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 2
Leaf #:
00039
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:
June 13, 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.

Evidence. 657 IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES, For the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. No. 889. Sept. Sess., 1912. United States of America, Petitioner, v. Motion Picture Patents Co., and others, Defendants. New York City, February 13th, 1913. The hearing heretofore fixed for February 5th, 1913, was upon application of the petitioner, and by consent of defendants, postponed until February 19th, 1913. The hearing heretofore fixed for the 19th of February, 1913, was upon application of the petitioner, postponed until February 24th, 1913. The hearing heretofore fixed for February 24th, 1913, was, upon application of Mr. George R. Willis, and with the consent of the petitioner's counsel, and counsel for defendants, postponed until February 27th, 1913, to be resumed at Hotel McAlpin, New York City, at 10.30 o'clock A. M. Thereupon the hearing was resumed at Hotel McAlpin, New York City, at 10.30 o'clock A. M. on this February 27th, 1913. 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. Fred R. Williams, and Charles F. Kingsley, 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,