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 (1914)

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:
1914
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 5
Leaf #:
000248
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
Something wrong or inaccurate about this page? Let us Know!

Thanks for helping us continually improve the quality of the Lantern search engine for all of our users! We have millions of scanned pages, so user reports are incredibly helpful for us to identify places where we can improve and update the metadata.

Please describe the issue below, and click "Submit" to send your comments to our team! If you'd prefer, you can also send us an email to mhdl@commarts.wisc.edu with your comments.




We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.

Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.

209S John F. Hbnnegan, Direct Examination. Q. Have you any memorandum to refresh your mind? A. Yes, I can show it to you if you wish. Q. You might look at it, if you wish? A. I don't see where it is, this amount. I am pretty sure it is six per cent, though. Mr. Grosvenor: What are those papers? The Witness: Those papers are to confirm the sale of the Magnetic 'Film Exchange to the General Film Company. Mr. Grosvenor: That is, these are the papers that were executed at the date of the sale? The Witness: Yes, sir. By Mr. Kingsley: Q. Was a part of the purchase price to be in stock? A. Yes, sir. Q. What sum in stock? A. Eight thousand dollars. Q. What dividend did that stock bear? A. Seven per cent. Q. Has the stock been delivered to you? A. I am pretty sure I have got that stock in our safe in Cincinnati. Q. Have you received the dividends on the stock since then? A. Regularly, yes, sir. Q. What sum was to be paid in deferred cash payments? A. You mean on the original transaction? Q. Yes? A. Well, the cash payments — Q. What was the total? A. There is a schedule of the payments there, but Mr. Kennedy — we Avere putting up a printing factory at that time, and we needed a little cash, and he gave me one year's in advance of the regular instalments. Q. Were these regular instalments to be eleven hundred dollars every three months? A. Yes, sir. Q. During the life of the contract? A. Yes, sir, for five years. Q. And did they bear interest at five per cent.? A. Yes, sir. Q. Have these instalments been paid upon their ma