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Posts Archived Under Apes
John T. Scopes, the man
who caused all the fuss |
It started out as a publicity stunt designed to bring tourists to the small town of Dayton, Tennessee. By the time it was over, it had brought together three of the most famous men in the world, killed one of them, and left ripples that we still feel today.
While the event we note today is the 85th anniversary of schoolteacher John T. Scopes being arrested for teaching evolution, the events that prompted that arrest go back to 1922, when the Tennessee legislature passed the Butler Act, which prohibited any teacher in a public school from teaching "any theory that denies the Story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals." The law had been written by a Tennessee farmer, who had "read in the papers that boys and girls were coming home from school and telling their fathers and mothers that the Bible was all nonsense."
The law, which had a fatal flaw (the state's required biology text had a chapter about evolution) sat unchallenged for three years, while the American Civil Liberties Union hunted for a teacher willing to challenge the law, even announcing its willingness to pay for the trial and any fines (the penalty was $100). There were no takers.
Finally, in 1925, a group of Dayton businessmen were sitting around Robinson's Drugstore, trying to come up with a scheme to draw tourists to their town of 1,800. Someone mentioned the Butler Act, and before Scopes knew it, he had agreed to become the sacrificial lamb (or perhaps, "ape"). On May 5th, Scopes was "arrested" and all hell broke loose.
The local fathers, hoping to secure maximum publicity for the trial, contacted such notables as novelist H.G. Wells (who declined, stating that he wasn't a lawyer). The prosecution countered with William Jennings Bryan, the three-time presidential candidate who was America's most respected public figure. Spurred by Bryan's presence, Clarence Darrow, the country's most famous defense attorney and defender of civil liberties, agreed to head Scopes' defense. Drawn by not only the spectacle of those two giants going head-to-head in the courtroom, but by the circus that developed around the trial, H.L. Mencken, the reporter who was one of the country's sharpest social commentators, came to report on the doings -- along with hundred of other reporters, an unprecedented national radio hookup, newsreel photographers, trained chimpanzees, and tens of thousands of spectators.
The trial finally began on July 10 and things went badly for the defense. Witnesses were not allowed to testify and Darrow fought with the judge -- dodging more than one contempt citation. Finally, in a desperate stroke of genius, Darrow put Bryan himself on the stand -- or, rather, under the tree, since the judge moved matters outside to accommodate both the huge crowds and in an attempt to beat the stifling heat. Darrow cut him to ribbons, challenging his opponent's literal belief in the Good Book, and generally making a monkey of him. Bryan died five days after the trial, possibly the victim of his exertions.
It was all for naught, though. The jury, deliberating only nine minutes, found Scopes guilty, and the judge fined him $100. That verdict was overturned on a technicality, but the law remained (unenforced) on the books until 1967.
Even though no one else was every prosecuted under the Butler Act, its effects are felt today in controversies over Creationism, and the curricula proposed by the Kansas and Texas Boards of Education. And, for all the spectacle the trial provided, that kind of carnival atmosphere could never happen today... right?
Suggested Sites...
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Directory categories:
Scopes Monkey Trial, Clarence Darrow, William Jennings Bryan, Evolution, Creation vs. Evolution |
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Archived under: 1920s, American History, Anniversaries, Apes, Biology, Clarence Darrow, Creationism, Education, Evolution, Law, Legal Cases, Primates, Religion, Science, Society and Culture, William Jennings Bryan |
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Johnny Weissmuller,
before he play Tarzan |
Me Tarzan, you reader.
Friends ask Tarzan why English lord speak so badly. Tarzan shrug and answer, "Give people what they want." Tarzan speak fine in 1912 when Tarzan created by Edgar Rice Burroughs. (Tarzan even speak French.) But when Tarzan played by Johnny Weissmuller in many movies, Tarzan somehow tongue-tied. Go figure.
