Dating
by Ratings Box
Another
way to help date an original issue was to use the ratings box.
To do that, you need to understand the British ratings system.
The
British Board of Film Censors started putting ratings on films
back as far as 1913.
Initially
the ratings were broken down into Universal (for children) and
Adult (for Adults). This changed slightly in 1932 when an additional
rating was added. A Horror category to ban 16 and under utilized
the H. Then in 1951, it was changed and the X was used to ban
children under 16.
July
1, 1970, a complete new system was started. The new ratings were
U for Universal - suitable for all, A for Advisory - All admitted
but parents advised to check content, AA - No one under 14 admitted,
and X - No one under 18 admitted.
This
system remained in place until November 1, 1982. The new system
that was adopted was expanded to 5 ratings. These ratings were:
U for Universal - suitable for all, PG - Parental Guidance, 15
- Suitable only for 15 and over, 18 - Suitable only for 18 and
over, and R18 Restricted - No One under 18 admitted.
During
1982 and before Nov. 1, quite often BOTH systems were shown on
the poster - the old system was printed as usual with the new
system placed next to it in parenthesis.
July
26, 1985, with the rise in popularity of videos, a new rating
was added JUST FOR VIDEO. This was a Universal video rating -
Suitable for all (shown below on the left). In Aug. 1, 1989, another
rating was added JUST FOR THEATER. The 12 category - No one under
the age of 12 to be admitted was introduced (shown below on the
right).
July
1, 1994, the 12 category was extended to also include video.
It
has come to our attention that the Ratings Board didn't divide
the difference between video and theater so some of the ratings
boxes also apply to video. As soon as we can untangle the information,
we will update this page.
