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 #:
00051
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
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William Fox, Direct Examination. 669 read it, to state what transpired in Mr. Kennedy's presence? A. (Witness reads.) Q. Having read this, please state to the best of jour recollection what transpired? A. Mr. Kennedy entered into the room where I was sitting with Mr. Waters, and Mr. Kennedy said, "I am pleased to see you in our office ; what is it I can do for you?" "Well," I said, "Mr. Kennedy, there is not much you can do for me, except to give me your assurance that you are not going to cancel the license of the Greater New York Film Rental Company?" And he said, "Do you realize that you are now in the office of the General Film Company, and I speak now in the capacity as an officer of the General Film Company, and you know, that the General Film Company does not control the issuance nor the cancelling of licenses, that that is controlled by the Motion Picture Patents Company, and we cannot either issue or cancel a license, nor do we intend to do anything of that kind." I said, "If that is how you feel about it, and you say you are not going to take my license away, why, everything is all right, and we are hunky dorum. I will go along." Waters said, "Mr. Kennedy, I had quite a talk with Fox, and I think he understands his position pretty well." And the price that I asked of Waters was discussed. Mr. Kennedy said that I was away off on the price. Q. Was the figure mentioned to Kennedy? A. f 150,000. Mr. Kennedy said, "We are not buying exchanges that way, we are buying them systematically. When we went into the General Film Company, we laid out a schedule of how much we were going to pay every one of these exchanges, and we have religiously lived up to the schedule, and paid exactly what the schedule called for, and as we planned and mapped it out when we first started out with this concern, and we won't be able to do any more for you, because if we did, we would have a lot of discontented men throughout the country. We assured them that we were going to live up to schedule and pay everybody in accordance with the schedule, and we will do the same by you as was done by everybody else. That is fair and square, and you have not any kick coming as long as we do that." I said, "Do you mind telling me how much I am entitled to under this schedule?" He took from his pocket a memorandum, and went into it as to the amount of customers, and so forth, and finally he compiled some figures about