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 #:
000386
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
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.

2830 Mkx Milder, Cross Examination. approximate one hundred and forty-five it would run close to three hundred for the three different exchanges. Q. You never added up the theatres? A. No, sir. Q. Or made a list of them? A. No, sir. I have figured out on paper how many we were supplying, and how many were supplied by the other houses. Q. Did you ever attempt to make a detailed list, giving the names of the theatres and the towns? A. No, sir. Q. So that, when you testified as to one hundred and forty-five theatres that were served by you, you were testifying as to a definite number, the names of each of these theatres being known to you? A. We know the number of accounts that are on our books. Q. And that is 145? A. Yes, sir. It fluctuates, it goes up and down each week. We lose some, and take on others, but at this time it is about 145. Q. But in giving the figures, that is the one hundred and fifty-five, to make up the theatres, or to make up the three hundred, you were testifying not specifically, but based upon your opinion, is that right? A. Based upon my knowledge of the territory. Q. But without making any detailed list or enumeration? A. I had no list to go by, no, sir. Q. When you testified on direct examination that the age of the service governed the price to the exhibitor, what did you mean? A. Well, the newer the service the more the service is worth. It is worth more to a man when the service is new than it would be to him if it was really old. Q. In other words, if you have five films of the same age, one of Edison, one of Essanay, one of the Biography one of the Vitagraph and one of Selig, you charge the same for each of those films which are of the same age? A. Yes, sir. Q. And if two of those five films were older than the other 'three you would charge less for the use of those two? A. Yes, sir. Q. There is then no competition in price? A. The prices are about the same. Q. Between the manufacturers? A. You mean between our exchange and the manufacturers? Q. Well in the licensed films of these ten licensed manufacturers you make no distinction in price between the makes? A. No, sir.