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A 1967 American short
motion picture A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, since ...
, created by Roger Patterson and Robert Gimlin, depicts an unidentified subject that the filmmakers stated was a Bigfoot. The footage was shot in 1967 in
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, and has since been subjected to many attempts to authenticate or debunk it. The footage was filmed alongside Bluff Creek, a tributary of the
Klamath River The Klamath River (Karuk language, Karuk: ''Ishkêesh'', Klamath language, Klamath: ''Koke'', Yurok language, Yurok: ''Hehlkeek 'We-Roy'') is a long river in southern Oregon and northern California. Beginning near Klamath Falls, Oregon, Klama ...
, about northwest of Orleans,
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, in Del Norte County on the Six Rivers National Forest. The film site is roughly south of
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and east of the
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. For decades, the exact location of the site was lost, primarily because of re-growth of foliage in the streambed after the flood of 1964. It was rediscovered in 2011. It is just south of a north-running segment of the creek informally known as "the bowling alley". The filmmakers were Roger Patterson (1933–1972) and Robert "Bob" Gimlin (born 1931). Patterson died of cancer in 1972 and "maintained right to the end that the creature on the film was real". Patterson's friend, Gimlin, has always denied being involved in any part of a hoax with Patterson. Gimlin mostly avoided publicly discussing the subject from at least the early 1970s until about 2005 (except for three appearances), when he began giving interviews and appearing at Bigfoot conferences.Regal, 129 The film is long (preceded by of "horseback" footage), has 954 frames, and runs for 59.5 seconds at 16 frames per second. If the film was shot at 18 fps, as Grover Krantz believed, the event lasted 53 seconds. The date was October 20, 1967, according to the filmmakers, although some critics believe it was shot earlier.


Background

Patterson said he became interested in Bigfoot after reading an article about the creature by Ivan T. Sanderson in ''
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'' magazine in December 1959. In 1961 Sanderson published his encyclopedic ''Abominable Snowmen: Legend Come to Life,'' a worldwide survey of accounts of Bigfoot-type creatures, including recent track finds, etc. in the Bluff Creek area, which heightened his interest. Thereafter, Marian Place wrote: Patterson's book, ''Do Abominable Snowmen of America Really Exist?'', was self-published in 1966. The book has been characterized as "little more than a collection of newspaper clippings laced together with Patterson's circus-poster style prose". The book, however, contains 20 pages of previously unpublished interviews and letters, 17 drawings by Patterson of the encounters described in the text, five hand-drawn maps (rare in subsequent Bigfoot books), and almost 20 photos and illustrations from others. It was first reprinted in 1996 by Chris Murphy, and then again re-issued by Murphy in 2005 under the title ''The Bigfoot Film Controversy,'' with 81 pages of additional material by Murphy. In May/June 1967 Patterson began filming a
docudrama Docudrama (or documentary drama) is a genre of television show, television and feature film, film, which features Drama (film and television), dramatized Historical reenactment, re-enactments of actual events. It is described as a hybrid of docu ...
or pseudo-documentary about cowboys being led by an old miner and a wise Indian tracker on a hunt for Bigfoot. The storyline called for Patterson, his Indian guide (Gimlin in a wig), and the cowboys to recall in flashbacks the stories of Fred Beck (of the 1924 Ape Canyon incident) and others as they tracked the beast on horseback. For actors and cameraman, Patterson used at least nine volunteer acquaintances, including Gimlin and Bob Heironimus, for three days of shooting, perhaps over the Memorial Day weekend. Patterson would have needed a costume to represent Bigfoot, if the time came to shoot such climactic scenes. Prior to the October 1967 filming, Patterson apparently visited
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on these occasions: * Patterson drove to
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in 1964 and visited rockabilly songwriter and guitarist Jerry Lee Merritt, a Yakima native who was living in Hollywood then. He was trying to sell his hoop-toy invention. * In 1966 he visited Merritt again while he was still trying to sell his hoop-toy invention. Merritt soon moved back to Yakima and became Patterson's neighbor, and later his collaborator on his Bigfoot documentary. * Later in 1966 he and Merritt drove down there for several purposes. Patterson visited cowboy film star
Roy Rogers Roy Rogers (born Leonard Franklin Slye; November 5, 1911 – July 6, 1998), nicknamed the King of the Cowboys, was an American singer, actor, television host, and Rodeo, rodeo performer. Following early work under his given name, first as a c ...
for help. He tried to sell his ponies-and-wagon to
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or
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. * In the summer of 1967, apparently after getting $700 from the Radfords and shooting some of his documentary, they tried unsuccessfully to attract investors to help further fund his Bigfoot movie. They copyrighted or trademarked the term "Bigfoot". Both Patterson and Gimlin had been rodeo riders and amateur boxers—and local champions in their weight classes. Patterson had played high school football. In October 1967, Patterson and his friend Gimlin set out for the Six Rivers National Forest in far
Northern California Northern California (commonly shortened to NorCal) is a geocultural region that comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California, spanning the northernmost 48 of the state's List of counties in California, 58 counties. Northern Ca ...
. They drove in Gimlin's truck, carrying his provisions and three horses, positioned sideways. Patterson chose the area because of intermittent reports of the creatures in the past, and of their enormous footprints since 1958. His familiarity with the area and its residents from prior visits may also have been a factor. The most recent of these reports was the nearby Blue Creek Mountain track find, which was investigated by journalist
John Green John Michael Green (born August 24, 1977) is an American author and YouTuber. His books have more than 50 million copies in print worldwide, including ''The Fault in Our Stars'' (2012), which is one of the List of best-selling books#Bet ...
, Bigfoot hunter René Dahinden, and archaeologist Don Abbott on and after August 28, 1967. This find was reported to Patterson (via his wife) soon thereafter by Al Hodgson, owner of the Willow Creek
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. Though Gimlin says he doubted the existence of Sasquatch-like creatures, he agreed to Patterson's insistence that they should not attempt to shoot one with a gun.


