“Unfortunately Inherit the Wind, a novelization of the event, has been taken as fact and given people a false impression.”
The trial was broadcast live on the radio and Darrow was very convincing. But even more important was probably H.L. Mencken’s daily accounts, which put a very negative spin on Bryan. Mencken made it look like Bryan was losing faith by conceding a point about the 24 hour days. Bryan died only five days after the end of the trial; Mencken lived another three decades.
The robber barons feared Bryan more than any other politician of his generation; he represented the poor and underrepresented (at least those who were white) and correctly saw that laissez-faire was destroying their lives. It is ironic is that most of the spiritual descendants of Bryan have now allied politically with the spiritual descendants of those same robber barons. Bryan is certainly turning over in his grave.