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03/29/2005: Answers to Karen's Trivia Questions
Either I posted this toooo far down the list on Sunday for anyone to read and answer...Or only Len knew (all but one) of the Answers to my Inherit the Wind and Scopes Trial Trivia Questions of the Week. (Hip-Hip-Hooray for Len!)
Be that as it may -- Here are the answers (in Bolded type):
1) The journalist character of E.K. Hornbeck was based on which legendary journalist?
H.L. Mencken
2) And who played him in this film?
Gene Kelly
3) What year was this film made?
a) 1960 (Six years before the actual law was repealed.)
b) 1959
c) 1967
d) 1961
4) Can you name any other "well known" actors/actresses who appeared in this film?
Spencer Tracy played Clarence Darrow;
Frederic March played William Jennings Bryan;
Dick York played John Scopes;
Harry Morgan played the Judge
and also from Len (having his own *memory moment*):
Claude Akins;
Noah "'Rocky' Rockford" Beery Jr.
Norman "Stanley Roper" Fell.
About the real Scopes trial:
5) What year did this infamous trial take place?
a) 1922
b) 1925 (Eighty year anniversary coming up)
c) 1924
d) 1932
6) What year was this infamous statute repealed?
a) 1927
b) 1936
c) 1955
d) 1967
7) How old was John Scopes at the time of this case?
a) 27
b) 36
c) 25
d) 24
8) How many days after the trial did William Jennings Bryan die of apoplexy?
a) 2
b) 10
c) 5
d) 14
9) What term was coined by the above referenced journalist for this entire area? (Hint it's not "Monkeytown" tho' that nickname stuck and was used as well to describe Dayton, TN.)
"Bible Belt" was the term coined by H. L. Mencken. He also called the local residents "primates, yaps, yokels, morons, and anthropoids" and wrote that, "the courthouse lawn was peppered with Evangelists and their yells and bawlings fill the air with orthodoxy."
Len had an alternate term: "A universal joke": Which is a good one too...but hasn't had the long lasting coinage of "Bible Belt."
10) Which Chicago radio station broadcast the trial live from the courtroom?
WGN Radio.
Bonus Q: What happened to Mr. Scopes after this trial? Where did he work? And when did he die?
John Scopes never went to jail after his conviction by that Dayton jury and the case was eventually reversed on a technicality. The Dayton school board had asked Mr. Scopes to remain as a teacher, but he turned down that offer (and offers from Hollywood and Vaudeville) to accept a scholarship to the University of Chicago to study geology. As a geologist he worked in South America and later for an oil and gas company in Texas and Louisiana. He lived until 1970, and died at the age of 70, leaving his wife and two sons, John Jr. and William. He also published a memoir in 1967 called Center of the Storm about this trial and his experiences.
These are a couple of websites Notes on Inherit the Wind and Inherit the Wind that provide reviews have interesting information about the movie. The upcoming April edition of Smithsonian Magazine ("Evolution On Trial") has a well done article on the Trial background and history of the real-life people and issues in the Scopes trial. (The movie was only a Theatrical Play and used only a few actual quotes from the Trial transcripts...it is not "historically" accurate to the real Trial.)
Karen on 03.29.05 @ 05:24 AM CST