Encounter

As their stories went, in the early afternoon of Friday, October 20, 1967, Patterson and Gimlin were riding generally northeast (upstream) on horseback along the east bank of Bluff Creek. At sometime between 1:15 and 1:40p.m., they "came to an overturned tree with a large root system at a turn in the creek, almost as high as a room". When they rounded it, "there was a logjam—a 'crow's nest'—left over from the flood of '64," and then they spotted the figure behind it nearly simultaneously. It was either "crouching beside the creek to their left" or "standing" there, on the opposite bank. Gimlin later described himself as in a mild state of shock after first seeing the figure.Meldrum, 139Krantz, 87 Patterson initially estimated its height at to , and later raised his estimate to about . Some later analysts, anthropologist Grover Krantz among them, have suggested Patterson's later estimate was about too tall. Gimlin's estimate was . The film shows what Patterson and Gimlin claimed was a large, hairy,
bipedal Bipedalism is a form of terrestrial locomotion where an animal moves by means of its two rear (or lower) limbs or legs. An animal or machine that usually moves in a bipedal manner is known as a biped , meaning 'two feet' (from Latin ''bis'' ...
, apelike figure with short, "silvery brown" or "dark reddish-brown" or "black" hair covering most of its body, including its prominent breasts. The figure in the film generally matches the descriptions of Bigfoot offered by others who claim to have seen one. Patterson estimated he was about away from the creature at his closest. Patterson said that his horse reared upon sensing the figure, and he spent about 20 seconds extricating himself from the saddle, controlling his horse, getting around to its other side, and getting his camera from a saddlebag before he could run toward the figure while operating his camera. He yelled "Cover me" to Gimlin, "meaning to get the gun out".Perez, 10 Gimlin crossed the creek on horseback after Patterson had run well beyond it, riding on a path somewhat to the left of Patterson's and somewhat beyond his position. Patterson estimates he came within of "Patty". Then, rifle in hand, he dismounted, but did not point his rifle at the creature. The figure had walked away from them to a distance of about before Patterson began to run after it. The resulting film (about 59.5 seconds long at 16 fps) is initially quite shaky until Patterson got about from the figure. At that point, the figure glanced over its right shoulder at the men and Patterson fell to his knees; on Krantz's map this corresponds to frame 264.Perez, 12 To researcher
John Green John Michael Green (born August 24, 1977) is an American author and YouTuber. His books have more than 50 million copies in print worldwide, including ''The Fault in Our Stars'' (2012), which is one of the List of best-selling books#Bet ...
, Patterson would later characterize the creature's expression as one of "contempt and disgust ... you know how it is when the umpire tells you 'one more word and you're out of the game.' That's the way it felt." Shortly after this point the steady, middle portion of the film begins, containing the famous look-back frame 352. Patterson said, "it turned a total of I think three times," the other times therefore being before the filming began and/or while he was running with his finger off the trigger. Shortly after glancing over its shoulder on film, the creature disappeared behind a grove of trees for 14 seconds, then reappeared in the film's final 15 seconds after Patterson moved to a better vantage point, fading into the trees again and being lost to view at a distance of as the reel of film ran out. Gimlin remounted and followed it on horseback, keeping his distance, until it disappeared around a bend in the road away. Patterson called him back at that point, feeling vulnerable on foot without a rifle, because he feared the creature's mate might approach. The entire encounter had lasted less than two minutes. Next, Gimlin and Patterson rounded up Patterson's horses, which had run off in the opposite direction, downstream, before the filming began. Patterson got his second roll of film from his saddlebag and filmed the tracks. Then the men tracked "Patty" for either or , but "lost it in the heavy undergrowth". They went to their campsite south, picked up plaster, returned to the initial site, measured the creature's step-length, and made two
plaster cast A plaster cast is a copy made in plaster of another 3-dimensional form. The original from which the cast is taken may be a sculpture, building, a face, a pregnant belly, a fossil or other remains such as fresh or fossilised footprints – ...
s, one each of the best-quality right and left prints.


Details

According to Patterson and Gimlin, they were the only witnesses to their brief encounter with what they claimed was a sasquatch. Their statements agree in general, but author Greg Long notes a number of inconsistencies. They offered somewhat different sequences in describing how they and the horses reacted upon seeing the creature. Patterson in particular increased his estimates of the creature's size in subsequent retellings of the encounter. In a different context, Long argues, these discrepancies would probably be considered minor, but given the extraordinary claims made by Patterson and Gimlin, any apparent disagreements in perception or memory are worth noting. The film's defenders have responded by saying that commercially motivated hoaxers would have "got their stories straight" beforehand so they would not have disagreed immediately upon being interviewed, and on so many points, and so they wouldn't have created a suit and a creature with foreseeably objectionable features and behaviors. A more serious objection concerns the film's "timeline". This is important because Kodachrome II movie film, as far as is known, could be developed only by a lab containing a $60,000+ machine, and the few West Coast labs known to possess one did not do developing over weekends. Patterson's brother-in-law Al DeAtley claims not to remember where he took the film for development or where he picked it up. Critics claim that too much happened between the filming (at 1:15 at the earliest) and the filmmakers' arrival in Willow Creek (at 6:30 at the latest). Daegling wrote, "All of the problems with the timeline disappear if the film is shot a few days or hours beforehand. If that is the case, one has to wonder what other details of this story are wrong." The film's defenders retort that although the time window was tight, it was do-able. Chris Murphy wrote, "I have confirmed with Bob Gimlin that Patterson definitely rode a small quarter horse (which he owned), not his Welsh pony 'Peanuts'. Also, that Patterson had arranged to borrow a horse by the name of 'Chico' from Bob Heironimus for Gimlin to use ..Gimlin did not have a horse that was suitable (old enough) for the expedition." Heironimus stated that Chico (a middle-aged gelding) "wouldn't jump or buck".


Immediate aftermath

At approximately 6:30p.m., Patterson and Gimlin met up with Al Hodgson at his
variety store A variety store (also five and dime (historic), pound shop, or dollar store) is a retail store that sells general merchandise, such as apparel, auto parts, dry goods, toys, hardware, furniture, and a selection of groceries. It usually sel ...
in Willow Creek, approximately south by road, about by Bluff Creek Road from their camp to the 1967 roadhead by Bluff Creek, and down California State Route 96 to Willow Creek. Patterson intended to drive on to Eureka to ship his film. Either at that time, or when he arrived in the Eureka/ Arcata area, he called Al DeAtley (his brother-in-law in Yakima) and told him to expect the film he was shipping. He requested Hodgson to call Donald Abbott, whom Grover Krantz described as "the only scientist of any stature to have demonstrated any serious interest in the igfootsubject," hoping he would help them search for the creature by bringing a tracking dog. Hodgson called, but Abbott declined. Krantz argued that this call the same day of the encounter is evidence against a hoax, at least on Patterson's part. After shipping the film, they headed back toward their camp, where they had left their horses. On their way they "stopped at the Lower Trinity Ranger Station, as planned, arriving about 9:00p.m. Here they met with Syl McCoy nother friendand Al Hodgson."Murphy, ''Bigfoot Film Journal'', p 35 At this point Patterson called the daily '' Times-Standard'' newspaper in Eureka and related his story. They arrived back at their campsite at about midnight. At either 5 or 5:30 the next morning, after it started to rain heavily, Gimlin returned to the filmsite from the camp and covered the other prints with bark to protect them. The cardboard boxes he had been given by Al Hodgson for this purpose and had left outside were so soggy they were useless, so he left them. When he returned to the camp he and Patterson aborted their plan to remain looking for more evidence and departed for home, fearing the rain would wash out their exit. After attempting to go out along "the low road"—Bluff Creek Road—and finding it blocked by a mudslide, they went instead up the steep Onion Valley Road, off whose
shoulder The human shoulder is made up of three bones: the clavicle (collarbone), the scapula (shoulder blade), and the humerus (upper arm bone) as well as associated muscles, ligaments and tendons. The articulations between the bones of the shoulder m ...
their truck slipped; extracting it required the (unauthorized) borrowing of a nearby front-end loader. The drive home from their campsite covered about , the initial on a low-speed logging road, and then about on twisty Route 96. Driving a truck with three horses, and allowing for occasional stops, it would have taken 13 hours to get home Saturday evening, at an average speed of ; it would have taken 14.5 hours at a average speed. US Forest Service timber management assistantPerez, 22 Lyle Laverty said, "I nd his team of three, in a Jeep">Jeep.html" ;"title="nd his team of three, in a Jeep">nd his team of three, in a Jeeppassed the site on either Thursday the 19th or Friday the 20th" and noticed no tracks. After reading the news of Patterson's encounter on their weekend break, Laverty and his team returned to the site on Monday, the 23rd, and made six photos of the tracks. (Laverty later served as an Assistant Secretary of the Interior under George W. Bush">United States Secretary of the Interior">Secretary of the Interior under George W. Bush.) Taxidermist and outdoorsman Robert Titmus went to the site with his sister and brother-in-law nine days later. Titmus made plaster casts of 10 successive prints of the creature and plotted Patterson's and the creature's movements on a map as well as he could.


