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 #:
000314
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
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.

292 William H. Swanson, Direct Examination. in THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES, For the Eastern District op Pennsylvania. United States of America, Petitioner, V. } No. 889 Sept. Sess., 1912. 2 Motion Picture Patents Co., and others, Defendants. New York City, January 21st, 1913. The hearing set for 10:30 o'clock A. M., was by consent of counsel adjourned until 2:30 o'clock P. M., on this January 21st, 1913. The hearing was resumed pursuant to adjournment at 2 :30 o'clock P. M., on this January 21st, 1913, at Hotel McAlpin, New York City. Present, on behalf of the Petitioner, Hon. Edwin P. Grosvenor, Special Assistant to the Attorney General. Joseph R. Darling, Esq., Special Agent. Present also, Messrs. George R. Willis and Fred R. Williams, appearing for Motion Picture Patents Company, Biograph Company, Jeremiah J. Kennedy, Harry N. Marvin, and Armat Moving Picture Company. Mr. J. H. Caldwell, appearing for William Pelzer, General Film Company, Thomas A. Edison, Inc., Kalem Company, Inc., Melies Manufacturing Company, Pathe Freres, Frank L. Dyer, Samuel Long, J. A. Berst and Gaston Melies. Mr. Henry Melville, Attorney for George Kleine, Essanay Film Manufacturing Company, Selig Polyscope Company, George K. Spoor and W. N. Selig. James J. Allen, appearing for Vitagraph Company of America, and Albert E. Smith.