Anyway, Tarzan is King of Apes and of many jungles: African jungle (even have song about it!), movie jungle, TV jungle, radio jungle, comic book jungle, cartoon jungle. Tarzan even had Broadway musical. Eat heart out, Batman!
Today good day for many friends. Cheeta recently celebrate 77th birthday. Live in Valley. Paints. Lucky. ($125 a painting? Maybe Tarzan should try.) Weissmuller's 105th birthday today. Couldn't speak, but good swimmer. To them and you, Tarzan have only one thing to say: Ooohhhhaaeeeaaaahhhh Oooohhheeeaaahhh!
Suggested Sites...
- Tarzan.com - home of Edgar Rice Burroughs, creator of Tarzan, John Carter of Mars, David Innes, Carson Napier, and dozens of other pulp heroes.
- Tarzan: The Broadway Musical - swinging onto the Great White Way.
- ERBzine - dedicated to all of the creations of Edgar Rice Burroughs.
- Salon: Jungle love - Stephanie Zacharek puts the Tarzan and Jane marriage under the microscope.
- Tarzan of the Apes - the complete first novel, anotated.
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Directory categories:
Tarzan, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan Movies, Musicals, Primates |
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Archived under: 1910s, 1930s, Africa, Apes, Athletes, Authors, Birthdays, Broadway, Cartoons, Comic Books, Comic Strips, Disney, Entertainment, Fiction, In Character, Movies, Musicals, Olympics, Royalty, Superheroes, Swimming, TV, Tarzan |
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Excuse me while I rant.
We all have a rubbernecking-type interest in watching the "When Animals Attack" genre of reality television, but when something truly appalling happens, we're reminded that wild and exotic animals are just that... wild and exotic. These animals, no matter how seemingly tame, do not have the generations of breeding for positive personality traits that other domesticated animals have developed over hundreds or thousands of years. Three weeks ago, when Travis the chimpanzee snapped and attacked a visitor known to him, and tore out her eyes, nose, and jaw, we were once again reminded of this crucial truth. It's a disaster with two victims: Travis and Charla Nash, who was transported to the Cleveland Clinic, presumably because they're the first medical institution in the United States to successfully achieve a full facial transplant.
There have been plenty of instances in the last few years where tragedy has struck in the form of an exotic animal or pet. A year ago, a Hollywood entertainer grizzly bear killed his own handler. Timothy Treadwell, the "Grizzly Man," was killed in the wilderness by the subjects he chronicled for 13 years. In the last four years, killer whales at Sea World have wounded experienced trainers twice, once in San Diego and once in San Antonio. And let's not forget the white tiger's attack on Roy Horn, of Siegfried and Roy (who recently aired a "farewell" special featuring Montecore, the very tiger who attacked Horn). All the examples above are the result of wild species attacking their well-trained and experienced handlers, not caregivers and supporters who have little or no training.
Yes, animals are cute, especially when they're young -- but they grow up and become less endearing. And needless to say, most large animals are far more powerful than you can imagine. A grown chimpanzee is vastly stronger than an adult human. So where any of these animals are concerned, caution is urged.
Oh, and chimpanzees are not monkeys. They're apes. Get it straight.
Suggested Sites...
- Grizzly Man - a documentary about Timothy Treadmill and his 13-year journey studying Grizzly bears in the wild.
- Chimp Haven - serves as the National Chimpanzee Sanctuary for care of chimpanzees who have been retired from medical research or the entertainment industry, or as former pets.
- The Daily Show -- Felonious Monkeys - see Jon Stewart's take on the "Monkey Bite Bill."
- BBC News: Zoo Chimp "Planned" Stone Attacks - Santino, a chimp in a Swedish zoo, planned his attacks on humans with cunning efficiency.
