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 #:
000501
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:
September 21, 2023
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Albert El Smith, Direct Examination. 1727 A. Well, roughly speaking, it might run into six or seven plays. Some would be single reels, some would be two reels, or two thousand feet, to tell the story, and up to four or five and six thousand feet, to tell a story. Q. Do I understand you to say that twelve thousand feet of finished negatives might mean thirty thousand feet of original negatives? A. Yes, sir. Q. You mean by that that you cut out and destroy a large percentage of the original negative? A. It is quite common for a story when it is first finished by the directors, to run as long as tAventy-four or twenty-five hundred feet, which is trimmed and trimmed, and trimmed, until it gets down to about a thousand feet in length. Q. Are scenes sometimes cut out? A. Sometimes we will cut out a scene bodily. Q. Sometimes do you shorten it? A. Shorten it. Q. Sometimes do you have it acted over? A. Very often we are compelled to do a scene over again. That is a part of our daily routine. Q. Now, you say that at the present time, your product is twelve thousand feet of finished negatives. How many feet of finished negatives were you turning out at about the beginning of 1909? A. Oh, it might be around three thousand feet. Q. What is the total number of prints in this country that you are turning out? A. It runs well up over 300,000 feet. Q. What was the footage about January 1st, 1909? I am confining these questions to this country, you know? A. Yes. Well, it might be up around a hundred to a hundred and fifty thousand feet a week, probably about half or a little less than half of our present output. Q. So that, although you have increased the footage of finished negatives four hundred per cent, since that time, you have only increased the footage of positives about a hundred per cent.? A. Yes, the distribution from a given subject has dropped off considerably. In the early days it was nothing unusual to sell as many as a hundred prints from a negative, whereas, now it really goes to about forty. Q. Well, what is the fact with respect to the cost per foot of finished negatives now compared with the cost per foot of finished negatives at your plant about January 1,