Even though I personally embrace the theory of evolution, wasn't the Hollywood depiction of the Scopes Trial..?

The problem with that thesis is that the movie predates the "modern" version of Fundamentalist Young Earth Creationism. The movie was released in 1960. There were very few Young Earth Creationists at that time--mostly the Seventh Day Adventists. The rest were what would now be called either Day-Age or Gap Theory Creationists. The current Creationist interpretation derives from the book "The Genesis Flood" which was released the following year. The issue was common descent, not the age of the Earth. While William Jennings Bryan was misrepresented, I mark that up as dramatic license. The 1955 play was about intellectual freedom and McCarthyism, not a religious doctrine which would not pick up steam in the next decade.