Long-term aftermath


Film-related

Grover Krantz writes that "Patterson had the film developed as soon as possible. At first he thought he had brought in proof of Bigfoot's existence and really expected the scientists to accept it. But only a few scientists were willing to even look at the film," usually at showings at
scientific organization Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...
s. These were usually arranged at the behest of zoologist, author, and media figure Ivan Sanderson, a supporter of Patterson's film. Seven showings occurred, in Vancouver,
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,
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,
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,
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, and Washington, D.C. again (all by the end of 1968); then, later, in
Beaverton, Oregon Beaverton is a city in the Tualatin Valley, located in Washington County in the U.S. state of Oregon, with a small portion bordering Portland. The city is among the main cities that make up the Portland metropolitan area. Its population was ...
. Of those who were quoted, most expressed various reservations, although some were willing to say they were intrigued by it. Christopher Murphy wrote, " Dahinden traveled to Europe ith the filmin 1971. He visited England, Finland, Sweden, Switzerland and Russia. Although scientists in these countries were somewhat more open-minded than those in North America, their findings were basically the same . ... A real glimmer of hope, however, emerged n Russia, where he met Bayanov, Bourtsev, and their associates" Though there was little scientific interest in the film, Patterson was still able to capitalize on it. He made a deal with the
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, allowing the use of his footage in a
docudrama Docudrama (or documentary drama) is a genre of television show, television and feature film, film, which features Drama (film and television), dramatized Historical reenactment, re-enactments of actual events. It is described as a hybrid of docu ...
made in return for letting him tour with their docudrama, into which he melded material from his own documentary and additional material he and Al DeAtley filmed. This film was shown in local movie houses around the
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and
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. A technique commonly used for nature films called " four-walling" was employed, involving heavy local advertising, mostly on TV, of a few days of showings. It was a modest financial success. Al DeAtley estimated that his 50% of the film's profits amounted to $75,000.Long, 265, 424 The film generated a fair amount of national publicity. Patterson appeared on a few popular TV
talk show A talk show is a television programming, radio programming or podcast genre structured around the act of spontaneous conversation.Bernard M. Timberg, Robert J. Erler'' (2010Television Talk: A History of the TV Talk Show', pp.3-4Erler, Robert (201 ...
s to promote the film and belief in Bigfoot by showing excerpts from it: for instance, on the '' Joe Pyne Show'' in Los Angeles, in 1967, which covered most of the western US; on
Merv Griffin Mervyn Edward Griffin Jr. (July 6, 1925 – August 12, 2007) was an American television show host and media mogul. He began his career as a radio and big band singer, later appearing in film and on Broadway theatre, Broadway. From 1962 to 1986, G ...
's program, with Krantz offering his analysis of the film; on
Joey Bishop Joseph Abraham Gottlieb (February 3, 1918 – October 17, 2007), known professionally as Joey Bishop, was an American entertainer who appeared on television as early as 1948 and eventually starred in his own weekly comedy series playing a Talk ...
's talk show, and also on
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's '' Tonight Show''. Articles on the film appeared in '' Argosy'', '' National Wildlife Magazine'', and ''
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''. One radio interview, with Gimlin, by
Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...
-based Jack Webster in November 1967, was partly recorded by
John Green John Michael Green (born August 24, 1977) is an American author and YouTuber. His books have more than 50 million copies in print worldwide, including ''The Fault in Our Stars'' (2012), which is one of the List of best-selling books#Bet ...
and reprinted in Loren Coleman's ''Bigfoot!'' Patterson also appeared on broadcast interviews on local stations near where his film would be shown during his four-walling tour in 1968. Patterson subsequently sold overlapping distribution rights for the film to several parties, which resulted in costly legal entanglements. After Patterson's death, Michael McLeod wrote, "With the consent of Al DeAtley and Patricia Patterson, the film distributor Ron Olson took over the operation of Northwest Research ... and changed its name to the North American Wildlife Research Association. ... He worked full-time compiling reports, soliciting volunteers to join the hunt, and organizing several small expeditions. A Bigfoot trap Olson and his crew built still survives. ... Olson ... continued to lobby the company merican National Enterprisesto produce a Bigfoot film. ... In 1974 ... ANE finally agreed. ... t was released in 1975,titled ''Bigfoot: Man or Beast''. devised a storyline involving members of a Bigfoot research party. Olson spent several years exhibiting the film around the country. He planned to make millions with the film, but says it lost money."Wasson, 51–53 Olson is profiled in Barbara Wasson's ''Sasquatch Apparitions''. On November 25, 1974, CBS broadcast ''Monsters! Mystery or Myth'', a documentary about the
Loch Ness Monster The Loch Ness Monster (), known affectionately as Nessie, is a mythical creature in Scottish folklore that is said to inhabit Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands. It is often described as large, long-necked, and with one or more humps protrud ...
and Bigfoot. It was co-produced by the
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, which cancelled its contract with the producer the next year. The show attracted 50 million viewers. In 1975,
Sunn Classic Pictures Sunn Classic Pictures, also known as Sunn International Pictures, Schick Sunn Classic Pictures, and Taft International Pictures was an independent U.S.-based film distributor, founded in 1971. The company was notable for family films and document ...
released ''Bigfoot: The Mysterious Monster'' aka ''The Mysterious Monsters'', which remixed parts of ''Monsters! Mystery or Myth'' and another documentary called ''Land Of The Yeti'', and also included footage from the Patterson–Gimlin film.


Filmmaker-related

Patterson's expensive ($369) 16 mm camera had been rented on May 13 from photographer Harold Mattson at Sheppard's Camera Shop in Yakima, but he had kept it longer than the contract had stipulated, and an
arrest warrant An arrest warrant is a warrant issued by a judge or magistrate on behalf of the state which authorizes the arrest and detention of an individual or the search and seizure of an individual's property. Canada Arrest warrants are issued by a jud ...
had been issued for him on October 17; he was arrested within weeks of his return from Bluff Creek. After Patterson returned the camera in working order, this charge was dismissed, in 1969. While Patterson sought publicity, Gimlin was conspicuous by his absence. He only briefly helped to promote the filmLong, 265 and avoided discussing his Bigfoot encounter publicly for many subsequent years; he turned down requests for interviews. He later reported that he had avoided publicity after Patterson and promoter Al DeAtley had broken their agreement to pay him a one-third share of any profits generated by the film. Another factor was that his wife objected to publicity. Daegling wrote, "Bigfoot advocates emphasize that Patterson remained an active Bigfoot hunter up until his death." For instance, in 1969, he hired a pair of brothers to travel around in a truck chasing down leads to Bigfoot witnesses and interviewing them. Later, in December of that year, he was one of those present in Bossburg, Washington, in the aftermath of the cripplefoot tracks found there. Krantz reports that " few years after the film was made, Patterson received a letter from a man a US airman stationed in Thailand"who assured him a Sasquatch was being held in a
Buddhist monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which may ...
. Patterson spent most of his remaining money preparing an expedition to retrieve this creature"Krantz, 120 only to learn it was a hoax. He learned this only after having sent Dennis Jenson fruitlessly to
Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...
(where he concluded that the airman was "mentally unbalanced") and then, after receiving a second untrue letter from the man, going himself to Thailand with Jenson.Green (1978), 129McLeod, 121–22 To obtain money to travel to Thailand, "Patterson called Ron, who had returned to ANE, and sold the company the theatrical rights to the clip for what Olson described as a pretty good sum of money." Patterson died of
Hodgkin's lymphoma Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) is a type of lymphoma in which cancer originates from a specific type of white blood cell called lymphocytes, where multinucleated Reed–Sternberg cells (RS cells) are present in the lymph nodes. The condition was named a ...
in 1972. According to Michael McLeod, Greg Long,Long, 188 and Bill Munns, "A few days before Roger died, he told igfoot-book author Peter
Byrne Byrne is an Irish surname and less commonly a given name. It is derived from the Gaelic ''Ó Broin'' or ''Ó Beirn'', which are also linked to the surname O'Byrne. There are two Irish surnames which have Byrne as their English spelling; the mos ...
that in retrospect, ... he ished hewould have shot the thing e killed itand brought out a body instead of a reel of film." According to Grover Krantz and Robert Pyle, years later, Patterson and Gimlin both agreed they should have tried to kill the creature, both for financial gain and to silence naysayers. In 1995, almost three decades after the Patterson–Gimlin filming, Greg Long, a technical writer for a technology firm who had a hobby of investigating and writing about Northwest mysteries, started years of interviewing people who knew Patterson, some of whom described him as a liar and a
conman A scam, or a confidence trick, is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust. Confidence tricks exploit victims using a combination of the victim's credulity, naivety, compassion, vanity, confidence, irresponsibi ...
. * "Marvin" (pseudonym), Jerry Lee Merritt, Pat Mason, Glen Koelling, and Bob Swanson suffered financially from their dealings with him, as well as 21 small local creditors who sued Patterson via a
collection agency Debt collection or cash collection is the process of pursuing payments of money or other agreed-upon value owed to a creditor. The debtors may be individuals or businesses. An organization that specializes in debt collection is known as a coll ...
. * Vilma Radford claimed Patterson never repaid a loan made to him for a Bigfoot movie Roger was planning. Radford had corroborative evidence: a $700
promissory note A promissory note, sometimes referred to as a note payable, is a legal instrument (more particularly, a financing instrument and a debt instrument), in which one party (the ''maker'' or ''issuer'') promises in writing to pay a determinate sum of ...
"for expenses in connection with filming of 'Bigfoot: America's Abominable Snowman. Patterson had agreed to repay her $850, plus 5 percent of any profits from the movie. * In 1974, Bob Gimlin, with René Dahinden's financial assistance, sued DeAtley and Patterson's widow, Patricia, claiming he had not received his one-third share of the film's proceeds. He won his case in 1976.


