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 #:
000293
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.

Adolpii Powell, Direct Examination. 2T4.f; * service from Cincinnati, and he could not procure this picture from his exchange directly, as the exchange had booked the picture to some other man in the State of Indiana, I think it was Shelbyville, but I am not positive, and he set to work then, and through the exchange secured the picture from the other party by paying an exorbitant price. He paid, I believe, fifty dollars for it, in order to run it the same day that I did. Q. After you began securing the service for the Ideal Theatre from the General Film Company, what was your experience with respect to programs? A. They were invariably satisfactory. Q. Tell us more in detail just what you could do after that. A. Well, it got to the point where we had to protect ourselves, that is, the exhibitors in Kokomo. We were fighting each other and trying to secure the best pictures ahead of the other, and in that way it got almost unbearable. We then came together, we exhibitors finally decided we would come together and arrange an agreement among ourselves. There were four houses in Kokomo at that time, and we came together, the four of us on a plan where two of the houses would take the licensed service and two the independent, which was also done by mutual understanding and agreement. Q. Did these four houses then continue on, two taking the licensed service and two taking the unlicensed service? A. Yes, sir; for the time being. Q. And was that still going on when you sold the Ideal Theatre? A. Yes, sir; it was going on when I sold it. Q. Mr. Powell, were you able to select a program for any considerable period in advance after you began taking service from the General Film Company? A. For a week in advance. Q. Could you advertise it? A. Yes, sir; I could advertise it. Q. Did you advertise it? A. Yes, sir. Q. And what has been your experience with respect to a program since you have been operating the May Theatre here in Chicago? A. Well, I have the privilege of selecting within a certain age anything that is open for me. tin* most suitable pictures. I value certain pictures a great deal more than I do others.