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 1
Leaf #:
000292
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:
May 23, 2024
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270 William Pelzer, Direct Examination. powers of the Board of Directors while the Board is not in session; shall keep minutes of the business transacted at all its meetings, and shall report to the Board of Directors at each meeting of the Board, all the business that it transacted since the last meeting of the Board." Mr. Pelzer, these By-laws of the General Film Company expressly direct that the Executive Committee shall keep minutes of the business transacted at all of its meetings. I wish that you would make search when you leave the stand for these minutes, see the Secretary of the company, and the President of the company. Who is the President now? A. Frank L. Dyer. Q. Will you speak to him and then see these members of the Executive Comittee in 1910, who were at different times Berst, Rock, and A. E. Smith, and ask them for copies, and be prepared when you resume the stand on Tuesday to produce them or explain where they are? A. It is not necessary to make any such search, inquiry or request, because I know positively there are no minutes. There never was to my knowledge a formal meeting of the Executive Comittee. Q. Well, you didn't belong to the Executive Committee, did you? A. No, sir. Q. Please see these members of the Executive Committee and see what records they kept. In the minutes here I find that the Committee was authorized to pay a certain amount, quoting from page 16, of these minutes, for the exchanges in the entire country. Now, I want the record of that authorization and the papers bearing thereon, and you see those members of the Committee and ask them for such records as they have? A. All of their minutes you mean, if they have any such? Q. Of the Executive Committee, yes. Mr. Grosvenor : I ask counsel for the defendants to produce on Tuesday, the minutes of that committee or the members of that committee, and I will question them if this witness is unprepared to answer. Next I offer in evidence, the minutes of the meeting of November the 10th, 1910, which are found in the minute book at pages 19 and 20.