Legal status

Greg Long reports that a 1978 legal "settlement gave Dahinden controlling rights—51 percent of the film footage, 51 percent of video cassette rights, and 100 percent of all 952 frames of the footage. Patty Patterson had 100 percent of all TV rights and 49 percent rights in the film footage. Dahinden had ... bought out Gimlin, who himself had received nothing from Patterson; and Mason and Radford, promised part of the profits by Patterson, had nothing to show for their investment or efforts."Long, 327; for fuller detail, see 318–29 The film is in the
public domain in the United States Works are in the public domain if they are not covered by the intellectual property right known as copyright, or if the intellectual property rights to the works have expired. Works automatically enter the public domain when their copyright has ...
, as it was published without a
copyright notice In the copyright law of the United States, United States copyright law, a copyright notice is a notice of statutorily prescribed form that informs users of the underlying claim to copyright ownership in a published work. Copyright is a form ...
; between 1964 and 1977 all works in the United States required such a notice or they would enter the public domain.


Ownership of the physical films


First reel

The whereabouts of the original is unknown, although there are several speculations as to what happened to it. * Patterson had ceded ownership of the original to American National Enterprises, which went bankrupt a few years after his death in 1972. Thereafter, Greg Long writes, "Peregrine Entertainment bought the company. Then Peregrine was bought by Century Group of Los Angeles. When Century Group went bankrupt in 1996, Byrne rushed to
Deerfield Beach, Florida Deerfield Beach is a city in Broward County, Florida, United States, just south of the Palm Beach County, Florida, Palm Beach County line. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 86,859, making it the Broward County# ...
, where an accountant was auctioning off the company's assets to pay creditors. The company's films were in storage in
Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
, but a search failed to turn up the Patterson footage." * In 2008, Chris Murphy thought a Florida lawyer might have the film, not realizing until later that the lawyer had contacted the Los Angeles storage company that held it, and that it had responded that the film was not in the location the lawyer's records indicated. * Bill Munns writes that it was "last seen by researchers René Dahinden and Bruce Bonney in 1980, when René convinced the film vault n Southern California">Southern_California.html" ;"title="n Southern California">n Southern Californiaholding it to release it to him". He made Cibachrome images from it. Sometime between then and 1996, the film went missing from its numbered location in the vault. At least seven copies were made of the original film. Bill Munns listed four other missing reels of derivative works that would be helpful to film analysts.


Second reel

The second reel, showing Patterson and Gimlin making and displaying plaster casts of some footprints, was not shown in conjunction with the first reel at Al DeAtley's house, according to those who were there. Chris Murphy wrote, "I believe the screening of this roll at the
University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a Public university, public research university with campuses near University of British Columbia Vancouver, Vancouver and University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, in British Columbia, Canada ...
on October 26, 1967, was the first and last major screening." It has subsequently been lost.
John Green John Michael Green (born August 24, 1977) is an American author and YouTuber. His books have more than 50 million copies in print worldwide, including ''The Fault in Our Stars'' (2012), which is one of the List of best-selling books#Bet ...
suspects that Al DeAtley has it. A ten-foot strip from that reel, or from a copy of that reel, from which still images were taken by Chris Murphy, still exists, but it, too, has gone missing.


Filming speed

One factor that complicates discussion of the Patterson film is that Patterson said he normally filmed at 24 frames per second, but in his haste to capture the Bigfoot on film, he did not note the camera's setting. His Cine-Kodak K-100 camera had markings on its continuously variable dial at 16, 24, 32, 48, and 64 frames per second, but no click-stops, and was capable of filming at any frame speed within this range. Grover Krantz wrote, "Patterson clearly told
John Green John Michael Green (born August 24, 1977) is an American author and YouTuber. His books have more than 50 million copies in print worldwide, including ''The Fault in Our Stars'' (2012), which is one of the List of best-selling books#Bet ...
that he found, after the filming, that the camera was set on 18 frames per second (fps). ... " It has been suggested that Patterson simply misread "16" as "18". * "Dr. D.W. Grieve, an anatomist with expertise in human biomechanics ... evaluated the various possibilities" regarding film speed and did not come to a conclusion between them. He "confessed to being perplexed and unsettled" by "the tangible possibility that it he film subjectwas real". *
John Napier John Napier of Merchiston ( ; Latinisation of names, Latinized as Ioannes Neper; 1 February 1550 – 4 April 1617), nicknamed Marvellous Merchiston, was a Scottish landowner known as a mathematician, physicist, and astronomer. He was the 8 ...
, a primatologist, claimed that "if the movie was filmed at 24 frame/s then the creature's walk cannot be distinguished from a normal human walk. If it was filmed at 16 or 18 frame/s, there are a number of important respects in which it is quite unlike man's gait."Napier, 94 nd printing/ref> Napier, who published before Dahinden and Krantz, contended it was "likely that Patterson would have used 24 frame/s" because it "is best suited to TV transmission," while conceding that "this is entirely speculative." In fact 24 frames a second is the rate used in motion pictures, and 30 frames a second is best suited to US TV's requirements. * Krantz argued, on the basis of an analysis by Igor Bourtsev, that since Patterson's height is known (), a reasonable calculation can be made of his pace. This running pace can be synchronized with the regular bounces in the initial jumpy portions of the film that were caused by each fast step Patterson took to approach the creature. On the basis of this analysis, Krantz argued that a speed of 24 frames per second can be quickly dismissed and that " emay safely rule out 16 frames per second and accept the speed of 18." * René Dahinden stated that "the footage of the horses prior to the Bigfoot film looks jerky and unnatural when projected at 24 frame/s."Perez, 21 And Dahinden experimented at the film site by having people walk rapidly over the creature's path and reported: "None of us ... could walk that distance in 40 seconds 52 frames / 24 frame/s = 39.6 s ... so I eliminated 24 frame/s." * Bill Munns wrote, "One researcher, Bill Miller, found technical data from a
Kodak The Eastman Kodak Company, referred to simply as Kodak (), is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in film photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorporated i ...
technician that stated the K-100 cameras were tweaked so even when the dial is set to 16 fps, the camera actually runs at 18 fps. ... I have nine K-100 cameras now. ... I tried it on one camera, and got 18 fps, but the rest still need testing nd all with "film running through the camera""


