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 #:
000538
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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2388 William C. Brandon, Direct Examination. Q. Do you reach Mobile? A. No, sir. Q. Or Little Rock? A. Little Rock is handled from Memphis. Q. What is the population of Columbus? A. Twenty thousand. Q. How many theatres are there, motion picture theatres? A. -Four. We have two. Q. Name some other large cities in your territory. A. Columbus, Charleston, Memphis. Q. Is there a branch of the General at Memphis? A. Subbranch of the Atlanta branch. Q. Well, take each of those cities up, and state the number of theatres and the number served by the General Film Company? A. Columbia has four theatres, of which the General Film has one. Memphis has about twenty theatres, of which the General has ten or eleven. Charleston has six theatres, of which the General has three. Q. If you can, name any other large cities in that territory. A. Montgomery, Alabama, has five theatres, of which the General has two. Tampa, Florida, has about six theatres— I am not positive of the exact number — of which we have three. Miami, Florida, has five theatres, of which we have three. Q. Have you named Augusta, Georgia? A. No, sir. Augusta has four houses, of which we have two. That is practically all the large cities in our territory. Q. How about Rome, Georgia? Isn't that a fair sized city? A. Eight thousand. Q. What is the situation at Rome? A. We have one theatre there. There are two others. Q. NowT, will you state the character of the competition that you are having with the Universal and Mutual in that territory? State just what you do to get business, and what your competitors do. A. Well, we use every effort to secure all the business we can, in a fair, legitimate way. We have one solicitor who travels continually. The Mutual and the Universal each have a solicitor. They quote for their product at, I should say, twenty per cent, less than we do, and offer much newer films at the same price than we can afford to give.