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 #:
000501
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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Stanley W. Hatch, Direct Examination. 2351 Q. How many theatres are there in Cincinnati with a seating capacity of 500 or over? A. Ten. Q. Of that number how many are served by the General Film Company? A. Five. Q. How large a place is Lexington, Kentucky? A. Lexington is thirty, thirty-five or forty thousand. Q. How many motion picture theatres are there there? A. Seven altogether. Q. And how many seating 500 or over? A. Three. Q. And of that number, how many do you serve? A. One. Q. How large a place is Dayton, Ohio? A. It has in the neighborhood of 100,000. Q, How many theatres in that city seat 500 or over? A. Five. Q. And of that number, how many do you serve? A. Two. Q. Springfield, Ohio, how large a place is that? A. Around 30,000, I judge. Q. How many theatres there seat 500 or over? A. Seven. Q. And of that number, how many do you serve? A. Three. Q. How large a place is Newark, Ohio? A. About forty thousand. Q. And how many theatres in that city will seat 500 or over? A. Seven. Q. And of that number, how many do you supply? A. Two. I am not sure as to the seating capacity of those houses. Some of them may not be 500. That is the entire number in the town. Q. Do you do much business in West Virginia? A. We have about 30 or 40 accounts, I think, in West Virginia. Q. They are mostly small towns? A. Very small towns. Mining towns. Q. Well, in towns of that character, do you have as many theatres as the independents? A. It is about even, I should judge. They continually change from one to the other. Q. Do you find any towns in your district where the unlicensed service is preferred to the licensed? A. No, I would not say so. It is pretty hard to tell what they prefer. Q. Do you find any towns in your territory where there are one or more motion picture theatres and you are not supplying any customer? A. Yes, sir.