# First Acknowledgement of Toilets in Movies?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-acknowledgement-of-toilets-in-movies/614031>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [February 26, 2012, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-acknowledgement-of-toilets-in-movies/614031 "2012-02-26T04:03:10Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\
**Post date:** [February 26, 2012, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-acknowledgement-of-toilets-in-movies/614031/1 "2012-02-26T04:03:10Z")

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So I just watched _The Grapes of Wrath_ from 1940, and there’s a little comic scene of the Joad kids first encounter with a flushing toilet. You don’t see the toilet, but you do hear it flush.

I know bathrooms were shown in previous movies but as far as I know, this is the earliest film where a toilet was acknowledged in the dialog, let alone flushing. Does anyone know of an earlier example?

I can guess that outhouses were portrayed somewhere, but how about an indoor flushing toilet?

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**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\
**Post date:** [February 26, 2012, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-acknowledgement-of-toilets-in-movies/614031/2 "2012-02-26T04:53:37Z")

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Apparently [Psycho](http://www.toiletmuseum.com/faq.html#Q5) (1960).

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**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\
**Post date:** [February 26, 2012, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-acknowledgement-of-toilets-in-movies/614031/3 "2012-02-26T05:02:45Z")

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> [@Beware\_of\_Doug](#):
>
> Apparently [Psycho](http://www.toiletmuseum.com/faq.html#Q5) (1960).

Yes, but pre-1940.

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**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\
**Post date:** [February 26, 2012, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-acknowledgement-of-toilets-in-movies/614031/4 "2012-02-26T06:47:35Z")

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The Crowd is considered the earliest known film to show a toilet. I don’t know if it referenced the toilet in dialogue. I doubt it was referenced in spoken dialogue the audience could hear because it was a silent film. [IMDB](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0018806/) probably would have mentioned if the word appeared in any subtitles or dialogue panels. But who knows what words the actors may have been mouthing in that scene.

> [@IMDB](#):
>
> Despite the widespread critical and mild box office success, MGM head Louis B. Mayer despised the picture partly because of the depressing theme but mainly because he thought it was obscene due to the bathroom scene that featured a toilet.
> 
> This film has been hailed by many to be the first film to show toilets. With so many silent films lost, that can only be an assumption not a fact.