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 #:
000303
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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Floyd Brown, Direct Examination. 2753 Q. How many motion picture houses are there in Richmond, Indiana? A. Five. Q. How many are licensed? A. One now. Q. How many are unlicensed at the present? A. Four. Q. How many motion picture houses in Anderson? A. Six. Q. How many are licensed? A. Three. Q. How many motion picture houses in Logansport? A. Change Anderson to four licensed. Q. Two unlicensed? A. Yes, sir. Q. How many motion picture houses are there in Logansport? A. Six. Q. How many are licensed? A. Three. Q. How many are unlicensed? A. Three. Q. How many motion picture houses in Shelby ville and how many are licensed? A. Only one to my knowledge. Q. How as to that one, licensed or unlicensed? A. Licensed, but he has been running an independent program also. Q. Are there any towns in the territory which you serve having motion picture shows which are not supplied at all by the General Film Company? A. Yes, sir. Q. Will you mention some of those towns, please, which have no licensed service? A. Atlanta, Cicero, Indiana, Lancaster, Berne. Q. Pick out the larger ones? A. Edinburg, French Lick, Jeffersonville, Montpelier, West Baden, Worthington, and Robinson, Illinois, that is all I think of except real small places. Q. Can you tell us something about the seating capacity of the larger independent theatres in some of the towns in the territory you have described? A. Yes, sir. Some of the towns I have described? Q. In some of the towns that are mentioned on your list? A. Indianapolis has the largest house to my knowledge, supplied by the Mutual, has a seating capacity of about a thousand to twelve hundred. Do you want the name? Q. Yes, if you can, give that to me. A. That is the Oriental. The Grand Central, I believe, has a seating capacity of five or six hundred. It is supplied by the independent. The Palmo No. 2 seats, I believe, in the neghborhood of five hundred. The Palmo No. 1 seats about three hundred and