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 #:
000502
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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1728 Albert E. Smith, Direct Examination. 1909? A. Oh, it is treble or quadruple today. It lias increased three or four or five times as much. Q. So that, at the present time in your plant the cost of finished negatives has increased about four hundred per cent? A. Yes. Q. And the amount of finished negatives has increased about four hundred per cent? A. Yes. Q. And yet you have an increase in the total finished positives of only about one hundred per cent.? A. Yes, sir. Q. Do you get a higher price now than you did then? A. The price is about the same generally, except for some special subjects we get more money. Q. What is the proportion of special subjects? A. Very slight. Q. Is it relatively large or small? A. Small. Q. Did the Vitagraph Company, or its stockholders, have anything to do with the formation of the Motion Picture Patents Company? A. No, sir. Q. Since the formation of the General Film Company, what is the fact respecting the Vitagraph Company's profits after considering all dividends, are they less or greater than they were before? A. On account of the increased cost of negatives our profits are diminishing. Q. Have you had occasion in connection with your motion picture interests to go about the country, and in going about the country to examine the conditions in various localities with respect to the growth of the unlicensed motion picture business? A. I travel generally every year to California, and while there, and while en route, investigate conditions as far as I possibly can. Q. Do you know whether the unlicensed exchanges lease or buy their films from the unlicensed producers? A. Some of them buy them, and some of them lease them. The Examiner: The hearings are adjourned until 10:30 o'clock A. M., Tuesday, November 18th, 1913, to be resumed at Room 159, Manhattan Hotel, New York City.