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 #:
000252
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:
September 21, 2023
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2102 Abraham Greenburg, Direct Examination. Q. And you are now paying more money for your service than you did last Spring, before this competition began? A. Well, since I have beat the competition out, I have fallen back to my original program. I am not paying so much as while fighting my competitor. Q. During the time you were paying for this more costly program did you have any increase of business, or any increase in your audiences? A. No. It seemed to me to remain about the same. Q. Now, how long was this competition to which you have referred going on in Camden? A. He had been doing it for about two weeks. Q. Did your opponent change his service, or go out of business? A. No, he changed over into the other goods. Q. What kind of goods did he take? A. He took on what is called the independent service. Q. That is, he went to showing unlicensed pictures? A. Yes, sir. Q. Is your opponent still in business? A. Yes, sir. Q. Does he seem to be going right along with the unlicensed pictures? A. Yes, sir. He seems to be doing business right along. Q. During the period of this acute competition did you have any experience of advertising your program, only to find that your competitor would be able to display the same pictures you advertised a day or two in advance of your receiving them? A. He had been doing it for about two weeks. Q. Before the formation of the General Film Company, were you able to select and advertise a definite program some days in advance of your exhibitions? A. Well, we used to do it, but we didn't get them always. Q. Did you have difficulty in getting the program that you were going to show? A. Yes, sir, we did in those days. Q. What were the chief difficulties you encountered in dealing with exchanges at that time? A. I would go and book a show for Wednesday, for instance, and if another fellow would happen to get in there a little earlier, one of the boys would give him the reels which I was supposed to get, which often happened. Q. You found that your advertising, then, in this way—