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 #:
000306
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.

2756 Floyd Brown, Direct Examination. deavor to secure the sort of pictures that they waut? A. Yes, sir. Q. Do you consult their opinions and preferences from time to time with respect to the kind of pictures you order? A. Yes, sir. Q. Are there any independent exchanges dealing in unlicensed motion pictures competing with your exchange for business in the territory, and among the towns you have described and mentioned? A. Yes, sir. Q. What are the names of these unlicensed exchanges? A. The Mutual Film Corporation, the Universal Film Supply Q. Perhaps you had better go back and name them and tell us where they are located? A. The Mutual Film Corporation, Indianapolis, the Universal Film & Supply Company, Indianapolis, the Peerless Feature Film & Supply Company, Indianapolis, Warner's Features, Indianapolis, International Feature Film Company, Indianapolis, Sedeg Feature Film Company, Indianapolis. Several small concerns of which I do not recollect the names. Q. Do any of the unlicensed exchanges you have mentioned, furnish complete programs to exhibitors? A. Yes, sir. Q. Which ones do that? A. The Mutual, the Universal. Warner's Features are able to handle the customer on daily change for a short length of time, I understand; in other words they are able to handle the customer on change three times a week regularly. I don't know just how many features are handled by the other feature exchanges. Q. In the competition you have described between your exchange and the unlicensed exchanges, do you from time to time lose any customers? A. Yes. Q. Do you, from time to time, take customers away from the unlicensed exchanges? A. Yes. Q. What do you say as to how this exchange balances? A. Why, it just about balances. The business just about balances. Q. What is the average number of changes a week? A. Our changes will average — it must be seven or eight customers weekly. Q. After the General Film Company bought the property of the Lieber Exchange in 1911, was there any in