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 00052 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 2
Leaf #:
00052
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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670 William Fox, Direct Examination. 1 last week's films purchased, 90% of it returned, a whole lot of mish mush — Mr. Kingsley: (interrupting) : A whole lot of what? The Witness : A whole lot of mixed up figures. And he said, "In my opinion, we could pay you $89,000." I said, "Mr. Kennedy, I am awfully sorry. I am much obliged for your offer. You know, I did not come here from my own free will. I was sent for by Mr. Waters, who just told me that this is the right time for me to sell out. If it was not for that, I would not come up at all. I don't want to sell my plant. I want to remain in business. I have helped build the motion picture business. I have helped exhibit it in such a way that it was a credit to the business itself, I have strived and worked hard, and I am wrapped up in the art of the business, and I want to remain in it. And so long as you do not cancel my license, and say that there is no trouble about my license being cancelled, I am much obliged for the offer, and I will run along." He said, o "You don't have to worry. We ain't going to cancel your license. We ain't going to do anything to you at all. We don't do business that way with any one. We are all good business men, and we treat everybody fair and everybody square." I said, "All right, Mr. Kennedy, I hope that in the course of the next week, or two or three, I don't find that my license has been cancelled on some flimsy excuse or other." "Oh," he said, "don't worry about that, that will be all right, there won't be nothing happen to you. Just you run along, everything will be all right for everybody. We will take care of you, all right." And he took care of me. 4 I left the room from there with Mr. WTaters accompanying me. By Mr. Grosvenor: Q. Did you have any further conversation with Mr. Waters on that day? Mr. Kingsley: Just a moment. I object to any conversation he may have had with Mr. Waters as incompetent, immaterial and irrelevant and not bind