Analysis

The Patterson–Gimlin film has seen relatively little interest from mainstream scientists. Statements of scientists who viewed the film at a screening, or who conducted a study, are reprinted in Chris Murphy's ''Bigfoot Film Journal''. Typical objections include: Neither humans nor chimpanzees have hairy breasts as does the figure in the film, and Napier has noted that a
sagittal crest A sagittal crest is a ridge of bone running lengthwise along the midline of the top of the skull (at the sagittal suture) of many mammalian and reptilian skulls, among others. The presence of this ridge of bone indicates that there are excepti ...
is "only very occasionally seen, to an insignificant extent, in chimpanzees females". Critics have argued these features are evidence against authenticity. Krantz countered the latter point, saying "a sagittal crest ... is a consequence of absolute size alone." As anthropologist David Daegling writes, " e skeptics have not felt compelled to offer much of a detailed argument against the film; the burden of proof, rightly enough, should lie with the advocates." Yet, without a detailed argument against authenticity, Daegling notes that "the film has not gone away." Similarly, Krantz argues that of the many opinions offered about the Patterson film, " ly a few of these opinions are based on technical expertise and careful study of the film itself."Krantz, 92 Regarding the quality of the film, second-generation copies or copies from TV and DVD productions are inferior to first-generation copies. Many early frames are blurry due to camera shake, and the quality of subsequent frames varies for the same reason. Stabilization of the film (e.g., by M. K. Davis) to counter the effect of camera shake has improved viewers' ability to analyze it. Regarding "graininess," Bill Munns writes, "Based on transparencies taken off the camera original, ... the PGF original is as fine grain as any color 16mm film can achieve." He adds that graininess increases as images are magnified.


Scientific studies


Bernard Heuvelmans

Bernard Heuvelmans Bernard Heuvelmans (10 October 1916 – 22 August 2001) was a Demographics of Belgium, Belgian-France, French scientist, explorer, researcher, and writer probably best known, along with Scottish-American biologist Ivan T. Sanderson, as a foun ...
—a
zoologist Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the structure, embryology, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct, and how they interact with their ecosystems. Zoology is one ...
and the so-called "father of
cryptozoology Cryptozoology is a pseudoscience and subculture that searches for and studies unknown, legendary, or extinct animals whose present existence is disputed or unsubstantiated, particularly those popular in folklore, such as Bigfoot, the Loch Ness ...
"—thought the creature in the Patterson film was a suited human. He objected to the film subject's hair-flow pattern as being too uniform; to the hair on the breasts as not being like a primate; to its buttocks as being insufficiently separated; and to its too-calm retreat from the pursuing men.


John Napier

Prominent primate expert
John Napier John Napier of Merchiston ( ; Latinisation of names, Latinized as Ioannes Neper; 1 February 1550 – 4 April 1617), nicknamed Marvellous Merchiston, was a Scottish landowner known as a mathematician, physicist, and astronomer. He was the 8 ...
(one-time director of the Smithsonian's Primate Biology Program) was one of the few mainstream scientists not only to critique the Patterson–Gimlin film but also to study then-available Bigfoot evidence in a generally sympathetic manner, in his 1973 book, ''Bigfoot: The Sasquatch and Yeti in Myth and Reality''. Napier conceded the likelihood of Bigfoot as a real creature, stating, "I am convinced that Sasquatch exists." But he argued against the film being genuine: "There is little doubt that the scientific evidence taken collectively points to a hoax of some kind. The creature shown in the film does not stand up well to functional analysis."Napier, 95 Napier gives several reasons for his and others'
skepticism Skepticism ( US) or scepticism ( UK) is a questioning attitude or doubt toward knowledge claims that are seen as mere belief or dogma. For example, if a person is skeptical about claims made by their government about an ongoing war then the p ...
that are commonly raised, but apparently his main reasons are original with him. First, the length of "the footprints are totally at variance with its calculated height". Second, the footprints are of the "hourglass" type, which he is suspicious of. (In response, Barbara Wasson criticized Napier's logic at length.) He adds, "I could not see the zipper; and I still can't. There I think we must leave the matter. Perhaps it was a man dressed up in a monkey-skin; if so it was a brilliantly executed hoax and the unknown perpetrator will take his place with the great hoaxers of the world. Perhaps it was the first film of a new type of hominid, quite unknown to science, in which case Roger Patterson deserves to rank with Dubois, the discoverer of '' Pithecanthropus erectus'', or
Raymond Dart Raymond Arthur Dart (4 February 1893 – 22 November 1988) was an Australian anatomist and anthropologist, best known for his involvement in the 1924 discovery of the first fossil found of '' Australopithecus africanus'', an extinct hominin ...
of Johannesburg, the man who introduced the world to its immediate human ancestor, ''
Australopithecus africanus ''Australopithecus africanus'' is an extinct species of australopithecine which lived between about 3.3 and 2.1 million years ago in the Late Pliocene to Early Pleistocene of South Africa. The species has been recovered from Taung, Sterkfontei ...
''." The skeptical views of Grieve and Napier are summarized favorably by Kenneth Wylie (and those of Bayanov and Donskoy negatively) in Appendix A of his 1980 book, ''Bigfoot: A Personal Inquiry into a Phenomenon''.


Esteban Sarmiento

Esteban Sarmiento is a specialist in physical anthropology at the
American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Located in Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 21 interconn ...
. He has 25 years of experience with great apes in the wild. He writes, "I did find some inconsistencies in appearance and behavior that might suggest a fake ... but nothing that conclusively shows that this is the case." His most original criticism is this: "The plantar surface of the feet is decidedly pale, but the palm of the hand seems to be dark. There is no mammal I know of in which the plantar sole differs so drastically in color from the palm." His most controversial statements are these: "The gluteals, although large, fail to show a humanlike cleft (or crack)." "Body proportions: ... In all of the above relative values, bigfoot is well within the human range and differs markedly from any living ape and from the 'australopithecine' fossils." (E.g., the IM index is in the normal human range.) And: "I estimate bigfoot's weight to be between 190 and 240 lbs[]."


