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 #:
000391
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.

E. BOEHRINGER, CROSS EXAMINATION. 2841 Q. Are you solicited by the exchanges from time to time to take their service exclusively? A. Yes, sir. Q. Do they offer you a complete program for your house? A. Yes, sir. Q. What kind of projecting machines do you use? A. T use at present — I always try to keep up with the latest machines. I started with the Powers Model 5. That was when I started business, and I kept that until they got out the Powers Model 6, and when they got the Powers Model GA, I used that. Q. Are those the only models you ever used? A. I have used Edison, but they did not give me the satisfaction that the Powers Model 6 gave me, so I used that afterwards. Cross examination by Mr. Grosvenor : Q. There are three regular moving picture theatres in Baton Rouge, two that you own, and then this large one that has 000 seats? A. Yes. There is another one there, a small house of 300 seating capacity. They use a good deal of vaudeville, but it seems they have trouble with the managers there. They come and go, and they open and close up. You can't never tell. Q. So there are three regular theatres that are open right along, and one which is open occasionally? A. This one that is open occasionally, ran continuously for fourteen months. It is only lately that they have been closing up. Q. What independent pictures have you shown in tin1 Dreamland Theatre? A. I have used some of the Famous Players, and I used some for my house from an agent by the name of Brennan in New Orleans. Some from Millins. Several from him. And then I used several other independent pictures. The "Fall of Gettysburg" — I showed that. Q. Are you showing any independent pictures there this week? A. Yes, sir. Q. Which ones? A. "The Gunmen of New York." T show that next Sunday. For Friday, I cannot think of the name right now, but I booked it just before T left. We are having a fair there, and T booked three of them, one each for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The one for Saturday is "The Bandits of Paris." I can't think of the others now.