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 #:
000553
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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George K. Spook, Direct Examination. 2995 Q. Did you favor the project at first? A. No, not altogether. Q. What were the reasons which influenced you in deciding to join that organization? A. I thought it would be a good idea to have an exchange or two that could be operated along such lines as the manufacturers, or rather those manufacturers who had been in the exchange business seemed to think that an exchange should be operated on, and along lines that would comply with the requirements of the situation; the giving of a service that would prove more desirable and much better for the exhibitor than il had been possible to obtain before. The conditions with the exchanges were very had. They were fighting each oilier in every way possible, and it seemed like it would be a good thing to have something of that kind just to start with. Q. You were in the exchange business as well as the producing business at that time? A. Yes, sir. Q. You had had experience with both ends? A. Yes, sir. Q. And in what respects did you think the exchange business was unsatisfactorily conducted at that time other than those, if any, that you have already mentioned? A. Well, it seemed to be impossible to conduct an exchange in a satisfactory manner. It was hard to satisfy the exhibitor because he always wanted to fight the man across the street, and when he wanted to fight the man across the street, why, your exchange was fighting the other exchange that was serving the man across the street, and they were running the same pictures, and because one exchange could not successfully hold that exhibitor, to keep down the other fellow, why, the exchange was in constant hot water. It was hard to keep an exhibitor from leaving you and going to another exchange. You could not keep your exhibitors, or handle them, or do much of anything with them. That was my experience as an exchange man, Q. Then you regarded the business, from the standpoint of an exchange man, as hazardous and uncertain? Mr. Geosvbnor: Objected to, as leading.