David J. Daegling and Daniel O. Schmitt

When anthropologists David J. Daegling of the University of Florida and Daniel O. Schmitt examined the film, they concluded it was impossible to conclusively determine whether the subject in the film is nonhuman, and additionally argued that flaws in the studies by Krantz and others invalidated their claims. Daegling and Schmitt noted problems of uncertainties in the subject and camera positions, camera movement, poor image quality, and artifacts of the subject. They concluded: "Based on our analysis of gait and problems inherent in estimating subject dimensions, it is our opinion that it is not possible to evaluate the identity of the film subject with any confidence." Daegling has asserted that the creature's odd walk could be replicated: "Supposed peculiarities of subject speed, stride length, and posture are all reproducible by a human being employing this type of locomotion "compliant gait"" Daegling notes that in 1967, movie and television
special effect Special effects (often abbreviated as F/X or simply FX) are illusions or visual tricks used in the theatre, film, television, video game, amusement park and simulator industries to simulate the fictional events in a story or virtual world. ...
s were primitive compared to the more sophisticated effects in later decades, and allows that if the Patterson film depicts a man in a suit that "it is not unreasonable to suggest that it is better than some of the tackier monster outfits that got thrown together for television at that time."Daegling, 112


Jessica Rose and James Gamble

Jessica Rose and James Gamble are authors of "the definitive text on human gait", ''Human Walking''. They operate the Motion and Gait Analysis Lab at
Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...
. They conducted a high-tech human-replication attempt of "Patty's" gait, in cooperation with Jeff Meldrum. Rose was certain their subject had matched Patty's gait, while Gamble was not quite as sure. Meldrum was impressed and acknowledged that "some aspects" of the creature's walk had been replicated, but not all. The narrator said, "even the experts can see the gait test could not replicate all parameters of the gait." It was shown in an episode of the
Discovery Channel Discovery Channel, known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery, is an American cable channel that is best known for its ongoing reality television shows and promotion of pseudoscience. It init ...
's '' Best Evidence'' series.


Cliff Crook and Chris Murphy

A computerized visual analysis of the video conducted by Cliff Crook, who once devoted rooms to sasquatch memorabilia in his home in Bothell, Washington, and Chris Murphy, a Canadian Bigfoot buff from Vancouver, British Columbia, was released in January 1999 and exposed an object which appeared to be the suit's zip-fastener. Zooming in on four magnified frames of the 16 mm footage video exposed what appeared to be tracings of a bell-shaped fastener on the creature's waist area, presumably used to hold a person's suit together. Since both Crook and Murphy were previously staunch supporters of the video's authenticity, Associated Press journalist John W. Humbell noted "Longtime enthusiasts smell a deserter."


Other analysts


Nike researcher Gordon Valient

Krantz also showed the film to Gordon Valient, a researcher for
Nike Nike often refers to: * Nike, Inc., a major American producer of athletic shoes, apparel, and sports equipment * Nike (mythology), a Greek goddess who personifies victory Nike may also refer to: People * Nike (name), a surname and feminine giv ...
shoes, who he says "made some rather useful observations about some rather unhuman movements he could see".


''MonsterQuest''

A first-season episode of ''
MonsterQuest ''MonsterQuest'' (sometimes written as ''Monsterquest'' or ''Monster Quest'') is an American television series that originally aired from October 31, 2007 to March 24, 2010 on the History Channel channel. Produced by Whitewolf Entertainment, the pr ...
'' focuses on the Bigfoot phenomenon. One pair of scientists, Jurgen Konczak (director, Human Sensorimotor Control Laboratory, University of Minnesota) and Esteban Sarmiento, attempts and fails to get a
mime A mime artist, or simply mime (from Greek language, Greek , , "imitator, actor"), is a person who uses ''mime'' (also called ''pantomime'' outside of Britain), the acting out of a story through body motions without the use of speech, as a the ...
outfitted with
LED A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that emits light when current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy in the form of photons. The color of the light (corresp ...
s on his joints to mimic the Patterson Bigfoot's gait. A second pair, Daris Swindler and Owen Caddy, employs digital enhancement and observes facial movements, such as moving eyelids, lips that compress like an upset chimp's, and a mouth that is lower than it appears, due to a false-lip anomaly like that of a chimp's. The episode concludes, "the new findings are intriguing but inconclusive, until a body is found."


Film industry personnel


Movie production companies' executives

* Dale Sheets and Universal Studios. Patterson, Gimlin, and DeAtley screened the film for Dale Sheets, head of the Documentary Film Department, and unnamed technicians "in the special effects department at
Universal Studios Universal Studios may refer to: * Universal Studios, Inc., an American media and entertainment conglomerate ** Universal Pictures, an American film studio ** Universal Studios Lot, a film and television studio complex * Various theme parks operat ...
in
Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood ...
... Their conclusion was: 'We could try (faking it), but we would have to create a completely new system of artificial muscles and find an actor who could be trained to walk like that. It might be done, but we would have to say that it would be almost impossible. A more moderate version of their opinion was, "if it is man in an ape suit it's a very good one—a job that would take a lot of time and money to produce." * Disney executive Ken Peterson. Krantz reports that in 1969,
John Green John Michael Green (born August 24, 1977) is an American author and YouTuber. His books have more than 50 million copies in print worldwide, including ''The Fault in Our Stars'' (2012), which is one of the List of best-selling books#Bet ...
(who owned a first-generation copy of the original Patterson film) interviewed
Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...
executive Ken Peterson, who, after viewing the Patterson film, asserted "that their technicians would not be able to duplicate the film".Krantz, 93 Krantz argues that if Disney personnel were unable to duplicate the film, there is little likelihood that Patterson could have done so. Greg Long writes, "Byrne cited his trip to Walt Disney studios in 1972, where Disney's chief of animation and four assistants viewed Patterson's footage and praised it as a beautiful piece of work although, they said, it must have been shot in a studio. When Byrne told them it had been shot in the woods of Northern California, 'They shook their heads and walked away.


Bill Munns

Bill Munns, retired, was a special effects and make-up artist, cameraman, and film editor. He argues that Universal and Disney were not the most knowledgeable studios to consult with. He says that Fox,
MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American Film production, film and television production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered ...
, and special effects artist Stuart Freeborn in England, "who had just completed his groundbreaking ape suits for '' 2001: A Space Odyssey''", would have been preferable. Munns started posting his online analysis of the film in 2009 and summarizing it in the online Munns Report. In 2013 he and Jeff Meldrum co-authored three papers in Meldrum's online magazine, ''Relict Hominoid Inquiry''. In 2014, Munns self-published ''When Roger Met Patty'', a 488-page book incorporating material from those articles that analyses the film and film subject from various perspectives. He argues the film depicts a non-human animal, not a man in a fur suit. He proposes a new diagnostic test of authenticity, at the armpit: natural concave skin fold vs. artificial vertical crease. Munns' analysis has been featured in an episode of the
History Channel History (formerly and commonly known as the History Channel) is an American pay television television broadcaster, network and the flagship channel of A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Disney General Entertainme ...
series ''
MonsterQuest ''MonsterQuest'' (sometimes written as ''Monsterquest'' or ''Monster Quest'') is an American television series that originally aired from October 31, 2007 to March 24, 2010 on the History Channel channel. Produced by Whitewolf Entertainment, the pr ...
''.


