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 00085 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 #:
00085
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. ]*.):>"> pany, you sometimes advertised programs in advance which would be shown by your competitor the da\7 before you got the pictures? A. Yes. Q. How did it happen that he would get the pictures a day or two ahead of you? A. Well, do vou mean as to how he became aware of what we were going to show? Q. Yes ; how did he get the pictures ahead of you, and you know nothing about that? A. He would do as I did with my competitor. We always kept track of our competitor's business. We had men to visit each other's houses. We would see what they advertised ahead, and see the posters that they had hung up, and we simply wired to our exchange that our competitor was going to show such and such a picture, today, that we wanted to beat him to it, and to send it to us first, and our exchange did that. Q. So oftentimes your competitor would determine what your show was going to be by his advertising? A. I knew what my competitor's show was going to be by his advertising. I knew what my competitor's show was going to be. I expect we kept that situation up for eight months with one competitor. The Postal Telegraph Company, at Xewburgh, received a telegram from me every day to my exchange, as to what my competitor was going to have, and I invariably showed the pictures ahead of him. Q. And did he do the same thing to you? A. I can't say that, I think he did. Q. Did he ever show pictures ahead of you that you had advertised? A. Yes, sir, he did. Q. What was the result of this competition with the competitor to whom you have just referred? A. My competitor quit. Q. Mr. Cohen, what do you say as to the character of the pictures which are now being shown in your houses, in comparison with the pictures of the same producers furnished you some years ago? Do you think they have improved, or have they gone backward? A. They have improved without any doubt. Q. Do you mean by that that they are more interesting? A. 1 mean by that to say that the character of our attendance, the men and women who come to my houses, are of the very highest class in the cities in which I am doing