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 3
Leaf #:
000318
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:
July 11, 2024
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1544 Frank L. Dyer, Direct Examination. a release date rule? A. They have, the same as we have. Q. That rule is regarded of considerable importance, is it not, by the manufacturers? A. I think so. It enables the value of service to be accurately measured. If a theatre is paying for first-run service and gets a picture on the date of release advertised in the trade papers he knows he is getting what he pays for, but if we didn't have the release date we probably would have arguments all the time in convincing theatres that we were giving them the films that they had contracted for. Q. Would a violation of that rule, even of so much as a quarter or half an hour at times work injury in the business? A. Yes. Any violation would be likely to work injury, and, of course, if you have a rule you have to enforce it, and a violation to the extent of a quarter or half an hour is as bad as a violation of two or three days. I recall that during the time that we were in competition with the Kinetograph Company, in Atlanta, last Spring, we had a very important customer in Chattanooga, who was taking our complete output in three theatres, and the Kinetograph Company had a single customer there who was using the same output in his theatres, showing the entire licensed output. The films ordinarily left Atlanta by a train leaving about 8 :30. There was a train called the Dixie Flyer, that reached Atlanta at 7:50, but neither of us was able to get our films on that train. Q. What is the release date hour? A. The release date hour is eight o'clock. They were somewhat sharper than we were, and kept track of this Flyer, and on two or three mornings when it was about half an hour late, they managed to get their films on the train, and reached Chattanooga two or three hours before we did, so that their theatre was able to show films in advance of ours. This was not a violation of the release date rule, but shows the importance of fifteen minutes or an hour's leewa}^ in this business. Q. Who is it that determines the length of the program, and the frequency with which it is changed? A. The theatres in a given locality generally co-operate together and use programs of substantially the same length, and with the same changes per week. That is to say, in some localities the films would be changed every day, and in