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 #:
000307
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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Floyd Brown, Direct Examination. 2757 crease in the price of motion picture service to the exhibitors served by that exchange? A. No, sir. Q. How do the prices you are now charging your customers for motion picture service compare with the prices the Lieber Exchange was charging its customers for motion picture service in the early part of 1911, prior to the purchase of its property by the General Film Company? A. The prices have been reduced. Q. Will you describe to us the system of booking that you use? A. We book our customers — I don't know as I exactly get your question. Q. Do you use the open booking or schedule? A. We use the open booking system. Q. What is the open booking system? A. In the use of the open booking system, we know a definite release that is specified for any definite date to our various customers, and we simply try to make their programs balance, giving them as nearly the sort of program they desire as we can. Q. Do exhibitors ever ask you to change their pictures and give them certain subjects which they desire? A. Yes, sir. Q. And do you endeavor to do that? A. Yes, sir. Q. Do you usually do it? A. No, I am not the booker. Q. Does your booker do it usually? A. Yes, sir. Q. Is he instructed to do so? A. Yes, sir. Q. Is the price of motion pictures to the exhibitor governed by the age? A. Yes, sir. Q. When you say that the price of motion pictures to the exhibitor is governed by the age, do you mean the physical age of the motion picture from the time that it has been released? A. The time that it has been released. Q. When you sell a motion picture service to an exhibitor, do you quote him a sum for the whole program? A. Yes, sir. Q. In furnishing such a program, do you endeavor to give him a balanced one? A. Yes, sir. Q. What do you mean by a balanced program? A. I mean that we do not give him three dramatic subjects of the same nature, in other words, we give him a drama, comedy, Western drama, or two dramatic subjects of different nature, one comedy, depending a great deal on the class of program he desires for his particular territory.