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 4
Leaf #:
000113
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:
July 25, 2024
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J. A. Berst, Cross Examination. 19G3 $988,800; cash, $2,480,000.'' A. I am not able to explain that statement. That is a fancy statement made by Mr. Kennedy and not at the request of the Executive Committee, and without the knowledge of the Executive Committee. Q. What do you mean by "fancy," Mr. Berst? A. Fancy, I mean in that sense, that it is established on imaginative figures. Q. You mean the estimate was imaginary; that is, that it was a prospective estimate? A. No, I don't mean that. I mean that it is a statement which is based on nothing which is determined, for instance, we know how many inhabitants there are in the United States to-day. We don't know how many there will be in ten years, and if we base the business of the United States on what it will be in ten years, I call that an imaginative figure. I just give this illustration to explain my thought. Q. Well, in other words, you and I to-day could make out an estimate as to what the population would be in ten years from now? A. If you take what was ten years prior and fellow the same thing for ten years after, well, you will establish a statement which will not probably be correct in ten years from now. Q. It would be an estimate? A. It would be an estimate. Q. Now, had not the Board of Directors or Mr. Kennedy for the Board of Directors, made in some way an estimate of what it would cost to buy all the licensed rental exchanges in the United States? A. The Board of Directors, so far as I know, never made such an estimate. Mr. Kennedy just made one, and it was spread into the minutes, probably without even the knowledge of the Board of Directors at the time. Q. Mr. Kennedy, then, before the General Film Company stalled business, had made out an estimate as to what it would cost to buy all the licensed rental exchanges? A. I don't know, sir, what Mr. Kennedy did. He did not communicate it to me if he did it. Q. I show you the minutes of the meeting of January 1G, 1911, at page 279. and ask you to refresh your recollection by leading those minutes. Wliereupon, at 12:45 P. M., an adjournment is taken until 2:'M) P. M. of the same day, at the same place.