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 000351 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 #:
000351
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
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William Pelzer, Direct Examination. 329 produced in the way of papers. If you want some other explanations of what I have not produced, I will make them. Q. Referring to your last answers, Mr. Pelzer, in regard to the authorization, and your statement that the only authorization you can find is that contained in the minutes of May 25, 1910, I direct your attention again to the statement in the minutes of October 11, 1910, printed in the record at page 2G6, in which these sentences occur: "Payments Authorized for Exchanges owned October 10, Stock 1591,400, cash $1,483,200. Total payments authorized for all exchanges in entire country, stock, $988,800, cash $2,480,000/' Now, I want you to find out when the authorization was given to name that figure. Were you able to find any such report? A. I was not. Q. Did you look up the records of the Executive Committee? A. I made inquiries of the Secretary, of the Presi dent and of Mr. Berst and Mr. Rock, and was advised by each that they knew of no minutes of the Executive Committee prior to those that I had produced the other day. Q, That is prior to June, 1912? A. Prior to June 20, 1912. Q. Have they kept any memoranda or reports of the amounts — A. (Interrupting) : No — Q. (Continuing) : — expended, or of their negotiations with the different exchanges, or of the business done by them prior to June, 1912? A. None that they could find; I asked them if they had any records of any kind, and they told me they had none. Mr. Smith, who was a member of the Executive Committee, is away, and I could not reach him. Q. Then as a matter of fact you can find no record of any character applying to the period of time in which the General Film Company was expanding and buying out the rental exchanges? A. No, not any records of the Executive Committee. Q. And the Executive Committee was the committee authorized by the General Film Company to conduct the negotiations and purchases of the exchanges? A. It was. Q. Did you ask the members of the Executive Committee as to that authorization? A. Yes. (J. What did they say? A. They could not recall it.