# The Scopes Monkey Trial was a planned stunt to boost the local economy **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 7, 2009, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-scopes-monkey-trial-was-a-planned-stunt-to-boost-the-local-economy/498973 "2009-06-07T02:08:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2009, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-scopes-monkey-trial-was-a-planned-stunt-to-boost-the-local-economy/498973/1 "2009-06-07T02:08:40Z")
I had never realized that the [Scopes Monkey Trial](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scopes_Trial) was planned stunt until I was reading a [history of the 20th Century](http://www.amazon.com/Century-Peter-Jennings/dp/0385483279) and it said that the accused teacher and the town fathers and the accused teacher very deliberately planned to teach evolution and have the trial come together primarily as a stunt to boost the local economy. Not quite the previous image I had of a lone voice bravely struggling for intellectual freedom against the odds. > [@](#): > > Scopes’ involvement in the so-called Monkey Trial came about after the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) announced that it would finance a test case challenging the constitutionality of the Butler Act if they could find a Tennessee teacher willing to act as a defendant. > > A group of businessmen in Dayton, Tennessee, led by engineer and geologist George Rappleyea, saw this as an opportunity to get publicity for their town and approached Scopes. Rappleyea pointed out that while the Butler Act prohibited the teaching of human evolution, the state required teachers to use the assigned textbook, Hunter’s Civic Biology (1914), which included a chapter on evolution. Rappleyea argued that teachers were essentially required to break the law. When asked about the test case Scopes was initially reluctant to get involved, but after some discussion he told the group gathered in Robinson’s Drugstore, “If you can prove that I’ve taught evolution and that I can qualify as a defendant, then I’ll be willing to stand trial.” [2] ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2009, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-scopes-monkey-trial-was-a-planned-stunt-to-boost-the-local-economy/498973/2 "2009-06-07T18:01:14Z")
I hate to tell you this, but Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s famous landing at Letye was filmed multiple times until MacArthur thought he looked authoritative enough. Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address” was not written on the train ride there, was not the main purpose for his visit, and was not received with great applause and laudatory enthusiasm. And the “mission” still hasn’t been “accomplished”. History is mostly bunk. Plato explains how this is all for the greater good in _The Republic_. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2009, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-scopes-monkey-trial-was-a-planned-stunt-to-boost-the-local-economy/498973/3 "2009-06-07T23:43:42Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > History is mostly bunk. Says who? Any history book that devotes more than a paragraph to the Scopes trial makes it clear that it was an arranged case. It’s the garbage that people think they know because they don’t read about history that’s bunk. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2009, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-scopes-monkey-trial-was-a-planned-stunt-to-boost-the-local-economy/498973/4 "2009-06-07T23:48:43Z")
While it’s clear that the case was arranged, I’ve never heard that they did so to bolster the local economy. None of the books I’ve read (ibcluding Scopes’ own, **Center of the Storm** written many years after the case) says this is the case. Where did Jennings get this information? It ought to be referenced or footnoted in the book. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2009, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-scopes-monkey-trial-was-a-planned-stunt-to-boost-the-local-economy/498973/5 "2009-06-08T00:26:21Z")
George Rappleyea, the New York-born chemical engineer who instigated the case, was sincere in wanting to challenge and overturn the antievolution law. He recognized, however, that the best way to get the townsfolk on his side was to frame the matter as local boosterism. Fred Robinson, whose drugstore and soda fountain served as the town meeting place, later quoted Rappleyea as saying, “Mr. Robinson, you . . . are always looking for something that will get Dayton a little publicity” before broaching the matter. During the trial, Dayton published a promotional brochure saying, “Of all places, why not Dayton? . . . This bowl in the Cumberlands holds . . . the ampitheater for a world’s comedy or tragedy, whichever viewpoint the spectators may hold.” The brochure went on to tout Dayton as a place to live and work. The most recent book-length treatment of the Scopes trial, _Summer for the Gods_, discusses this at length and quotes several Tennessee newspapers as slamming Dayton for unbecoming self-promotion. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2009, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-scopes-monkey-trial-was-a-planned-stunt-to-boost-the-local-economy/498973/6 "2009-06-08T15:40:56Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > I hate to tell you this, but Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s famous landing at Letye was filmed multiple times until MacArthur thought he looked authoritative enough. Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address” was not written on the train ride there, was not the main purpose for his visit, and was not received with great applause and laudatory enthusiasm. And the “mission” still hasn’t been “accomplished”. > > History is mostly bunk. Plato explains how this is all for the greater good in _The Republic_. > > Stranger I heard that was actually written by Francis Bacon. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2009, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-scopes-monkey-trial-was-a-planned-stunt-to-boost-the-local-economy/498973/7 "2009-06-08T15:49:10Z")
> [@Wile\_E](#): > > I heard that was actually written by Francis Bacon. It was, that’s why whenever dictators try to excuse its glorification of the enlightened despot, I picture them in a throne, screaming. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2009, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-scopes-monkey-trial-was-a-planned-stunt-to-boost-the-local-economy/498973/8 "2009-06-08T15:56:20Z")
"The Scopes Monkey Trial was a planned stunt to boost the local economy " I heard that about 9/11, too. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-scopes-monkey-trial-was-a-planned-stunt-to-boost-the-local-economy/498973/9 "2009-06-17T15:11:24Z")
