This segment comes from the 1960 movie “Inherit the Wind.” The dialogue is virtually a direct quote from Clarence Darrow’s real speech to the judge and jury in the “Monkey Trial” held in Dayton, Tennessee in 1925. In fact, most of the script for “Inherit the Wind” starring Spencer Tracy, Fredric March, and Gene Kelly. Directed by Stanley Kramer is based on the Scopes trial. If it sounds…

This segment comes from the 1960 movie “Inherit the Wind.” The dialogue is virtually a direct quote from Clarence Darrow’s real speech to the judge and jury in the “Monkey Trial” held in Dayton, Tennessee in 1925. In fact, most of the script for “Inherit the Wind” (starring Spencer Tracy, Frederic March, and Gene Kelly and directed by Stanley Kramer) is based on the Scopes trial. If it sounds…

FANATICISM AND IGNORANCE IS FOREVER BUSY AND NEEDS FEEDING

Fanaticism and ignorance is forever busy and needs feeding … Clarence Darrow “Inherit the Wind” is one of the best movies of its kind ever made. If you have not yet seen it, I highly recommend it. Not only is it brilliantly acted, directed with a script from the actual trial, but it is shockingly relevant — shocking because the trial took place in Dayton, Tennessee, 1925.  It ought to feel old…

One of the most dynamic scenes from Stanley Kramer’s classic 1960 film, “Inherit the Wind” starring Spencer Tracy (left) and Fredric March (right).

Col. Brady (Fredric March) makes the claim that the exact date and hour of the creation is literal fact, as described in the book of Genesis – Col. Drummond (Spencer Tracy), taken back by this statement, proceeds to scrutinize the concept…

Drummond: “That first day, what do you think it was, 24 hours long?”

Brady: “Bible says it was a day.”

Drummond: “Well, there was no sun. How do you know how long it was?”

Brady: “THE BIBLE SAYS IT WAS A DAY!”

Drummond: “Well, was it a normal day, a literal day, a 24 hour day?”

Brady: “I don’t know.”

Drummond: “What do you think?”

Brady: “I do not think about things I… do not think about…”

Christine Lesiak Accepting the 2002 Peabody Award for “American Experience: Monkey Trial”

Monkey Trial follows one of the most famous legal battles of the 20th century, the trial of John Scopes for violating a Tennessee law forbidding the teaching of evolution in public schools. But the account presented here sheds new light on this well-known event, rewriting popular history and biography in the process. The trial was the first to be widely covered by mass media (radio), and the Scopes Trial might actually be termed a media circus: 150 reporters were also in attendance at the eight-day event. The crowds gathered in the courtroom came to witness a clash between two of American’s greatest orators, Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan, presented here in terms of both their personal battles and their cultural and social significance.