In the District Court of the United States, for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the United States of America, petitioner, vs. Motion Picture Patents Company, et al., defendants (1913)

Record Details:

Title:
In the District Court of the United States, for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the United States of America, petitioner, vs. Motion Picture Patents Company, et al., defendants
Date:
1913
Publisher:
New York, Appeal Printing Co.
Volume:
In the District Court of the United States, for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the United States of America, petitioner, vs. Motion Picture Patents Company, et al., defendants : record volume 4
Leaf #:
000153
Language:
English
Collection:
Early Cinema and Government & Law
Format:
Periodicals
Contributor:
The Museum of Modern Art Library, New York
Sponsor:
Media History Digital Library
Coordinator:
Media History Digital Library
Description:
These seven volumes contain the testimonies and supporting documents from the U.S. District Court's antitrust lawsuit against the Motion Picture Patents Company (MPPC). Formed in 1908, the MPPC (sometimes referred to asœ"the Edison Trust" or just "the Trust") sought to control the American film industry through pooling patents and demanding that producers and exhibitors acquire licenses to those patents. Independent producers and exhibitors, who refused to license the patents, argued that the MPPC was an unlawful monopoly. In 1912 and 1913, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania heard testimonies from both MPPC members, such as Siegmund Lubin, and "Independents" who later became Hollywood moguls, such as William Fox. Ultimately, in 1915, the case reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which found the MPPC in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act and spelled the end for the already weakening MPPC. -- Eric Hoyt, 2012
Date Added:
September 21, 2023
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Harry Marsey, Redirect Examination. 2003 got there; the World's Special Film Corporation, and the International. Q. How many reels do yon use a day? A. Four. Q. And do you change your service every day? A. Every day. Q. How many of those exchanges that you have named can give you a complete service and change of service; that is, four new reels every day? A. Only the General. Q. The General Film Company is the only one that can do that? A. The only one that has four clean reels a day to give me. Redirect examination by Mr. Kixgsley : Q. What do you mean by four clean reels? A. That they buy. They are buying forty-seven reels a week, and they can give me a half, and the other half to the other house below. Q. How many can the other people supply you? A. One concern has twenty-one, and the other one has twenty-eight. They buy that many. And in order to keep it apart from not repeating on the same street, they cannot offer any more than fourteen to a house. Q. But that twenty-one reels that one offers you is not the same as the twenty-eight reels that the other concern offers you, is it? A. No. Q. So that there is really available in Buffalo, forty-nine reels? A. There is more than that. There is about sixty reels available in Buffalo a week. Q. You mean by that that there is about sixty unlicensed reels available in Buffalo each week? A. Yes, sir. Q. Couldn't you make up a complete service out of the sixty reels? A. Yes, but not any one individual company could offer me a complete program. They offer me a part program. Q. Couldn't the one with the twenty-eight give you a complete service? A. Yes. They could only serve one house. Q. But, serving one house, they could give a complete service? A. Yes. They could give twenty-eight reels. Q. What other theatre did you have which was using unlicensed service? A. The Temple Theatre on William Street, in Buffalo.