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 #:
000524
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
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2374 Calvin S. Edwards, Cross Examination. score of being unable to get what they want? A. Very little. Q. Have you found that your customers of that class prefer that you make up a schedule or program for them — A. No, sir. Q. On a basis of the number they send to you? A. No, sir. Q. Well, what do they prefer? A. Possibly I didn't get your question right before that. Q. I asked you if you found that your customers of the class which you have just described, those taking other than the first, second, and third runs, prefer that you make up their schedule for them by selecting their pictures, a list of which they send? A. Yes, sir, that is the way they want it. Q. Or would they prefer every week to go into your office and look over your list, and make a selection for themselves? A. We mail a list each week, a printed list, to every exhibitor, showing the releases of the subsequent week, and they have them before them all the time and they can make a selection from that list which we mail them. Q. And they do that? A. They do it in the majority of instances. Cross examination by Mr. Grosvenor : Q. Mr. Edwards, how is the territory which makes up your branch, or the territory over which you have1 jurisdiction, how is that territory assigned to you? A. It is not assigned to us at all. Q. Do you get any instructions from New York as to the territory in which you shall do business? A. I never have had a word of instructions. Q. Do you have any arrangement with the neighboring branches of the General Film Company as to what territory each of you shall do business in? A. Only in a general way. Q. I suppose there is a territory bordering your district which is also reached by the other General Film Company's agencies? A. All around us. Q. If there is a theatre on the border of your district, and also on the border of the neighboring district, and that theatre is served by neither you nor the adjoining branch of the General Film Company, don't eacli of your branches try to get that theatre? A. If we learn of it. That is, the Kansas