s. It's hard to maintain Hollywood stardom even without the transition to sound. They may have felt that the Clark Gable type – down-to-earth guys that spoke more in a snappy voice than John Gilbert – signified changing styles," film scholar Jonathan Kuntz from the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television told the Times.

Along with changes in the star system, the film industry was faced with a morality backlash and was instructed to clean up its depictions of drugs and sex by the time sound became the standard. Talented performers had to "act the part," both in movies and in their personal lives. What was once deemed acceptable by Hollywood's standards, like romantic entanglements of all kinds, including gay and bisexual romances, were to be erased by the Production Code of 1930 that Hollywood executives succumbed to after considerable pressure from political and religious groups.

Created by Will H. Hays, the first chairman of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (now referred to as the Motion Picture Association), the Production Code eventually wiped Hollywood productions clean of anything perceived of as smut, as well as sex, drugs, and foul language. It took until 1934 for the Code to be fully implemented. This came with the appointment of Joseph I. Breen to head the Production Code Administration, whose rigid standards even led to censoring cartoon icon Betty Boop. After 1934, pretty much anything that was out of conservative norms was excised from the final product, including any hint of same-sex relationships. The only acceptable gay in a movie became a lisping, crude stereotype. Additionally, actors were expected to present themselves as prim and proper to investors and the general public. While the 1930s ushered in a wave of new stars, those like Robbie's LaRoy couldn't keep up.

Studios hired powerful fixers at the time to keep performers in line and their indiscretions out of the limelight, such as a same-sex relationship that Nellie takes up and is forced to end to keep her career afloat. Her personal life is given strict scrutiny as she is instructed how to dress appropriately, speak when only spoken to, and not divulge any information to potential investors about what she actually thinks or believes. Her behavior tends to be on full display in these moments, as the more she is forced to conceal about herself, the more likely she is to erupt like a volcano of depravity. Spoiler alert: She fails at being prim and proper. (According to the LA Times, LeRoy is based on 1920s superstar Clara Bow, known as the "It Girl" who left Hollywood after a career crisis in the early 1930s.)

Nellie is especially heartbroken that she cannot live her truth out loud, which includes her fondness for Lady Fay Zhu, played masterfully by Li Jun Li. Zhu is a character loosely based on Anna May Wong. The successful Chinese-American movie star transcended silent film but found pushback in the 1930s when the Production Code prevented interracial relationships from being shown on screen, derailing her resume in favor of white actresses that would perform stereotypical Asian roles in yellowface.

In the film, Lady Fay Zhu and Nellie LaRoy are forced to adapt to change in the 1930s when it became an issue for gay and bisexual people in Hollywood to live openly. Instead they had to break up to keep their public personas intact. The Production Code, which became known as the Hays Code, outlawed many things that were once deemed acceptable, chief among them being "sexual perversion," or any type of queer behavior.

The Production Code remained in force on film productions until the 1960s, which ushered in a new wave of foreign and American-made productions that began to present realistic portrayals of sex and sexuality on screen. Around the same time, romantic relationships between people of different races and ethnicities started populating movie screens, and LGBTQ+ stories have consequently followed suit, though this would take decades to reach fruition. While there's no telling how many fascinating tales were lost in the 30+ years that the Code was the law of the land, audiences still have a chance to witness history unfold in Damien Chazelle's "Babylon," which is currently in theaters.