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)

Page scan 000291 from 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 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 1
Leaf #:
000291
Language:
English
Collection:
Government & Law and Early Cinema
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 12, 2024
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.

William Pelzer, Direct Examination. 269 changes, the Executive Committee? A. I believe Mr. * Kennedy was conducting negotiations. Q. These minutes state that Mr. Kennedy reported on behalf of the Executive Committee. Do you recall who were the members of that Executive Committee? A. I think at that time if I remember rightly, Mr. Kennedy, Mr. Berst and Mr. Rock, I believe. Q. You were asked to produce the minutes of the Executive Committee, have you produced them? A. I have produced copies of the minutes that are in my possession. Q. Of the Executive Commit teee? A. Of the Executive Committee. Q. Will you let me see them? A. Yes. The witness produces the minutes of the Executive Committee of the General Film Company held June the 20th, 1912, and the subsequent minutes up to December, 1912. Q. I wish you would produce the minutes for the earlier years, Mr. Pelzer? A. I know of no minutes. Q. You know of no minutes? A. Of the Executive Com ,, mittee prior to this date. Q. Are there any minutes of the Executive Committee covering the period of purchases of these different exchanges? A. Not to my knowledge; none were kept by me, nor did I ever attend any meeting of the Executive Committee. Q. Who is the Secretary of the company to-day? A. Paul G. Melies. Q. Now, reading from Exhibit 64, being the By-Laws of the General Film Company and from Article 6, Section 9, Paragraph 1, under the heading "Executive Comittee" — 4 "During the time intervening between meetings of the Board of Directors, the business of the company shall be directed by an Executive Committee. The Executive Committee shall consist of the President of the Company who shall be Chairman, and two Directors who shall be elected members of the Executive Committee in the same manner in which the officers of the company are elected. The Executive Committee shall exercise all the