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 000389 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 #:
000389
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
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.

Ike Van Ronkel, Direct Examination. 2239 Service people, in point of actual revenue, is quite formidable? Mr. Grosvenor : Objected to as leading. A. The competition between the independents and us is very keen. They are going* after our customers continually, and we are trying our best to hold them. Q. Have you your territory mapped out in any way showing the theatres supplied by your branches, and the theatres supplied by the Universal, and those supplied by the Mutual? A. Xo, sir; I go wherever I want, any distance we can ship, where we get good shipping facilities. All of us cover the same territory, and fight as hard as we can for the business. Q. Have 3011 a map of the City of Chicago? A. Yes, I have a large map. Q. Now, explain? A. I have a large map of the City of Chicago — a Rand & MeNally's map of Chicago — and I use three different colors of pins — Mr. Grosvenor : Have you that with you? The Witness : No, sir. It is a very large map. Mr. Grosvenor : Objected to as immaterial, and as not affording an opportunity for proper cross examination— Mr. Caldwell : I am not offering the map in evidence. I think the description he will give, will give you a map, the way in which he explains it, that will be available for all purposes of cross examination. You may proceed, and describe what you mean by a "map." The Witness : We have a large map, a framed map, on the wall, in a wooden frame, and we use three colors of tacks, or pins, to denote or notate the exhibitors of the General Film Company, and the Universal, and the Mutual, and in that way we know just where each one is located, and know how many each one has in addition to having the records from the Citv's License Bureau.