Reply #8: I've got the book

[hyphenate]

as well as two different versions of the film. Back many years ago now, I had to write a speech for a class and used the original Scopes trial as the subject matter for my speech. While I know that there are many significant differences between the real trial and the dramatic play, the real trial was itself quite a spectacle, and caused its own upheaval at the time. John Scopes knew that teaching evolution was illegal at the time he taught it, and had been asked by the ACLU to specifically teach it to make it to court--in fact, he was found guilty, and was fined $100 for his "crime." It was one of those "landmark" trials which stood out to test the laws in place, and worked to create a great deal of publicity for the ACLU and Clarence Darrow. H.L. Mencken, the real journalist at the trial, wrote quite at length about the trial (his newspaper was also partially footing the bill for the defense) and many of his transcripts were used in the writing of the play.

We don't get that of attention anymore--in our current times, we're used to instant news and have become inured toward the extraordinary that happens. It's meant that we can't judge that which is history making from that which is mundane and not worth bothering with. It's one of the reasons I have a lot of interest in the last part of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century--looking at the world through a slightly myopic lens made everything that more interesting.