Other special effects artists

*
Rick Baker Richard Alan "Rick" Baker (born December 8, 1950) is a retired American special make-up effects creator and actor. He is mostly known for his creature designs and effects. Baker has won the Academy Award for Best Makeup a record seven times f ...
. Famed Hollywood creator of Harry (from the movie, ''
Harry and the Hendersons ''Harry and the Hendersons'' is a 1987 American fantasy comedy film directed and produced by William Dear and starring John Lithgow, Melinda Dillon, Don Ameche, David Suchet, Margaret Langrick, Joshua Rudoy, Lainie Kazan, and Kevin Peter Hal ...
''), Rick Baker, told Geraldo Rivera's ''Now It Can Be Told'' show (in 1992) that "it looked like cheap, fake fur," after seeing the subject in Patterson's filmstrip. Baker said that John Chambers had "a crappy walkaround suit," that he sold as "a gag to be played on the guy that shot it
he film He or HE may refer to: Language * He (letter), the fifth letter of the Semitic abjads * He (pronoun), a pronoun in Modern English * He (kana), one of the Japanese kana (へ in hiragana and ヘ in katakana) * Ge (Cyrillic), a Cyrillic letter cal ...
. Later on, Baker's studio stated in a fax, "He no longer believes this hat Chambers made the suitis true." * Ellis Burman. The Guenettes (
Robert The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of ''Hrōþ, Hruod'' () "fame, glory, honour, prais ...
& Frances) wrote of him, "I also spoke to Ellis Burman of Burman Studios in Hollywood, creators of all kinds of strange creatures, including a fake Bigfoot for a traveling 'pickled punk' carnival exhibit. Burman denied his company created the Patterson Bigfoot, but did say he could duplicate it—but for more than $10,000 in total costs."Guenette, 117 * John Chambers.
Academy Award The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...
–winning monster-maker John Chambers is most famous for his innovative flexible masks in ''
Planet of the Apes ''Planet of the Apes'' is a science fiction media franchise consisting of films, books, television series, comics, and other media about a Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, post-apocalyptic world in which humans and intelligent apes c ...
'' (1968). In a 1997 interview in a nursing home with Bigfooter Bobbie Short in her nurse's uniform, he denied rumors that he had created a costume for the Patterson subject, saying "I'm good, but not that good." :Some time before 1976 the Guenettes reported that, in answer to their questions, "He concluded that if the creature is a man in a suit, then it is no ordinary gorilla suit. It is not something they bought or rented in a store; it would have to be something tailor made. He also felt like it might have been made out of real animal fur." *
Janos Prohaska Janos Prohaska (born János Prohászka; October 10, 1919 – March 13, 1974) was a Hungarian-born American actor and stunt performer. He appeared on American television from the 1960s and usually played the roles of animals (mostly bears and gori ...
. After viewing the Patterson–Gimlin film with
John Green John Michael Green (born August 24, 1977) is an American author and YouTuber. His books have more than 50 million copies in print worldwide, including ''The Fault in Our Stars'' (2012), which is one of the List of best-selling books#Bet ...
, costume designer and ape-suit mime
Janos Prohaska Janos Prohaska (born János Prohászka; October 10, 1919 – March 13, 1974) was a Hungarian-born American actor and stunt performer. He appeared on American television from the 1960s and usually played the roles of animals (mostly bears and gori ...
(noted for his work in the late-1960s television programs ''
Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the Star Trek: The Original Series, series of the same name and became a worldwide Popular culture, pop-culture Cultural influence of ...
'' and ''
Lost in Space ''Lost in Space'' is an American science fiction television series created and produced by Irwin Allen, which originally aired between 1965 and 1968 on CBS. Lightly dramatic, sometimes comedic in tone, the series was inspired by the 1812 J ...
'') concluded the film's subject looked real to him. When asked if he thought the film was faked, Prohaska replied, "I don't think so ... to me it looks very, very real." If the film was hoaxed, Prohaska thought, it was remarkably realistic and sophisticated, and the best costume he had ever seen, and the only plausible explanation was that someone might have glued false hair "directly to the actor's skin". :However, film critic David Daegling speculates that the same effect could be had by gluing the hair to a set of tight but expandable, waffle-design long johns. *
Chris Walas Christopher James Walas (born 1955) is an American special effects artist, make-up effects artist, film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is best known for his work on the film '' The Fly'' (1986), for which he won an Academy Award and was ...
.
Academy Award The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...
-winning "makeup artist Chris alasin the BigfootForums
ite ITE or Ite may refer to: Places * Ite (village), Walloon name of the Belgian village of Ittre * Ite District in Tacna Region, Peru Brands and enterprises * Interactive Television Entertainment, a defunct Danish media company * ITE Group, an organi ...
(in 2004) presented a theory that the arching hip line represents the overlap line between a fur costume leggings section and the torso section. ... " *
Stan Winston Stanley Winston (April 7, 1946 – June 15, 2008) was an American television and film special make-up effects artist, best known for his work in the ''Terminator'' series, the first three '' Jurassic Park'' films, '' Aliens'', '' The Thing'', ...
. Academy Award-winning film special effects supervisor and makeup artist Stan Winston, after viewing the PGF, said "it's a guy in a bad hair suit, sorry!" He also added that "if one of my colleagues created this for a movie, he would be out of business." He went on to comment that the suit in the film could have been made today for "a couple hundred dollars" or "under a thousand, in that day". * "Barry Keith" (pen name), "an experienced make-up and costume artist," accused "the Hollywood costume industry" of making "bravado claims of how easy such an event would be to fake". He said that their "cheats and shortcuts" are not detectable in "Patty".


Hoax allegations


Patterson and/or Gimlin

* Patterson and Gimlin both denied that they had perpetrated a hoax, but in a 1999 telephone interview with television producer
Chris Packham Christopher Gary Packham CBE (born 4 May 1961) is an English naturalist, nature photographer, television presenter and author, best known for his television work including the CBBC children's nature series '' The Really Wild Show'' from 1986 t ...
for the
BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
's '' The X Creatures'', Gimlin said that for some time, "I was ''totally'' convinced no one could fool me. And of course I'm an older man now ... and I think there could have been the possibility f a hoax But it would have to be really well planned by Roger atterson" * Author Greg Long uncovered circumstantial evidence, of varying strength, of footprint hoaxing, and possibly even sighting and photo hoaxing, in the Yakima vicinity by Patterson. Long argues that this means that he faked the film, too. :(One possible motive for the Yakima fakery would have been to make Bigfoot seem more real to local millionaire Floyd Paxton, with whom he was acquainted and from whom he hoped to obtain funding for an expedition.) :The film's proponents' position is that what is seen in the film is unfakable—especially not by a costume beginner like Patterson. For instance, most of Bill Munns' book makes detailed examinations of film features that he argues could not have been created with 1967 special effects technology. He filmed recreation attempts of his own that failed. Daniel Perez, writing in 1992, asserted "If the film is in fact a fake, a costumed man or a machine, surely science could duplicate the film with ease. Twenty-five years later, no one has come close." He later asserted, "It has never been convincingly replicated. To any thinking person, that should speak volumes." :Greg Long's response was, "The film they have just isn't going to do it. I'm sorry. That's not evidence." * David Daegling, anthropologist, writes that the "more cynical skeptics" see Patterson's luck as "more than a little suspicious: He sets out to make a Bigfoot documentary, then almost literally stumbles across a Bigfoot." Daegling, however, offers the benefit of the doubt, noting that Patterson's reasoning is sound: In seeking something elusive, he went to where it had been reported. Bluff Creek had also been the site of well-known Bigfoot hoaxer Ray Wallace's activities in 1958. In Patterson's book, he mentions meeting with Wallace once. Later, Daegling cites certain features in the film and the storyline as suspicious. * Krantz thought Patterson might have perpetrated such a hoax, given the opportunity and resources. (Roger was an accomplished 2-D artist whose drawings and painting of horses and other wildlife showed a detailed understanding of musculature and anatomy.) But he also argued that Patterson had "nowhere near the knowledge or facilities to do so—nor for that matter, did anyone else ... When I talked about some of the more technical details of
biomechanics Biomechanics is the study of the structure, function and motion of the mechanical aspects of biological systems, at any level from whole organisms to Organ (anatomy), organs, Cell (biology), cells and cell organelles, using the methods of mechani ...
, he (Patterson) showed the familiar blank look of a student who had lost the drift of the explanation, but was still trying hard to pay attention. Yet he must have known all these details to create a hoax. For instance, he could see the anterior position of the front of the shin, but how that related to foot
lever A lever is a simple machine consisting of a beam (structure), beam or rigid rod pivoted at a fixed hinge, or '':wikt:fulcrum, fulcrum''. A lever is a rigid body capable of rotating on a point on itself. On the basis of the locations of fulcrum, l ...
age was quite beyond him." * Peter Byrne, who interviewed Patterson and Gimlin many times, wrote, "both men lacked, primarily, the intellectual capacity essential to the production of a hoax ... termed a masterpiece." Similarly, Daegling writes that "Most acquaintances of Patterson volunteered that neither he nor Gimlin were clever enough to put something that detailed together."


