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 #:
000401
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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Howell Graham, Reckoss Examination. 2851 Q. How do you count your houses, as licensed or unlicensed? A. I count three of them licensed and one of them independent, but when there is a special release in the Mutual program — part of my houses are located so that I have quite a patronage of ladies and if there is an acceptable picture for them, I take it out of the one house, substituting another in the Western house, as I call it. Q. You have four theatres altogether? A. Yes, sir. Mr. Grosvenor: Five theatres? The Witness : I am interested in the other. By Mr. Kingsley : Q. Did you name the five in your direct examination? A. I named four. Q. You only named four? A. Yes, sir. Q. So you have named four theatres to us in which you use — A. Three licensed, and one designed for the Mutual. Recross examination by Mr. Grosvenor: Q. I understood you to name five theatres on direct examination? A. Five theatres, but I am not in control and do not manage the fifth theatre, and my connection with that fifth theatre is simply an equity in it. Q. When you testified that you take every week 54 licensed reels and 24 unlicensed, were you speaking of the pictures taken for the five theatres or the four? A. For the four. I have nothing in common with the management of the fifth theatre. Q. What service does the fifth theatre use? A. It uses a Warner and the licensed. Q. And the licensed? A. Yes, sir. Q. How many licensed reels a week do they take? A. I don't know. I suppose about 12. Q. And how many Warner? A. I think three or four. I don't know what their program consists of. Redirect examination by Mr. Kingsley: Q. When you say they take three or four Warner reels, do you mean three or four plays or three or four reels? A.