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 (1914)

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:
1914
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 5
Leaf #:
000115
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
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Fred C. Aiken, Cross Examination. 2565 Mr. Grosvenor: I am making my question very easy for him, because I am asking him for "large towns," which naturally first occur to the memory. By Mr. Grosvenor: Q. Can you name any large towns in that territory, where there are motion picture theatres and the General Film Company does not have a theatre? A. I don't recall just at this moment, no, sir. Q. Can you name any small towns where there are motion picture theatres, but in which the General Film Company has no customer? A. I do not recall any definite places, no, sir. Q. Did you ever prepare any list or memorandum showing such information? A. No, sir, I never did. Q. Have you any documentary evidence of any kind, which could support that statement you gave on direct examination? A. No, sir. Q. Do you have any interest in any theatres to-day? A. No, sir. Q. Either through stock ownership or otherwise? A. None whatever. Q. When you sold out to the General Film Company, how many customers did you have? A. I don't know exactly. I think we had a hundred and fifty or a hundred and sixty. Q. All those customers were using and displaying the pictures of the ten licensed manufacturers? A. Yes, sir. Q. If you had decided, at that time, to re-engage in the film business, could you have retained the patronage of those 150 customers by offering them independent films, or such films as you could have acquired from outside the licensed manufacturers? A. I don't expect that we could have retained all of them. Q. How many do you think you could have retained? Mr. Caldwell: Objected to as purely speculative. By Mr. Grosvenor: Q. How many of the 150 customers you had at thai time could you have retained, if you should have re-engaged in the film business and been able to supply them only the