Inherit the Wind Bag part 1 of 4

As part of our eighth grade American history course I teach the 1920s. Our curriculum includes the 1925 Scope Trial that made the creation/evolution debate part of the national dialog.

I remember being in eleventh grade and reading the play Inherit the Wind in Mrs. Shellnut’s literature class and then watching the 1960 black and white movie starring Spenser Tracy and Gene Kelly.

The play has been translated into thirty languages and is required reading for tens of thousands of American high school students every year. The play has been adapted into a movie not once but three times. The 1960 Spenser Tracy version of the movie was nominated for four academy awards. It enjoys a 90% approval rating on the meta-critic site rottentomatos.com.

I sent away for a copy of the DVD hoping to use a scene or two to teach the Scopes Trial. After re-watching the movie, I was a little taken aback.

The first thing I noticed was that the movie didn’t use any of the participants’ actual names. Instead they substituted all cleverly similar names: William Jennings Bryant became Matthew Harrison Brady. Clarence Darrow became Henry Drummond. John Scopes became Bertram Cates.

I soon found out why.