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Directory categories:
Humane and Animal Rescue Societies, Chimpanzees, Chimpanzee Rescue and Rehabilitation, Animal Entertainers, Animal Training and Behavior |
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Archived under: Animal Rights, Animals, Apes, Monkeys |
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Poster for King Kong |
It probably wasn’t very long after the Lumière Brothers invented the motion-picture camera that someone realized if you stopped the camera, you could make objects appear or disappear on screen in the blink of an eye. Certainly pioneering filmmaker Georges Méliès realized that by 1899 when he made his film "The Conjuror."
But the year before Méliès made his film, American J. Stuart Blackton figured out if you just repositioned things, instead of moving them on- and off-camera, you could make inanimate objects seem to move on their own.
While Blackton became known as the "Father of American Animation," most of his films were trifles and filled with gimmicks that failed to move the plot forward. As pioneering as his techniques were, decades passed before they truly came to fruition in the work of Willis O’Brien, whose birthday we note today.
O'Brien was originally a sculptor, but in the 1910s was hired by Thomas Edison to create stop-motion short films -- most of which featured dinosaurs. O'Brien began using clay for his creations, but he soon developed models that had articulated metal skeletons covered with plastic or rabbit fur. In 1925, he achieved new heights with his work in the film "The Lost World," which featured a brontosaurus running amok through London. But that film was only a warm-up for O'Brien's masterpiece, "King Kong" (which, coincidentally, also opened on this day in 1933). Working on his largest scale ever, O'Brien was able to actually shape Kong's performance, making the giant ape the most sympathetic character in the film -- never mind that his pathos was combined with bouts of ingesting and crushing people.
O'Brien continued animating until his death in 1962, revisiting giant apes in "Son of Kong" and "Mighty Joe Young," but he never again scaleed the heights he reached in 1933.
O'Brien's work may seem a little primitive to modern eyes, but without it, we’d have no Wallace and Gromit, Gumby, or even Davey and Goliath. Many of today’s CGI animators got their inspiration from watching the original "King Kong." So, on this most animated of days, let's raise a toast -- a banana daiquiri, say -- to the man who created the "Eighth Wonder of the World."
Suggested Sites...
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Directory categories:
King Kong (1933), Stop-Motion Animators, Animation, Movies, Wallace and Gromit |
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Archived under: 1910s, 1930s, Animation, Anniversaries, Apes, Biographies, Birthdays, Coincidence, Dinosaurs, Entertainment, Filmmaking, Monsters and Creatures, Movie History, Movies, Silent Movies, Technology |
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If there's one thing we pride ourselves on around these parts, it's that we don't ignore the obscure or pass over little-known date factoids. For a change of pace, though, we here at The Spark would like to point out a rather meaningful matter today: October 28th is Kanzi the bonobo's 28th birthday.
Kanzi is one of the most-renowned great apes in the world. Under the tutelage of Sue Savage-Rumbaugh, Kanzi has a perfect understanding of human speech and a personal vocabulary upwards of 500 words -- comparable to a human toddler's comprehension skills. Since non-human primates lack the physiological components in their throats to make speech, Kanzi cannot speak using vocal sounds himself, but shows his cognitive grasp of the vernacular through the use of visual aids.
Primate language consists of sign language, speech comprehension, or the use of lexigrams to represent words, symbols, or objects. Kanzi uses photographs, three-dimensional items, or lexigrams on cards or monitors as his representations for spoken words. Kanzi's gorilla contemporary Koko (who turned 37 in July) uses American Sign Language to communicate to her homo sapiens relatives at the Gorilla Foundation.Thanks to her Internet chat in 1998, or KokoTV, Koko remains the most famous of these many primates learning languages. (Although let us stress that communication isn't limited to primates; Alex the African grey parrot had a vocabulary of 100 words and basic math skills, before dying at the age of 31.)
But today on the 28th, we give a hearty salute to you, Kanzi, for staying on-task and giving us further insights into our own human evolution and cognitive development.
Suggested Sites...
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Directory categories:
Bonobos, Chimpanzees, Gorillas, Human Evolution |
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Archived under: Animals, Apes, Birthdays, Communication, Languages, Nature, Primates, Science |
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