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 00083 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 4
Leaf #:
00083
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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George Cohen, Direct Examination. L933 Q. Did you ever try to get away from a conflicting program by having a higher class service and a more expensive service? A. Yes, sir. Q. What was your experience when you made that attempt? A. If my competitor was strong enough financially, he simply went and got something of a higher price than I did. And they simply could not remain in business under those conditions. Q. What is the advantage of getting a higher priced service? A. Why, I doubt if there is much advantage, when you get above a certain point, there isn't any advantage. Q. What do you mean by a certain point? A. If you can get a picture that is clean on the surface, and has not been mutilated or injured by its passage through the various machfnes, a picture that is thirty days old is just as good to me as one that is two days old, providing my competitor has not run it first. Q. Then, by "higher class" service, you mean newer pictures? A. Newer releases. Q. Newer releases. That means newer pictures, does it not? A. Yes, sir. Q. And by getting a higher priced service, you merely get the same pictures a little earlier, that you would otherwise show later? A. Exactly. Q. Do you advertise your programs ahead, now? A. Invariably. Q. How long ahead do you advertise them? A. Oh, we receive posters, perhaps a week ahead, and advertise them in the newspapers two or three days ahead. Q. Was that possible when you were obtaining pictures from other exchanges prior to the formation of the General Film Company? A. I never found it so. Q. Do you advertise these programs, and find it possible to produce them on the date designated? A. -From the Peoples Branch, in New York, invariably so. From the Albany Branch, occasionally there is a slip-up, because their business is conducted altogether through the express service, and on account of the laxity of the express company, at times the pictures will not arrive, but they will send them on as soon as they do arrive, to them. O. And that difficulty, you think, is caused by the express company? A. Only by the express company. I have investigated it now for three years.