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 #:
000571
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:
July 25, 2024
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William C. Preller, Cross Examination. 2421 Petitioners' Exhibit No. 247 ( Letterhead ) GENERAL FILM COMPANY. Des Moines, Iowa. July 1st, 1911. J. S. Bassett, Independence, Iowa. Dear Sir: — We are just in receipt of your letter of the 29th also letter from the Motion Picture Patents Company stating they will grant you a license for your Gem Theatre providing you will pay six months advance royalty fees amounting to $52.00. By your letter we note you hardly see the justice of their demands. WTe note they desire to have you pay the royalty in advance for six months, beginning, Monday July 3rd and we will reduce your service for $2.00 per week beginning at that time. We hope you will send your draft to them at once covering this amount and that you will be very careful in the future. The reduction in service we will give you will take effect July 3rd and stay in effect until January 1st, 1912. Of course the reduction of $2.00 will only be made providing the Patents Company release us of our weekly fees to them for your House, which we believe they will do. We are sure you will see the advisability of following our suggestions and line up for service in this manner. If you will attend to this at once we will be able to ship you for your opening date of July 7th. We are just as desirous of securing the account as you can possibly be in using licensed service and as our business relations have always been most pleasant we are sure they will continue so. Please let us have an expression from you by return mail in reference to this matter as it is one of great interest. Thanking you for past favors and with best wishes for your success, we remain Yours very truly, CWJ/ER GENERAL FILM COMPANY. 1