BROOKE GLADSTONE: The man in the garage spoke on "deep background," which meant his identity was top secret, and he helped to expose the immoral actions of the commander in chief. Maybe that's why Howard Simons, managing editor of the Washington Post dubbed him "Deep Throat" after the blockbuster porn film that was on everyone's mind. Some say the country changed on June 17th, 1972 when burglars were caught breaking in to Democratic Party National Committee offices in the Watergate Hotel, but maybe it changed on June 12th, when Deep Throat opened, as surely as Watergate changed the political climate, Deep Throat signaled a shift in the cultural wind. For some, it was refreshing. For others, chilling. [TAPE PLAYS]

OLDER MAN: We have smut all over the face of this country now, because we are letting those immoral people have their way in our country. [MUSIC]

WOMAN: I just saw it, and I liked it! I liked it. I wanted to see a dirty picture, and that's what I saw. But I want the right to see that picture. I don't want somebody telling me that I can't see a dirty picture.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: That was the reaction to Deep Throat in 1972 which appears in a new documentary called Inside Deep Throat about the movie, and later this month, after decades of gathering dust in the back rooms of video stores, Deep Throat itself returns to about 20 theaters, presumably for midnight screenings.

BOB GARFIELD: Meanwhile, this week the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed an Indecency Enforcement bill that would boost the FCC's maximum indecency fine from just over 32,000 dollars for broadcast stations and 11,000 dollars for performers up to a half a million dollars for both. NBC said the vagueness and inconsistency of the FCC's standards indiscriminately threaten a wide variety of programs and raise serious free speech issues. And in other blue news, the Justice Department said Thursday it would appeal a recent court decision that declared federal obscenity laws unconstitutional.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Everything old is new again. Janet Jackson is no Linda Lovelace, but they both gave new fuel to the censors. Hollywood didn't mind, though, in 1972, because independent blockbusters like Deep Throat were stealing box office. In fact, author John Lewis contends that Hollywood has happily muzzled itself for more than half a century to protect its bottom line. His book is called Hollywood Versus Hard Core, and his tale begins 25 years before Deep Throat, with the House Committee on Un-American Activities. Mr. Lewis, why start your story there?

JOHN LEWIS: Well, a couple of things are happening in 1947. One is the blacklist. Another is a well-predicted box office decline. Also happening at the same time are the emerging unions, which are becoming very powerful in Hollywood in the early 1940s. What the blacklist allows them to do is to regulate their workforce, to basically blacklist people by simply labeling them as Communist.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: So, who ac--- set the scene, then, for censorship. When does censorship of sexual content enter the picture?

JOHN LEWIS: Well, there had been censorship of sexual content since the 1930s, with the Production Code Administration, but in the 1950s, the US Supreme Court has a series of decisions that allow for a wider range of material in films, and also allow theaters to show a wider range of material, without local censors stopping them. The studios start releasing films like Tea and Sympathy, Baby Doll, eventually in the '60s, Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe? - which clearly defy the, the original production code, and it becomes necessary on the part of the studios to develop a new system that would accommodate their own membership. And that new system is the Motion Picture Association of America rating system that we have in effect today, which allowed R-rated films. So there was nudity, and there was violence, and there was explicit language.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Set the scene for us during the Nixon administration. What were the big selling films in, in 1972?

JOHN LEWIS: Well, the, the biggest film in 1972 was Godfather, and it seemed to usher in a kind of new era in American film - what was called the auteur era. And on the other hand, you have a whole group of hard core films that are doing incredibly well at the box office - films like Deep Throat, which is the most famous of them, Behind the Green Door, and actually the film that did the best at the box office, The Devil and Miss Jones. And what I think surprised the studios was that, once the market got open, completely open and unregulated, everybody in America seemed to want to go see these hard core films.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: And the studio responded how?

JOHN LEWIS: Well, by panic. That's how they respond to everything. On the other hand, they knew they couldn't make these kinds of films, being the kinds of corporations that they were. But at the same time, they risked losing the audience forever to these hard core films. And what happened was, of all people, Richard Nixon, who was on the House Committee on Un-American Activities back in the late '40s, basically made it very difficult to show a porn film in a public theater. Because if your community, based on its unique community standards, objected to the material in your film and could deem it obscene, that Supreme Court would basically uphold that decision, and the result was that, overnight, films like Deep Throat, Devil and Miss Jones and Behind the Green Door were isolated in, in just single theaters in so-called bad neighborhoods in big cities, instead of just playing everywhere. And by the end of the '70s, the studios have the entire marketplace to themselves, and they have the rating system, and luckily enough, Richard Nixon to thank for that.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: And so, that is how the struggle over censorship saved the modern film industry, as you describe in your book.

JOHN LEWIS: Yeah, I suppose in a nutshell, that's, that's true. There's a famous saying in Hollywood that when they say it's not about the money, it's about the money. And that's what censorship's all about. It's never about morality. It's always about money.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Mr. Lewis, thank you very much for talking to us.

JOHN LEWIS: Well, thank you.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: John Lewis is the author of Hollywood Versus Hard Core. [TAPE PLAYS]

"DOCTOR": You say that you want more out of sex than just a lot of little tingles.

LINDA LOVELACE: Yes, I want to hear bells and bombs and-

"DOCTOR": Yes, we just went through that, Miss Lovelace. Let's not do that one again. You know, I think your problem might be physical instead of psychological. Have you ever had a-- internal examination?

LINDA LOVELACE: No, I don't think so.

"DOCTOR": Step into my examination room. I want to take a look at you. [THEME MUSIC UP & UNDER]

BOB GARFIELD: That's it for this week's show. On the Media was produced by Megan Ryan, Tony Field, Jamie York and Mike Vuolo, and edited-- by Brooke. Dylan Keefe is our technical director and Jennifer Munson our engineer, with help from Rob Christianson. We also had help from Susanna Dilliplane and Nick Gilewicz. Our webmaster is Amy Pearl.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Katya Rogers is our senior producer and Dean Cappello our executive producer. Bassist/composer Ben Allison wrote our theme. You can listen to the program and find free transcripts, MP3 downloads and our podcasts at onthemedia.org -- and email us at onthemedia@wnyc.org. This is On the Media, produced by WNYC. I'm Brooke Gladstone.

BOB GARFIELD: And I'm Bob Garfield.