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 #:
000521
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 21, 2023
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.

Calvin S. Edwards, Direct Examination. 2371 to get business? A. We have one traveling man on the road. If we learn of a new prospect we write a letter, send a catalogue of machines, and invite the prospective customer to come to Kansas City. If he does not come Ave tell him we will send a representative there to see him. We only maintain one traveling man. We do quite a little business through correspondence. Q. Do you know what methods are resorted to by your competitors to get business? A. We hear from our traveling men that they are being followed up closely by the Mutual and Universal representatives, and that they find them in almost every town that they go to. Q. Do they get many of your customers? A. Occasionally one. Q. Do you get any of theirs? A. Occasionally. Q. Could you say how many customers on an average per week discontinue the General Film Service and take on either the Mutual, or the Universal service? A. Not to a certainty. Q. Are those changes frequent? A. Every week we have some, I can't say how many. Q. Then every week you have some customers who leave you and go either to the Mutual, or to the Universal, is that right? A. Yes, sir. Q. Then every week you have some customers who have been served, or who are being served by the Universal and the Mutual who come to you, is that correct? A. That is correct. Q. But you are unable to state the average number of changes of that character per week? A. I could not say. Q. I think you have stated that in 1910 you were the assistant manager of the Yale Film Exchange at Kansas City? A. I was. Q. And you occupied that position at the time that it sold its business to the General Film Company? A. Yes, sir. Q. Did the General Film Company raise the prices to the exhibitors after it acquired the business of the Yale Film Exchange? A. jSo, sir. Q. Do you know the average price per customer charged by the Yale Film Exchange during the year 1910, and up to the time it sold out to the General Film Company? A. Approximately forty dollars to a customer. Q. Did the General Film Company reduce the prices after it acquired the business of the Yale Film Company in 1910? A. I don't think they did.