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 #:
000302
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.

2752 Floyd Brown, Direct Examination. made from time to time and our travelling representative and myself and Mr. Lieber corrected it up to date as nearly as we possibly could. Q, And did you check it over carefully? A. Yes, sir. Q. Did you work in collaboration with them upon the list? A. Yes, sir. Q. And as of what date was this list made up? A. December 1st, 1913. Q. Hoav many motion picture houses are there in Indianapolis? A. About seventy-eight. Q. How many of those are licensed? A. About thirty one. Q. How are the unlicensed houses divided? A. The Mutual has about nineteen or twenty, and the Universal has about twenty. Q. And the rest, are what? A. They are features. Q. How many motion picture houses are there in Terre Haute? A. There are fourteen. Q. If you have that list with you, you may consult it, if it will refresh your memory at all? A. Yes, sir. Q. How many in Terre Haute? A. There are about fourteen. (>. I low many of those are licensed? A. Seven. Q. How are the unlicensed houses divided? A. Change that to six licensed houses now. Q. Six licensed? A. Yes, sir. Q. How are the unlicensed houses divided? A. Why, as nearly as I could give it four Mutual and three Universal. Q. How many motion picture houses are there in Louis ville? A. There are twenty-one. Q. How many of those are licensed? A. Eleven. Q. And how many are unlicensed? A. Ten. Q. How many motion picture houses in Fort Wayne? A. Fort Wayne, about twelve. Q. How many are licensed? A. Five. Q. And how many unlicensed? A. Seven. Q. How many motion picture houses are there in Muncie? A. Nine. Q. How many are licensed? A. At the present time we have two. Q. Do you know how many are unlicensed at the present time? A. The balance, really about seven.