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 #:
000399
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.

Howell Graham, Cross Examination. 2841) A. I had to give Mr. Mitchell $200 for two prints, Mr. Mitchell of course, in order to protect me, had to buy four prints. It was possible at that time to secure four prints, Mr. Mitchell buying those, and I got clients, or assisted Mr. Mitchell in getting business enough to justify him, and I personally assisted Mr. Mitchell to get business enough to justify him in securing enough films to have four per day ready for shipment, and then the Theatre ■Film Supply Company would get their stun0 on the release day into town, and Mr. Mitchell held his four releases ready for shipment, and upon the flash on the program of the Bonita Theatre, I was able to wire Mr. Mitchell for the other two, securing them to make my program for the following day. Q. Did this avoid a conflict? A. It was the only way it could have avoided it. Q. And did this give you a superior program? A. Oh, no. The other house, of course, having the selection, had the preference in the matter of program. Mr. Grosvexor: Was this all before the General Film Company was organized? The Witness : Just prior to the organization of the General Film Company. By Mr. Kingsley: (J. By that you mean just prior to the time that the General Film Company took over the Mitchell Exchange at Memphis? A. Yes. And Little Rock. They took the two at the same time. (>. What kind of projecting machines do you use in your theatres? A. Well, I have used everything from Gauni<»i!t — 1 am using Powers at present. (>. Will you give us the names of those you have used, so far {is you remember them? A. Yes, sir. I have used Fdisons, Gaumont's, Pathe and Powers. Cross examination by Mr. Grosvexor: Q. The General Film Company acquired this Theatre Film Service Company of Birmingham also, did it not? A. Yes, sir. After having acquired the Memphis. 8