Transcription

Here's the transcribed text from Activity 12 b.

So, let’s turn to the beginning of the 20 century, when Edison and his business partners tried to monopolize the film industry in the same way that other business people in the US were trying to control other parts of the economy. Some of you might remember studying about Ford with the automobile industry and Rockefeller and the oil industry.

In December 1908, Edison and nine other producers formed the Motion Picture Patents Company—that’s MPPC. The Motion Picture Patents Company. The MPPC set up many rules for all movie producers to follow, and if they didn’t, they faced legal problems. One of the rules was to keep movies short because they believed, although the Lumiere brothers probably thought differently, that audiences wouldn’t want to sit for a long time and watch a movie. Second, the MPPC didn’t give actors any credit for the movie so that they wouldn’t ask for more money. In other words, the MPPC didn’t want the names of the actors to be recognized by audiences, which is obviously much different from what we have today. Third, in order to make the most money, they only distributed movies to those who used equipment and film that was patented. An example of this is George Eastman of Kodak film. Do you know the name? He got in on the money-making prospects and sold his film only to producers who were authorized by the MPPC. Lastly, the MPPC controlled the price of the ticket. If the MPPC found out that studios were not following their rules, they sent people to interrupt the filming and even threatened to stop the distribution of the film.