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 #:
000582
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
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.

1808 Jonas A. Koerpel, Cross Examination By Mr. Grosvenor: Q. When he stood on the sidewalk and read the announcement which you held out to the whole world, to everyone that was passing on the sidewalk, was he prying into your private affairs? A. Well, I would not call it my private affairs, no, if I put it out there for everybody, people, to see, but, on the other hand, inasmuch as he was sent there distinctly to find out what I had, not as a customer, but as a competitor, and then to use it as a wedge against me, I claim he was prying into my affairs. Q. Did he go inside of your office? A. He has been inside of my theatre, and looked at the announcements on my screen when I stopped putting posters outside of my lobby. Q. And he came inside of your theatre and looked at — A. Paid his admission just like every other customer. Q. And he came in and looked at the pictures on your board, you say? A. Not the pictures. The announcements on my screen of coming features. Q. And you consider that prying into your private affairs? A. I consider it getting as much information as he can, what my business was, so as to get these pictures ahead of me, and it was to use it as a wedge against me. Because in every instance, the picture has been exhibited in one of Mr. Fox's houses prior to my getting it. Q. Didn't you say on your direct examination that you yourself go down to the City Theatre on 14th Street, and go into Fox's Theatre, and see what he is doing? A. Yes, I go down there, but not to see what he is doing. I go down there to see those pictures on the day that they are released, and I put that information, whether they are good pictures or pictures that I do not want, in my release book, and when I go to the General Film Company's exchange to book those pictures, I use that information to guide myself whether it is the pictures I want or do not want. That is the reason I go into Mr. Fox's theatre on 14th Street. Q. Then you go into Mr. Fox's theatre on 14th Street and read everything that is put on the screen in Mr. Fox's theatre while you are there? A. Certainly. Q. And the other man of whom you complain, goes