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 000111 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 #:
000111
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.

Louis Rosenbluh, Cross Examination. 729 Q. What person connected with the Comet Theatre? A. Miss Erb. Q. Is she still in business there? A. No, sir. Sold her place. Foster. Q. What is his address? A. Fulton Street, Brooklyn. Q. And what is his theatre? A. I don't know the name of the theatre. Rosenberg, Third Avenue and 84th Street. Cohen Brothers and Peyser. Q. Give the name of his theatre, if he has one there. A. The Yorkville Theatre. Cohen Brothers and Peyser, on Prospect— Q. (interrupting) : Are they still customers of yours? A. No, sir. Prospect Avenue, near Westchester. Q. Now, Mr. Rosen bluh, I call your attention — have you finished? Is that all you can think of? A. I can think of more if you want to take up the time. It is a little hard for me to think of the names. Q. I will direct your attention to another matter now. On page 426, you say there, "Another instance brought to my particular attention was several weeks ago, an exhibitor had bought a place. In that theatre the previous owner had violated some of the rules of the Patents Company, and for that reason the license was cancelled." Can you tell us who that owner was? A. I don't know who it was at the time the license was cancelled. I will give you the name of the man who eventually got the place. Q. Who was that? A. His name is the Longwood Theatre. Q. The Longwood Theatre? A. The Longwood Theatre. Q. Do you know the name of the proprietor? A. I cannot think of his name just now. It is Longwood Avenue, near Prospect. Q. Well, now, can you give us the names of the exhibitors in the vicinity who were then customers of the General Film Company who went to this new owner and told him that unless he made arrangements with the General Film Company he would be a sorry man for having made his arrangements with the Greater New York Film Rental Company? A. Yes, sir. Q. Can you give the names of the exhibitors in that vicinity? A. Yes, sir. Cohen Brothers and Peyser, Eckman, Colonial Theatre. Q. Who of the Colonial Theatre? What person? Do you