"I murdered James Callender." (laughs)

- I'm peeing myself.

(men laughing)

(dramatic instrumental music)

- Hello, my name's David Wain.

I have a dirty martini,

and today we're gonna talk about Alan Freed

and the birth of rock and roll,

which is a great story about fun, race, and music.

(upbeat instrumental music)

Alan Freed is a DJ on WAKR in Akron, Ohio,

and he's like, you know, "Hey, I'm playing regular music."

He was playing jazz and pop and pre-rock and roll music.

Meanwhile, there was this guy named Leo Mintz.

Leo Mintz is record store owner in Cleveland, Ohio,

and Leo Mintz was seeing that these white kids

are having a good time and they're dancing.

But at the time, it wasn't accepted for white people

to buy Black music, or what they called race music,

and he became aware of this DJ Alan Freed.

And he's like, "Come over to Cleveland

"and you can go on the air on WJW,

"which is a big radio station, a white radio station,

"but I'm gonna get you to play

"these rhythm and blues records that I'm trying to sell."

And Alan Freed said, "Thank you, I'll do it."

It was a time when racial boundaries

were just slowly being ben, bended, but nobody knew (laughs)

- [Host] Nobody knew.

- Nobody knew. Nobody knew.

Leo Mintz would come over to the radio station

and he's like you know,

"What are we going to call this thing?

"'Cause if we call it rhythm and blues

"then, then the white audience won't accept it

"because that's, that's a race music term."

And they were like,

"Well, you know, we're rocking and rolling."

"(beep) Great."

He's like, "Great, that's what it is.

"It's rock and roll." (belching)

And he creates this whole persona.

He's like, "Hey, how y'all doing today?

"This is Alan Freed, king of the moondoggers.

"The Moondog Show, Northeast Ohio, Cleveland, Ohio.

"Home of the Cleveland Browns, Art Modell."

Okay, so now, and that's good.

Cheers, once again. - Rock and roll.

- And here we are.

This is number two. - Number two.

- So then he's like,

"Okay, what do we do to like up the ante here?"

And so Alan Freed's like, "Let's make a big (beep) show."

(coughing) So then they set up this big show

at the Cleveland Arena, the Moondog Coronation Ball.

It was, you know, considered the first rock and roll concert

that there ever was.

So 20,000 people come to a venue that could only fit 10,000.

They're shoving in.

It becomes a (beep) fiasco.

There's riots.

The Cleveland fire department shut the whole thing down.

Well, of course the next day it's like roll music is hurting

teenagers, making them bad.

Um, I think when you drink,

you lose a little bit of vocabulary,

but anyway, that's fine.

But he went on the air the next day.

"Look, it didn't work out, but we move forward.

"Are you with me?

"We'll know if by your phone calls, letters."

And the teenagers were into it

and they just came out in throngs.

He was eventually wooed by the big town.

And I'm talking about Mr. New, Mr. York, and Hello, City.

I'm talking about New York City.

Jesus Christ.

He packs up his (beep)

and he goes from Cleveland to New York.

And he's like, "Let me tell you about Chuck Berry.

"Let me tell you about Little Richard.

"Let me tell you about Fats Domino."

And his show is piped to Europe.

It has been said it's the first time

that The Beatles hear rock and roll

is on the Alan Freed's radio show.

"Hey there, Paul, this is pretty good.

"Maybe we should do this."

Next thing you know, it's like The Beatles.

He put together a show in Boston

and the kids are getting rowdy

and the cops in Boston, they're like,

"No, this is not okay."

So then Alan Freed gets on stage and he's like,

"Kids, it's gonna be fun.

"We're gonna have a good time.

"We're gonna rock and roll tonight."

"Rock and roll, rock and roll, rock and roll."

And then they're like, "We're, we're turning the lights on."

Alan Freed makes this offhand remark.

He's like, "You know, I guess the Boston cops

"just don't want you guys have any fun."

It becomes a total disaster bad news thing.

It's like almost a riot breaks out

and then they have to shut the thing down.

Outside the venue that night, there were some stabbings

and there was some violent (beep) that went down.

They accused him of inciting a riot.

He had to defend himself and say, "You know, I didn't do it.

"I was just having a concert."

But his job, his bosses at WINS were like,

"No, this is too controversial.

"You know what?

"This guy is, cat's gotta go."

He went on the air and he's like, "Look, I'm sorry I'm sad

"but I'm going off the air.

"So thanks for all these years but my era is over."

And then he put on this record "So Long" by Fats Domino.

It was really the end of his reign as the guy.

And he left the station,

and when he goes down to the bottom of the station

all these fans are down there and they're like,

"Oh my God, you can't leave.

"What are we gonna do?

