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 #:
000521
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.

Percival L. Waters, Direct Examination. 2967 "Before I call Mr. Kennedy up I would like to know if you are the owner of the exchange, as I do not want to waste Mr. Kennedy's time or yours." And he said : "Why do you ask me that?" I said: "It is rumored around the city generally that you are not the owner of the Greater New York Film Rental Company, but that there are other interests." And he said there were other interests, but "I can control those ; I am in a position to say 'yes' or 'no' to any offer that is made." I called Mr. Kennedy on the 'phone, and told him Fox was there, and this conversation was in Mr. Fox's presence — I told him that he wanted to talk to him about selling the Greater New York Film Rental Exchange, and he (Kennedy) said, "All right, I am coming uptown, and I will stop in there; I will be up right away." He came up, and he and Mr. Fox discussed the sale of the exchange. I was in the office, but was in the room with them only a part of the time. I didn't hear all of the details. Q. At the time and during this conversation with him did you give him to understand or seek to give him to understand that you had information to the effect that his license would be cancelled if he did not sell out to the General Film Company? A. No. Q. Did you in fact have any knowledge or information whatever at that time that would have warranted such a statement? A. No. Q. Did you on the occasion of this interview with William Fox regarding wiiich you have just testified say to him in terms or in substance: "NowT, you are all right; you are travelling in the right road there ; you are a little bit off on the figures, but as long as you realize it today, and now is the time, why, on the question of price, I will call in the big chief. That is Mr. J. J. Kennedy. You know that he is an officer in the General Film Company, he is an officer in the Motion Picture Fatents Company, lie is an officer in the Biograph Company, he is a leading spirit in this entire thing, and this is a part of his brain, this is his child, as lie calls it, and I will let him talk to you and see how much he wants to pay for it"? A. No. Q. Did you speak of Mr. J. J. Kennedy as the "big chief?" A. No. Q. At that time? A. At no time. Q. Was anything said about any "big chief at that interview? A. Yes.