BOOKS, FILMS, & THEN SOME: Pre-Code Essentials/The Divorcee

A conversation with writer/researcher/content creator Kim Luperi and Danny Reid about their Turner Classics Movies book featuring an essential film-by-film guide to must-see cinema from the pre-Code era - a wild and wonderful time in Hollywood history before strict enforcement of a censorship code that ruled moviemaking for decades. Event will be followed by a film screening of The Divorcee, the 1930 film starring Norma Shearer in her Academy-Award winning role.

Director: Robert Z. Leonard
Starring: Norma Shearer, Chester Morris, Conrad Nagel, Robert Montgomery

Before Hollywood began strictly enforcing the Production Code, The Divorcee dared to ask a provocative question: Why should infidelity be judged differently for a woman than for a man?

Norma Shearer stars as Jerry, a sophisticated New York wife who discovers that her husband has been unfaithful. When he dismisses his affair as meaningless, Jerry decides to play by the same rules—setting off a frank, stylish and surprisingly modern exploration of marriage, sex, divorce and Hollywood’s double standard.

One of the defining films of the Pre-Code era, The Divorcee transformed Shearer’s screen image and earned her the Academy Award for Best Actress. The film was also nominated for Outstanding Production, Directing and Writing.

1930 | 82 min. | Black & White

wrote her undergraduate thesis on the censorship battle of Baby Face (1933) and never looked back. By day she is a project manager for a creative team, and by night she curates the @precodedotcom Instagram account, pens occasional articles for TCM, and covers classic film screenings at ISeeADarkTheater.com. Her first book, Pre-Code Essentials: Must-See Cinema from Hollywood’s Untamed Era, 1930-1934, co-written with Danny Reid, was published in October 2025 from Running Press and TCM.

Danny Reid is a co-author of Pre-Code Essentials and has been writing about pre-Code Hollywood for over a decade. His website, pre-Code.com, has garnered over a million visitors over the last 10 years. He has written and edited books, including Thoughts on the Thin Man and M**der on Celluloid, as well as editing the Pre-Code Companion series. He lives in Colorado with his beautiful wife, adorable kids, and yappy dogs.

GLAAD Media Award-winner Christopher Lisotta first became a Palm Springs resident in 2009. He worked for Sony Television, Warner Bros. TV and MyNetwork TV before becoming an entertainment trade reporter, writing for Variety and Hollywood Reporter. For two years he covered the broadcast TV and syndication beats for TelevisionWeek. He spent more than a decade working as a reality TV producer (including an 11-season stint on CBS's Big Brother), but his fondest entertainment gig was PA'ing on The Nanny, where he occasionally walked Fran Drescher's prized Pomeranian, Chester.

Event co-sponsored by the Palm Springs Cultural Center, Palm Springs Public Library and Palm Springs Public Library Foundation.

Event venue

Palm Springs Cultural Center, 2300 E Baristo Rd, Palm Springs, United States

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