00:00Employees' entrance premiered in January 1933, more than a year before the Hollywood Production
00:06Code, which wasn't yet truly enforced, went into full effect on July 1, 1934. The Code set forth
00:14specific rules for what could and could not be shown in American movies. Among those rules was
00:20one that read, quote, the sympathy of the audience should never be thrown to the side of crime,
00:26wrongdoing, evil, or sin. Characters could no longer get away with crimes at the end of a film,
00:34but as you just saw, Warren Williams' character went completely unpunished for all his shocking
00:40crimes and employees' entrance. I mentioned before the film that Warren Williams was reportedly
00:45nothing like his pre-code characters. He was married to the same woman all his adult life.
00:50Moreover, he invented things, lots of things, including the first lawn vacuum. He also took
00:57a truck chassis, then outfitted it with a table, chairs, and kitchen facilities so he could drive
01:04food out to guests who were staying on his sizable ranch. He also invented his own telephone intercom
01:11system at the ranch. He built a phone that would drop on a pole balanced by a system of weights
01:18and
01:19counterweights to the height of a car door so guests arriving at his ranch could call him from
01:24the gate, and then the gate would open by remote control. All of this in the 1930s and 40s, all
01:32of it
01:32built and designed by Warren Williams. Coming up, more with Warren Williams. He stars with Gladys George
01:40in a drama released by MGM in 1937. Madam X is next on TCM.
01:47Next on TCM, Madam X, then the first hundred years, and later, bedside. TCM is the best medicine tonight.
