Took place in Dayton Tennessee, summer of 1925

William Jennings Bryan led the fundamentalists

By the time of the trial, Bryan had gotten 15 states to ban the teaching of evolution

John Scopes was filling in for an ill teacher and assigned reading on evolution for review purposes

Clarence Darrow led the defense

Darrow said that the anti-evolution law made the Bible “the yardstick to measure every man’s intellect, to measure every man’s intelligence, to measure every man’s learning.”

The main punch came when Darrow questioned Bryan, asking him about other, seemingly ridiculous statements in the Bible that Bryan did not necessarily believe in. This was later stricken from the record

Scopes was fined $100 and the case was sent to the Supreme Court where it was ruled unconstitutional

Analysis

This was mostly used just for good background information on the historical event this film is based on. I think the main use of it is opening up some new areas of research that I could incorporate into the film. Perhaps old documents of the exact examination between Darrow and Bryan could be useful. One of the most interesting pieces in this document was that much crucial evidence for Darrow was stricken from the record, indicating a partially biased judge.