"What are we gonna do without you?"

And he's like, "You know what?

"It's not about me, it's about rock and roll.

"Rock and roll will always be here.

"Nothing will stop that

"and so rock and roll will never die."

And rock and roll has gone on.

(dramatic instrumental music)

- Hello.

Today, we're gonna talk about the Scopes Monkey trial.

(slurping) The 1925 in Dayton, Tennessee,

the economy was tanking.

George Rappleyea was a lawyer.

One day, he saw an open letter in the newspaper.

"The ACLU, which is a new organization,

"offers to represent any teacher that wants to challenge

"the new Tennessee state law that forbids

"the teaching of evolution."

This gives George an idea.

"Hey, if someone locally challenged this law,

"it could become the trial of the century

"and it could help the economy

"and our (beep) little town that nobody knows about."

So, they pitched this idea to John Scopes

of the Scopes Monkey trial.

"Isn't it terrible that there's this law?

"You're a science teacher."

"Yeah, I'm a football coach.

"I also took- (laughs)

"I'm a football coach.

"I also teach a little science

"and I personally believe in evolution."

The ACLU, they hire the greatest defense attorney

probably ever, Clarence Darrow.

"Public schools should teach science and facts,

"that's, that's what I think."

William Jennings Bryan comes in to fight

for the Tennessee state statute, which he inspired.

"You can't teach evolution.

"Yeah, legally you can't teach it."

On the first day of the Scopes Monkey trial,

Williams Jenning Bryan...

Why does that not sound like I'm saying it right?

Williams Jenning Bryan says to the court,

"If evolution wins, Christianity goes."

And to that Clarence Darrow argued that,

"Scopes isn't on trial, civilization is on trial."

This was like a boxing match.

This was the trial of the century.

And for the first time, people were able to hear a trial

on their radios.

There was a point in the trial in which Clarence Darrow

asked scientists to explain the theory of evolution,

but the judge in the Scopes Monkey trial was John Raulston

and he believed, "I have been called on by God

"to be the judge in this case

"so I don't care what all these scientists have to say.

"They can't give testimony."

So Clarence Darrow decided, "Okay, all of my witnesses

"they can't give testimony so I'll ask someone

"who's an expert on the Bible to give testimony.

"Hey, Williams Jenning Bryan,

"I know you're on the other side of this case,

"but why don't you go on the witness stand

"and I'll question you about the Bible."

(dramatic instrumental music)

Now, Williams Jenning Bryan was so excited about this.

He was like, "Oh my God, I'm gonna destroy you as a witness.

"I will go on witness stand."

Now the judge didn't want him to do this.

The judge was present, presidential. (laughing)

When Clarence Darrow puts William Jennings Bryan

on the Bible, he asks, "Do you believe all the stories

"of the Bible literally?"

And the first answer of Williams Jenning Bryan is,

"Yes, the Bible is literal.

"I believe in it literally."

And then asking him specific questions.

"Where did Cain's wife come from?

"He made Adam and Eve and then all of a sudden

"there are other people and Cain finds a wife.

"Where did, where did Cain's wife come from?"

Williams Jenning Bryan gets flustered and says,

"Well, I, I leave that up to you agnostics to find out."

That's all Clarence Darrow needed.

"So, you're not interpreting the Bible literally."

Clarence Darrow goes on to destroy

Williams Jenning Bryan on facts.

- [Host] Are you still spinning or how do you feel?

- Well, I'm, I'm dizzy.

I feel weird.

I feel like I think I know where I'm going.

And then I get utterly confused

about where I thought I was going.

Ah, nope.

Gonna get Facebook responses for this.

This was the complete destruction of Williams Jenning Bryan,

and Williams Jenning Bryan looks like a fool,

but Williams Jenning Bryan knows,

"I have the most amazing closing argument to make."

So the entire country listening to the radio agrees

Clarence Darrow just mopped the floor

with Williams Jenning Bryan,

but Williams Jenning Bryan has

the most amazing closing argument to make.

Unfortunately for him, Clarence Darrow also knows

that he probably has a pretty amazing closing argument.

So, when the judge asks Clarence Darrow says,

"I don't wanna make a closing argument."

By law, Williams Jenning Bryan now cannot make

his closing argument.

He was like, "You scumbag.

"You know what a (beep) scumbag you're being right now?"

He was just humiliated and now he can't even make

the closing argument he's been working on

for the entire trial because he knew that,

at least in the minds of those listening to the trial

on the radio, he had won, and that's all he wanted.

Because he knew he was gonna lose.

He wanted to lose so that a higher court could decide

on this bigger law.

Six days after the trial, Williams Jenning Bryan died

and the press reported that Williams Jenning Bryan

didn't die of diabetes.