The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1921-09-01
BIGGEST FILM co. CITED AS TRUST
 BY GOVERNMENT
Control of Three Broadway Theaters Alleged in Com plant Charging Violation of United States Laws.

=, Washington, Sept 1.-The Famous Piayers-Lasky Corporation and affili- ated concerns, which the Federal charged with unfair competition and monopolistic policies, combined and conspired to suppress competition in ture films,'' according to the official complaint given out yesterday. The complaint declares that in 1920 the corporation, in addition to own ing 400 theaters, supplied exclusively
 5000 of the total of 1S,00O picture
 houses in the United States. which
 theaters obtained CT cents of each
 dollar spent for admissions to picture showings in the country. It is fur
 ther charged that through 1o4 sub
 sidl1ary corporations the corporation field
 Beside the corporation, the com platnt cites Adolph zukor, Jesse L.
 Lasky. Jules Mastbaum, Alfred S.
 Black, stephen A. Lynch and Ernest
 V. Richards, Jr., all corporation off, cers.
 Acquisition of Theaters
 | The Rea1art Pictures Corporation,
 in accordance with the conspiracy" she complaint says, was set up by the
 Eamous-Players group in 1919, and
 to the trade to be wholly independ-
 ent."
 The complaint also charges that
 the group cited acquired motion pie
 ture theaters through coercion and
 intimidation, after threats of erecting
 competing houses, and interfering with film service
 The complyaint charges that "the
 Famous Players-Lasky Corporation is now the largest concern in the mo-
 ton picture industry and is the big owning more than 400 theaters in the United States and Canada. and has } numerous others affiliated with it. 'f1t has formed producing compa- ] I,,f~ l. T1z l gium, Spain, Scandinavian countries, Poland, Czecho-S1ovakia and s3,- 5 100000 corporation for the produc- lures in India
 3 ''It has branch offices in 2S of the e principal cities of the United States : and in Canada, in London, in Sydney ? Wellington, Mexico City, Paris, CO | penhagen, Barcelona, Buenos Aires : : Rio de Janeiro, Santiago, Havana : Tol>fo, Shanghai and Manila and ii , gagged either in producing. distribut- ing or exhibiting motion pictures Controls New York Houses. = In describing the operations Of the = corporation, the part of the complain' n dealing with the situation in New
 York, declares that in furtherance oi
 the conspiracy charged the Famous a Players = Lasky Corporation acquired h taining the Criterion, the New Yorl = theater and the New York roof at
 cost of S3,200,000; that the respond
 ents acquired the Rfvoli and Rianc
 theatres in the same district, as wei
 as the property on which the Putnam
 Building is located, where it proposed s in the near future to erect a thirty story building, to cost $S,00,000 ana . to contain a motion picture theatre. Thus the theatres owned, con | | trolled or operated by the corporation a are permanently closed to all compe titors,'' the complaint says, producer.
 not affiliated with the Famous Play
 CTS are denied a showing of their pic.
 l lures in the firSt-run downtown thea
 tres in New York City, where thre, O of the five frst-run theatres are owned = by the Famous Players concern anC I It is added that the remaining two e show Paramount pictures exclusively s first-run theatres are owned or con l. trolled by competing producers wht
 likewise exhibit their own production x exclusively.