Bumping this because I’m curious. Can anyone shed some more light on it/ ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-scopes-monkey-trial-was-a-planned-stunt-to-boost-the-local-economy/498973/10 "2009-06-17T16:18:18Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > Bumping this because I’m curious. Can anyone shed some more light on it/ On what, exactly? ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-scopes-monkey-trial-was-a-planned-stunt-to-boost-the-local-economy/498973/11 "2009-06-17T16:23:09Z")
Well, was it no more than a publicity stunt, really? and if so, does that make it unimportant historically? ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-scopes-monkey-trial-was-a-planned-stunt-to-boost-the-local-economy/498973/12 "2009-06-17T16:38:38Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > Well, was it no more than a publicity stunt, really? and if so, does that make it unimportant historically? It’s absolutely false to say that it was “no more than a publicity stunt”. There is no question that the primary instigator of the case, George Rappleyea, sincerely believed that antievolution laws were both unconstitutional and dumb and wanted to challenge them as a state establishment of religion. However, few things happen for only one reason, especially when they involve multiple actors. To proceed with a trial, the county prosecutors had to agree to indict and prosecute and someone had to agree to stand as the nominal defendant. And although it wasn’t a strict legal requirement, Rappleyea wanted to have the townspeople on his side (not necessarily in being antievolution, but in agreeing that the trial was a good idea). He had to live and work in the town, and didn’t want an antagonistic relationship. To bring these people on board, he argued (correctly, as it turned out) that the trial would serve as an economic stimulus. As it turned out, the trial took on a life beyond the imagination of even Rappleyea. It was historically very important, especially in the light of continuing antievolution agitation to this day. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-scopes-monkey-trial-was-a-planned-stunt-to-boost-the-local-economy/498973/13 "2009-06-17T16:49:08Z")
Thanks, I think that’s mainly what I was curious about. The OP made it seem like it was a farce. I guess a comparison might be Rosa Parks–it was planned/organized that she would refuse to give up her seat, but it’s not like that makes it any less of a big deal, no? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-scopes-monkey-trial-was-a-planned-stunt-to-boost-the-local-economy/498973/14 "2009-06-17T16:57:34Z")
> [@](#): > > Thanks, I think that’s mainly what I was curious about. The OP made it seem like it was a farce. The OP says: > [@](#): > > I had never realized that the Scopes Monkey Trial was planned stunt until I was reading a history of the 20th Century and it said that the accused teacher and the town fathers and the accused teacher very deliberately planned to teach evolution and have the trial come together _primarily_ as a stunt to boost the local economy. italics mine, although the cite backs up that interpretation. This is why I questioned the OP – i hadn’t heard that it was _primarily_ done as a publicity stunt – I was under the impression that it was an attempt to challenge what was thought to be a bad law, and the books I’ve read held the same view. **Freddy** and the book he cites say that the primary objective was to get the law overturned, and took advantage of the publicity angle to get people to go along with it. In other words, the OP’s contention isn’t correct. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-scopes-monkey-trial-was-a-planned-stunt-to-boost-the-local-economy/498973/15 "2009-06-17T18:16:20Z")
The OP is also incorrect in saying that “the town fathers and the accused teacher very deliberately planned to teach evolution”. Nobody planned anything. By the time Rappleyea began arguing for the trial, the school year was already over. During the school year, the teachers taught evolution because it was in the state-assigned textbook. Scopes was a PE teacher who had served as a substitute biology teacher, and at first he wasn’t sure whether he had taught evolution at all, but he finally decided that he had. As an aside, anyone inclined to see cardboard heroes and villains in history needs only to read the racist and eugenicist passages in _A Civic Biology_. They’ll make your skin crawl. ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-scopes-monkey-trial-was-a-planned-stunt-to-boost-the-local-economy/498973/16 "2009-06-17T20:56:33Z")
Here’s another little-known fact. The Tennessee state law did not in any way prohibit the teaching of the theory of evolution. It only prohibited teaching that humans were evolved from lower life forms. Other than that, teachers could teach evolution to their heart’s content. ---
**Author:** ![Olentzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90ced4/32.png) [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-scopes-monkey-trial-was-a-planned-stunt-to-boost-the-local-economy/498973/17 "2009-06-17T21:23:28Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > I guess a comparison might be Rosa Parks–it was planned/organized that she would refuse to give up her seat, but it’s not like that makes it any less of a big deal, no? I was going to step in and say this; challenges to unjust laws do sometimes take a lot of planning. ISTR that there was another case like Rosa Parks’ in Montgomery in 1954, but the young woman in question was an unwed mother and anti-segregation activists thought that might be a little too scandalous for the spotlight. Don’t know if the ensuing boycott was planned, but I’d put my money on ‘not’, same as the publicity surrounding the Scopes trial. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-scopes-monkey-trial-was-a-planned-stunt-to-boost-the-local-economy/498973/18 "2009-06-17T22:21:27Z")
I wouldn’t call the Scopes trial a stunt. OTOH, it wasn’t some lone heroic act. Asl already noted, there was a lot more going on behind the scenes than people usually realize. > [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > I guess a comparison might be Rosa Parks–it was planned/organized that she would refuse to give up her seat, but it’s not like that makes it any less of a big deal, no? Performing a lone personal action is heroic. When you have enormous resources behind you, there’s not nearly as much risk, so it’s not as heroic as it’s been presented. Actually, when I finally found out about the background of the Rosa Parks incident, it really did surprise me and the glamor of the incident dimmed considerably. I thought, “How much more have they been hiding?” And I continue to wonder this about a lot of things. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-scopes-monkey-trial-was-a-planned-stunt-to-boost-the-local-economy/498973/19 "2009-06-17T23:04:48Z")
I’m not seeing the parallels between Scopes and Parks. The Montgomery bus company and police were very much in the habit of enforcing the segregation policy, and didn’t require any advance arrangement to do so. The Tennessee prosecutors were _not_ in the habit of harassing school teachers, and there is no evidence that they would have done so had not Rappleyea and Scopes _asked_ them to do so.