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 #:
000535
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
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.

William C. Brandon, Direct Examination. 2385 Q. There are not more than half a dozen of those 239 * theatres, are there? A. I could not say. Q. Are there more or less than half a dozen? A. I could not say that. Q. What is your opinion? A. My opinion is that there are more than that. Q. How many more? A. I cannot tell you. If I knew I would be glad to tell you. But I don't. WILLIAM C. BRANDON, the next witness produced on behalf of the defendants, being first duly sworn by the Examiner, deposed as follows: Direct examination by Mr. Caldwell: Q. Where do you live, Mr. Brandon, and in what business are you engaged? A. In Atlanta, Georgia. Branch manager of the General Film Company's office in that city. Q. And how long have you occupied that position? A. Since January 20th, 1913. Q. And prior to January 20th, 1913, what business were you engaged in? A. Importing business. Q. Importing of what? A. Woolens. Q. Were you ever in the motion picture business at all, prior to that time? A. No, sir. Q. What is the territory served by the Atlanta branch of the General Film Company? A. Well, the Atlanta branch has two sub-branches, one in Memphis and one in Jacksonville, and the territory covered by those three branches is, the State of Georgia, the State of Alabama, with the exception of Mobile, the State of Florida, with the exception of Tallahassee and Pensacola, North and South Carolina, Tennessee, part of Arkansas, the northern part of Mississippi, and a small portion of Kentucky. Q. The two towns in Florida, Tallahassee and Pensacola, from what branch are they served? A. New Orleans. Q. Who are your competitors in that territory? A. The Mutual Film Corporation. Q. Wliere are they located? A. They are located in At 2