Photos > Alleged

HL Mencken of the Baltimore Sun is credited with having dubbed the Scopes Trial in Dayton (1925) as "The Monkey Trial."
Clarence Darrow (played by Brian Dennehy) and William Jennings Bryan (played by Sen. Fred Thompson) strike a pose that was also famously captured at the original trial in 1925.
Charles Anderson (played by Nathan West) and HL Mencken (played by Colm Meaney) at the Scopes trial. The paper in Charles' hand reads "Teacher Arrested" for one of the headlines.
Rose (played by Ashley Johnson). Ashley is also a musician and former child television star in the hit series Growing Pains.
A charming train platform at Crossroads Village (Flint, MI) as it may have looked in Dayton, Tennessee in 1925. In the foreground are actors John Lepard (l) and Marty Bufalini (r).
Clarence Darrow (played by Brian Dennehy). Brian Dennehy played the William Jennings Bryan character in Inherit the Wind on Broadway.
At the actual trial, Darrow was sometimes at odds with the ACLU as when, for instance, he objected to the court's practice of opening in prayer.
William Jennings Bryan (played by Sen. Fred Dalton Thompson) was a noted orator and statesman.
In 1925, the popularity of William Jennings Bryan might be comparable to the popularity of Ronald Reagan in 1980. Politically, however, they occupied opposite ends of the spectrum.
Charles "announces" the Dayton High School baseball game to Rose as if the whole world was tuned-in.
Charles (played by Nathan West).
HL Mencken (played by Colm Meaney) with his ever-present cigar.
John Scopes (played by Jamie Kolacki) volunteered his name in a test case to challenge Tennessee's Butler Act. The case was sponsored by the then-unknown ACLU of New York City.
George Rappleyea (played by JR Bourne) was a northern transplant into Dayton, TN. It was his idea to host the �trial of the century� as a publicity stunt.
Tom Stewart (played by Frank Zieger), the district attorney for the State of Tennessee at the Scopes trial, later went on to become a two-term US senator from that state.
Abigail (played by Khori Faison) represents people of mixed race who were frequently targeted by the bogus science of eugenics in 1920s.
Attorney General Tom Stewart (played by Frank Zieger III) sits with William Jennings Bryan (played by Sen. Fred Dalton Thompson) in court.
Clarence Darrow�s controversial defense of murderers Leopold and Loeb in 1924 was raised by William Jennings Bryan against Darrow at the Scopes trial.
Two gentlemen attending the trial in Dayton, TN (1925).
Reporters from all over the world attended the Scopes Trial. Film stock was flown out nightly and played as newsreels in theatres around the country the next day.
Rose (played by Ashley Johnson).
Charles (played by Nathan West) reporting on the trial.
The radio station WGN was owned by the Chicago Tribune, the "World's Greatest Newspaper." Get it? :)
More reporters and photographers. The Scopes Trial was one of the first major news stories transmitted across the transatlantic telegraph cable.
A court stenographer (played by Lauren Mae Shafer).
H.L. Mencken (played by Colm Meaney) outside his office in Baltimore, MD before the trial.
Charles (played by Nathan West) at the train station in Dayton, TN.
Charles and Rose tried to smooth things out during the trial. All the cars in this photo are originals.
Rose (played by Ashley Johnson).
Rose (played by Ashley Johnson) in church.
Very few commentators on the trial point out how effectively Bryan was able to use the Leopold and Loeb case against Darrow at the Scopes trial.
Dayton, TN had a train stop back in 1925. This period train is currently in service at Huckleberry Railroad in Flint, MI.
At the local barbershop in Dayton a gun fight breaks out. (Or so it was reported in the national press in 1925.)
Vendors of all sorts poured into Dayton, TN for the Monkey Trial. A conscious effort was made to keep prices low for visitors.
The name of this Women's Colony for Epileptics and the Feebleminded is taken from a real colony that existed in the 20s.
Rev. Sutherland (played by John Lepard) is fictional. There were over a dozen churches in Dayton in 1925; some fundamentalist, some modernist.
A barn was converted into a speakeasy during the trial.
Rappleyea (played by JR Bourne) praises the Lord in church. Or does he?
Sally (played by Linda Boston) worked at the Women's Colony.
A Dayton High School baseball player.
Clarence Darrow said of the people of Tennessee that he had never been treated as hospitably by any group of people as he was while in Dayton.
This beautiful and authentic train is still in service at the Crossroads Village in Flint, Michigan.
A worker at the sawmill in Dayton in 1925.
William Jennings Bryan (played by Sen. Fred Dalton Thompson) was also Secretary of State under Woodrow Wilson.
Our story begins with the bases loaded and the Dayton Miners having yet to have won a single game during the season.
Thousands of curious people poured into Dayton, Tennessee for the Scopes Monkey Trial.
At one point late in the trial, we show the Judge meeting privately with William Jennings Bryan to discuss concerns about how the trial was progressing.
This authentic piece of campaign literature has been modified to substitute the real William Jennings Bryan with the face of Sen. Fred Thompson as he looked in the mid-seventies (when he was approximately the same age as Bryan was when running for President with his co-presidential nominee, Arthur Sewall).