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 #:
000197
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 25, 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.

Charles F. Haring, Cross Examination. 2047 Q. Then, you felt, in order for that theatre in Brooklyn to be successful, or to remain successful, it was necessary for you to change from the independent to the licensed service? A. It certainly was necessary there, or I would not be there today. Q. When was that? In 1911 or 1912? A. We opened that house on October 18th or 19th of 1912. Q. Now, let us consider the situation in October, 1912. You stated that you wanted the licensed pictures for that theatre, didn't you? A. No, I did not say that. Q. You said, that in order to keep that theatre going well, you felt it necessary to change from the independent to the licensed program. A. I did do that; if I could do business and make money with unlicensed service, I would have been very much pleased, but I started my house with about |35 a day and in two weeks, it gradually dwindled down to $20 a day. The receipts were $20 a day. Instead of going up, they went down. Q. And, naturally, you wanted to change and get the licensed pictures, didn't you? I mean, you felt it necessary to do it in order to save your business? A. I felt the pulse of my audience, and they did not like the pictures that I was showing. I asked them what they did like. "Well, we don't see any of our popular players." "Wrhom do you mean?" "So-and-So." So I granted their request and have done business ever since, and I might say I am making money, too. Q. In order to give them what they wanted, you felt that vou should srive them the licensed service? j-*j Mr. Kingsley: I object to the form of the question on the ground that it is trying to make the witness say something he did not say, the witness having said he wanted to give satisfactory service, licensed or unlicensed. Q. I am trying to be fair in my question. After ascertaining the wishes of your customers, you felt that they did want the licensed service? A. Yon can call it whatever you like. They wanted Biographs, Vitagraphs, Kalems, and so forth. Q. And those are licensed service? A. Yes. That service was supplied by the General Film Company.