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 #:
000541
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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Walter W. R. Greene, Direct Examination. 2983 Q. And that list includes such towns with moving picture shows in the territory visited by you, whether you ascertained that fact by personal visit or by personal telephone communication? A. I don't quite understand the question. Q. Well, you made this list in part by visiting the towns? A. Yes. Q. And in part by telephoning? A. Why, if I found I had any theatre that was active there, and had no record of it, and I found it was in the town, I would go to that town personally. I personally visited every town that had a moving picture show in the territory covered. Q. I didn't understand what you said about telephoning on your direct examination in identifying this list? A. I telephoned every town of over 400 which the Motion Picture Patents Company had any record of a picture show there, or a theatre, and if they had a theatre I would go to that town and investigate the theatre. Q. Well, then, every one of these towns that has a theatre, you visited? A. I visited, yes. Q. And then put their names down on this list? A. Yes, sir. Q. And every town that has no theatre, the most of those you visited, also? A. The most of them I visited. Mr. Kingsley: Then every theatre you have reported here in your Ohio checking, you know personally to exist? The Witness : On the dates that I investigated them. Mr. Kingsley: And the towns which are reported here as having no theatres are towns which in the main were investigated by telephone? The Witness : Well, the most of them were on the line of travel. By Mr. Kingsley : Q. So you visited a great many of them, too? A. There were about, approximately, I guess, about thirty-seven or forty that I telephoned to with no theatres. The rest I went through.