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 000571 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 3
Leaf #:
000571
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
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Jonas A. Koerpel, Direct Examination. 1797 situation, why, they stop the actors and actresses, and they make a still photograph of it, and then they use that in this advertising matter in the heralds. Q. And these heralds, do you have them reproduced, or do they furnish them to you? A. Yes, sir, they supply them at so much per thousand. Q. Do they supply you with posters, or other advertising matter? A. We get our posters from the General Film Company's Poster Department. And speaking of posters, why, previously we had to use what was called a "fake poster/1 It was necessary for the exhibitor to take any old kind of a poster that had nothing to do with the film, or the subject at all, and across the top of it, if it was a western picture, he would simply get a picture of a cow-boy with a horse and a rope, and then he would put the title of the picture across it. In other words, we were compelled to use posters which had no bearing whatsoever on the subject, and the result was that, due to the fact that a large number of people who got into this business when they ought to be doing something else, why they had posters out in front si i owing somebody striking somebody else in the back with a knife, and it created an idea that a motion picture theatre probably was a den of iniquity and vice, and they would go inside and expect to see that on this screen, and it would have nothing to do with the picture, but, of course, today, since the advent of the General Film Company and the Patents Company, our posters are representative of the pictures. In other words, they contain an actual scene from the play, and the people know just exactly what they are going to see. I do not believe that there is any theatre in the City of New York today using so-called "fake" posters; they use legitimate posters. Q. Did you have, at any time in your business experience as a motion picture exhibitor, any experience with worn or damaged film? A. Well, our films never were taken care of before the present exchanges existed, or before the General Film Company. I can only speak of the General Film Company, because I have previously always used their service, and I suppose that other exchanges have advanced just as much, but previously the films were never examined. For example, when we were getting our films in Nassau Street, from the Vitagraph Company, we even had