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 #:
000300
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:
May 23, 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.

278 Minutes, General Film Co. Q, What were the net profits for the year 1912? A. The books have not been closed jet. Q. Are they being made up? A. Yes, sir. Q. Now, will you please produce on Tuesday a statement showing the net profits of the General Film Company for the years, 1910, 1911 and 1912? A. I will try to. Mr. Grosvenor: I offer the minutes of the regular meeting of January the 16th, 1911, of the General Film Company, at pages 24, 25 and 2G, of the minute book. Thereupon, the minutes of the Board of Directors' meeting of January 16, 1911, were marked Defendant's Exhibit No. 83, and are as follows : Petitioner's Exhibit No. 83. Minutes of a Regular Meeting of the Board of Directors of the General Film Company, held at 80 Fifth Avenue, New York City, January 16th, 1911, at 4 :00 P. M. Present, Messrs. Kennedy, Berst, Dyer, Kleine, Long, Lubin, Selig, Spoor and Pelzer, Secretary. Also Messrs. Blackton, Marvin, Paul Melies and Bock. All the Directors present agreed to hold the meeting at 80 Fifth Avenue instead of 10 Fifth Avenue, and the meeting was called to order and held at 80 Fifth Avenue. Minutes of the previous meeting were read and approved. Mr. Kennedy reported that since the last meeting negotiations for the purchase of Kent Film Exchange were closed and the business of that exchange acquired by this company. Mr. Kennedy also made the following report of the company's obligations arising out of the purchase of exchanges : Approximate summary of prices, interest and seven per cent, stock included in contracts under which exchanges owned on January 14, 1911, by General Film Company were bought; (This summary does not include amount of last week's film bill, nor merchandise).