I had heard that the LA Theatre Works was doing a reading (a play without costumes or many props) of a play called, "The Great Tennessee Monkey Trial." They were going to do a tour of East Coast & Midwestern metropolitan areas.

The play is about the real life trial-of-the-century "The Scopes Monkey Trial"  which was named by Baltimore Sun newspaper man H.L. Mencken. The trial took place in southern Tennessee. The trial was about the constitutionality of a law that made it illegal to teach evolution. Many people believed, in those days, in a LITERAL interpretation of the bible. I mean 100% literal (except when it didn't fit their needs - how typical.) 

The infamous lawyer, Clarence Darrow was the lead attorney for the defense & the prosecution had an equally famous attorney, William Jennings Bryan.  

Even today, there is a group of people who believe in a literal interpretation of the bible. Who cares if Egyptians & Chinese have been around for over 10,000 years, the bible says approximately 2,000+ years. Who cares that dinosaurs have been scientifically estimated to have lived millions of years ago. Don't let scientific facts stand in the way of a literal interpretation. Who cares if the transcript of the bible had been told person to person, for over 1 thousand years, before it was written down, I'm sure the people remembered it verbatim. Who cares that it was written in a different language & then translated. There is no way that it could ever be translated from one language to another and then receiving an incorrect translation. Words match up PERFECTLY, from one language to another.

I was using sarcasm to point out things. Clarence Darrow used pure logic to show how a literal belief is ILLOGICAL Most people believe the bible is a tool to guide a person to be a better individual. However, Mr. Bryan was one of those people who believed in a literal interpretation. Even tho Bryan never once made a statement that he was an expert of the bible, Darrow had laid the groundwork and he repeatedly made statements about Bryan being a bible expert.  He put William Jennings Bryan on the stand to point out the INCREDIBLY ILLOGICAL BELIEFS of a literal interpretation of the bible.

Just like the O.J. trial, people were captivated. WGN radio - Chicago, was less than a year old (commercial radio was about 2 years old) and they decided to use high technology for that era. They would run a dedicated phone line from  Dayton, TN all the way to Chicago. That was quite an accomplishment.

I won't take the time to state the conflicts with logic that Darrow pointed out. If you are interested you can investigate it. Like I said, the entire trial was recorded. Occasionally, WGN will re-air the tapes, usually on days with VERY low ratings (i.e. Thanksgiving Day.) Suffice to say, Clarence Darrow was brilliant. William Jennings Bryan was made to look like a fool in the "Court of Public Opinion." Bryan died five days after the trial.

The trial was a showcase. The defense wanted to lose so they could take it to a higher court. The prosecution wanted to protect the status quo. The prosecution arranged a guilty verdict with a fine set by the judge, which just happened to be illegal. A jury and not a judge needed to set the amount of a fine on a guilty verdict. A higher court would find that everything was HUNKY DORY constitutionally, but it reversed the lower court because of the improper fine that was imposed by the judge.

I wrote all of the previous paragraphs so that I could tell the story about meeting two very important celebrities, people that I really admire. I was able to meet Mike Farrell (B.J. Hunnicut from the TV show M*A*S*H), who played Clarence Darrow. I also met Ed Asner (Lou Grant on The Mary Tyler Moore Show), who played William Jennings Bryan.

The show took place at a corporate theatre, on the property of Sentry Insurance, located in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. 

The show was incredible and Mr. Asner & Mr. Farrell were perfect in their roles.

After the show, I waited for the cast. I wanted to get a photo of myself & Ed Asner & also another photo of myself & Farrell. I was inside the bus that the cast would be using to take them to the airport and I asked Mike Farrell to take a photo with me. I was backing up & I tripped on a step, which led to a higher level of the bus. I fell in the lap of actor Jerry Hardin, who played the judge in the play. Mr. Hardin is most famous for playing "Deep Throat", on The X-Files and Samuel Clemens a.k.a Mark Twain, on Star Trek The Next Generation. Ed Asner joked that I was trying to get on the bus & that I couldn't come along. 

Prior to the photo with Mr. Farrell, the bus driver took a picture of Ed Asner & myself at the bottom of the bus steps. I was talking to "my best buddy" Ed about the first time that I had met him. I reminded him that evening that I had met him a few years earlier. i told him that evening that I had asked him to sign a full bottle of scotch the first time that we met. Ed did sign the bottle and he wrote the phrase that I had asked him to write, "You've got Spunk ........ I hate SPUNK" (phrase that he ottered on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show'). He got a kick out of our brief conversation. While we were talking, Sharon Gless (Cagney & Lacey star) said "excuse me", as she tried to step onto the bus. 

All of those words, so that I could get to the  last sentence, of the previous paragraph. THAT IS MY CLOSE ENCOUNTER WITH SHARON GLESS.  








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