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 #:
000254
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.

2704 Frank Cook, Direct Examination. Q. Did you find it possible to advertise it in advance? A. No, sir. Q. Will you tell us why you could not advertise your program in advance at that time? A. Well, we might get the pictures and we might not. Q. What was your experience as to whether you might get them? A. Well, we would not take any chances. Q. Did you find that the chance was sufficiently serious so that it made it impossible to advertise in advance? A. Yes, sir, until we got the picture we could not advertise. Q. At that time did you experience any difficulty in keeping your programs clear from your competitor's programs? A. No chance. Q. Sir? A. There was no chance to keep your program clear, you couldn't keep clear. No, it was a battle all the time. Q. Did you have any experience at that time in announcing a program or announcing a certain subject in advance, and perhaps advertising it to some extent, only to find that your competitor was permitted to show that program or subject a little bit ahead of time? A. Yes, sir. Q. Did you have that experience? A. Yes, sir. Q. Did it happen frequently or infrequently? A. Quite frequently. Q. Did you continue to take service from Spoor at Chicago until the General Film Company entered your field? A. Yes, sir. Q. Did you then begin to take service from the General Film Company? A. Yes, sir. Q. And after you began taking service from the General Film Company for the theatres you were then operating, did you find it possible to select a program in advance, to advertise the same, and to show that program on the date designated? A. That was the original object of Mr. Frauler, to give us that opportunity. Q. Who was Mr. Frauler? A. ITe was the representative of the Genera] Film Company in Milwaukee at the time. Q. Did he carry out what you say was his object? A. He did. Q. What is the situation now with respect to obtaining a program in advance and being able to advertise it? A. We do business on a legitimate basis, advertising not like a moving picture show, but a legitimate theatre. We have two