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 000102 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 #:
000102
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
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.

720 Louis Rosenbltjh, Cross Examination. Q. What do you mean by the statement "within the past few months?" Do you mean within the last year? A. No; within the past few months, there have been quite some changes in the renting business. Q. Were you a witness in the case of The Greater New York Film Rental Company, complainant, against The Biograph Company and the General Film Company, defendants, in the United States District Court recently? A. Yes, sir. Q. And were you sworn on or about January 8th or 9th of this year? A. Yes, sir. Q. Were you on that occasion asked this question, referring to rental exchanges in New York: "Q. How many do you say there are in the last few months? A. I should say thirty or forty." Do you remember that question and answer? A. Yes, sir. Q. And do you remember this question was asked you : "What do you mean by the statement 'within the last few months?' A. Within the past six months or eight months. Within the past year." Do you remember that question and answer? A. Yes, sir. Q. And you made that answer, did you not? A. Yes, sir. That has changed the last month, as I told you before. Q. There have been some more in the last month, in addition? A. Not exactly more, but it has been changed. Q. They are still increasing? A. Several of the General Film Company offices have gotten together. And there was a new company opened up under a new name, and various changes. Q. But they are increasing all the time, are they not, so far as you know? A. I cannot say they are increasing. They are the same number, I should imagine. When two exchanges go into one, you could not call it an increase. Q. You say they are not decreasing, though? A. I did not say they were decreasing. Q. On page 364 of your direct testimony, referring to George Kleine importing a large number of films, you were asked this question : "Q. You could get a new reel a day from him? A. A day. Even if we wanted two a day. He had any number on hand." Now, by that you meant to say that it was possible to get a new reel from George Kleine at that time before the formation of the Patents Company? A. Yes, sir.