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 #:
000172
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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2G22 James W. IIuntek, Direct Examination. advertise a program in advance? A. No, sir. Never able to advertise anything until after we got our pictures. Q. Did you get your pictures before the day of exhibition? A. No, sir. Our hour for opening up was two o'clock, and on some days we didn't get our pictures until three or four o'clock in the afternoon. Q. Have you observed the character of the product of the licensed producers of motion pictures within the past two years, as to whether it has improved or deteriorated? A. I think it has improved wonderfully. Q. What competition do you have in Wilkinsburg? A. We have two moving picture houses and one vaudeville house that shows moving pictures. Q. What are the other two moving picture houses, licensed or unlicensed? A. One of them is licensed and the other is unlicensed. Q. Does the vaudeville house show the licensed or the unlicensed pictures as special acts? A. It shows the unlicensed pictures. Q. What is the seating capacity of the unlicensed house in Wilkinsburg? A. I expect it is about three hundred. Q. What is the seating capacity of the vaudeville house, which shows the unlicensed pictures in its acts? A. That I could not say, but about twelve hundred or fourteen hundred. I have only been in it once. Q. Does your theatre, or does the Doris Theatre, have any difficulty in keeping its program clear from the other house which is showing licensed pictures? A. We have not, no, sir. Q. Do they both take service from the General Film Company? A. Yes, sir, I take from the Columbia branch, and the Colonial takes from the Duquesne, or rather the Calcium. Q. Do you know whether or not the Colonial Theatre shows independent pictures in its program? A. I could not say positively, but I was told they did. Q. Do you show any independent pictures in your program? A. I have not, no, sir. Q. What is the price of admission to your house? A. Five cents. Q. What is the price of admission to the other licensed house? A. Ordinarily five cents, and ten cents, on special features it charges ten cents.