Biography

A teacher in Tennessee, by teaching a theory of evolution he fell foul of the state's education laws. His subsequent trial ("The Scopes Monkey Trial") was the inspiration for the play and the film Inherit the Wind (1960), remade for TV by NBC in 1965. In both versions Dick York played the Scopes character (Bertram Gates). TV has made two other versions of the film.
- IMDb mini biography by: garryq

In 1925 the state of Tennessee passed a law forbidding the teaching of evolution in schools. John T. Scopes was a soft-spoken, 24-year-old math teacher in the small town of Dayton, who was also the coach of the school football team. He was bothered by the law, which he saw as an unconstitutional intrusion of religion into governmental matters, and after discussing the situation with several lawyers, he decided to test the law in court, using himself as the "guinea pig". He read to his class a passage from a textbook called "Hunter's Civic Biology" which stated that man was a descendant from a lower form of mammal. In short order he was arrested, indicted and a trial date was set for July of 1925.

The trial attracted not only national attention but worldwide attention, and the small town of Dayton, pop. 1500, was inundated by newspaper reporters, radio commentators, photographers, newsreel cameramen, protesters, counterprotesters, con artists, souvenir salesmen, religious fanatics and pretty much anyone who thought they could make money or a name for themselves from the situation. It was called "The Trial of the Century", mainly because it involved two of the most brilliant legal minds in American jurisprudence: William Jennings Bryan, who was handling the case for the prosecution, and Clarence Darrow, the most renowned and successful defense lawyer in the country, representing Scopes.

Bryan, with a reputation as a brilliant if somewhat bombastic orator, had declared that he was there to "defend the word of God against the greatest atheist and agnostic in the world today", meaning Darrow. Darrow, much less flamboyant but a master strategist, devised the simple tactic of calling Bryan to the stand and letting his ego get the best of him, resulting in Bryan's shouting, pounding the witness stand, yelling out Bible verses at inappropriate moments and generally humiliating himself and making his religious beliefs look extreme and ridiculous. Less than a week after this embarrassing and humiliating experience, Bryan died of a stroke.

Scopes was convicted, as was generally expected, and was fined a nominal amount of money. Darrow, however, announced that his client would not pay the fine and would appeal the verdict. On appeal, a higher court found that the trial judge had erred in setting the sentence himself rather than letting the jury do so, and overturned the verdict.

John Scopes left town the day the trial ended, and little was heard from him until 1943, when he turned up in Kentucky and announced that he would be running for Congress as a Socialist Party candidate. He lost the election. It wasn't until 17 years later, in 1960, that he finally returned to Dayton, on the occasion of the premiere of Inherit the Wind (1960), a major Hollywood production about the Scopes "Monkey Trial".

Scopes eventually moved to Louisiana and became an executive for an oil and gas company. He died in October of 1970.
- IMDb mini biography by: frankfob2@yahoo.com