Philip Morris

In 2002, Philip Morris, owner of Morris Costumes (a
North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...
–based company offering costumes, props and stage products) claimed that he made a gorilla costume that was used in the Patterson film. Morris says he discussed his role in the hoax "at costume conventions, lectures, ndmagician conventions" in the 1980s, but first addressed the public at large on August 16, 2002, on Charlotte, North Carolina, radio station WBT. His story was also printed in ''
The Charlotte Observer ''The Charlotte Observer'' is an American newspaper serving Charlotte, North Carolina, and its metro area. The Observer was founded in 1886. it has the second-largest circulation of any newspaper in the Carolinas. It is owned by Chatham Asset ...
''. Morris claims he was reluctant to expose the hoax earlier for fear of harming his business: giving away a performer's secrets, he said, would be widely regarded as disreputable. Morris said that he sold an ape suit to Patterson via mail order in 1967, thinking it was going to be used in what Patterson described as a "prank".Long, 446 (Ordinarily the gorilla suits he sold were used for a popular sideshow routine that depicted an attractive woman, supposedly from some far-flung corner of the globe, being altered by a sorcerer or scientist into a gorilla or otherwise apelike monster.) After the initial sale, Morris said that Patterson telephoned him asking how to make the "shoulders more massive"Long, 448 and the "arms longer".Long, 447 Morris says he suggested that whoever wore the suit should wear football shoulder pads and hold sticks in his hands within the suit. As for the creature's walk, Morris said:
The Bigfoot researchers say that no human can walk that way in the film. Oh, yes they can! When you're wearing long clown's feet, you can't place the ball of your foot down first. You have to put your foot down flat. Otherwise, you'll stumble. Another thing, when you put on the gorilla head, you can only turn your head maybe a quarter of the way. And to look behind you, you've got to turn your head and your shoulders and your hips. Plus, the shoulder pads in the suit are in the way of the jaw. That's why the Bigfoot turns and looks the way he does in the film. He has to twist his entire upper body.
Morris' wife and business partner Amy had vouched for her husband and claims to have helped frame the suit. Morris offered no evidence apart from his own testimony to support his account, the most conspicuous shortcoming being the absence of a gorilla suit or documentation that would match the detail evidenced in the film and could have been produced in 1967. A re-creation of the PGF was undertaken on October 6, 2004, at "Cow Camp," near Rimrock Lake, a location west of Yakima. This was six months after the publication of Long's book and 11 months after Long had first contacted Morris. Bigfooter Daniel Perez wrote, "''
National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly ''The National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as ''Nat Geo'') is an American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. The magazine was founded in 1888 as a scholarly journal, nine ...
's'' roducerNoel Dockster ... noted the suit used in the re-creation ... was in no way similar to what was depicted in the P–G film." Morris would not consent to release the video to ''National Geographic'', the re-creation's sponsor, claiming he had not had adequate time to prepare and that the month was in the middle of his busy season.


Bob Heironimus

Bob Heironimus claims to have been the figure depicted in the Patterson film. Heironimus says he had not previously publicly discussed his role in the hoax because he hoped to be paid eventually and was afraid of being convicted of fraud had he confessed. After speaking with his lawyer he was told that since he had not been paid for his involvement in the hoax, he could not be held accountable. A month after watching the December 28, 1998, Fox-television special ''World's Greatest Hoaxes: Secrets Finally Revealed?'', he went public, via a January 30 press release by his lawyer, Barry Woodard, in a Yakima newspaper story. He stated, "I'm telling the truth. I'm tired after thirty-seven years." Five days later, a second newspaper story reported that his "lawyer's office has been inundated with calls from media outlets. ... 'We're just sort of waiting for the dust to settle,' he said, explaining he and his client are evaluating offers." He also said, "We anticipate that we will be telling the full story to somebody rather quickly." Heironimus's name was first publicly revealed, and his allegations first publicly detailed, five years later, in Greg Long's book, ''The Making of Bigfoot'', which includes testimony that corroborates Heironimus' claims: * Heironimus's relatives (his mother Opal and nephew John Miller) claim to have seen an ape suit in Heironimus' car. Opal said she saw the suit two days after the film was shot. * Russ Bohannon, a longtime friend, says that Heironimus revealed the hoax privately in 1968 or 1969. * Bernard Hammermeister, another longtime friend, said he was shown an ape suit in Heironimus' car. No date was given by Long for Hammermeister's observation, but it apparently came well after the relatives' observation, as implied by the word "still" in the justification Heironimus gave Hammermeister for requesting his silence: "There was still supposed to be a
payola Payola, in the music industry, is the name given to the illegal practice of paying a commercial radio station to play a song without the station disclosing the payment. Under U.S. law, a radio station must disclose songs they were paid to pla ...
on this thing, and he didn't have it." Long argues that the suit Morris says he sold to Patterson was the same suit Heironimus claims to have worn in the Patterson film. However, Long quotes Heironimus and Morris describing different ape suits in many respects. Among the notable differences are: * Suit Material: Horsehide vs. Dynel. Heironimus says he was told by his brother Howard that Patterson claimed he manufactured the suit from
horsehide Shell cordovan, cordovan, or cordwain is a type of tanned leather commonly used in high-end shoemaking. Cordovan is an equine material made from the superficial fascia (or ''shell'') of the lower layers of the hide on the rump of a horse. T ...
.Long, 345 When Long asked how heavy the suit was, Bob replied, "It weighed maybe . ... Horsehide would be heavy." Bob added, "It stunk. Roger skinned out a dead, red horse." :But Morris reports that the suit was made of Dynel, a lighter-weight synthetic material with little or no odor. Morris said that it was his "standard suit that we sold to all our customers" that cost $435 (cheaper than the competition). :Another contrast is that Howard reported that the horsehide was a "real dark brown" and Long writes that Morris "was using brown Dynel in 1967".Long, 449 But Morris wouldn't have wanted a "real dark" brown color, as he chose brown to contrast against the black background of the girl-to-gorilla illusion. * Suit: Top-and-Trousers vs. a Back-Zipped Onesie. Heironimus described the suit as having no metal pieces and an upper "torso part" that he donned "like putting on a T-shirt". At Bluff Creek he put on "the top". Asked about the "bottom portion," he guessed it was cinched with a drawstring. * Hands and Feet: Suit-Attached vs. Separate. Heironimus described the suit as having hands and feet that were attached to the arms and legs. :But Morris made a suit whose hands and feet were separate pieces. Long speculates that Patterson riveted or glued these parts to the suit, but offers no evidence to support this idea. If Patterson had done so, he must have done it before Heironimus did his test fitting and walk (because Heironimus describes a three-piece suit—head, torso, and legs, omitting separate hands and feet)—i.e., without adjusting their location to his dimensions. And Heironimus never described being measured beforehand. Long speculates that Patterson modified the costume, but only by attaching Morris's loose hands and feet to the costume, and by replacing Morris's mask. Some film proponents say that Heironimus' arms are too short to match that of a Bigfoot and that he was a few inches shorter than the creature on the film (up to shorter). :But Heironimus said that he wore football shoulder pads, which might explain why the shoulders and arms appear to be out of proportion to the rest of the body. However, Heironimus disclaimed the use of arm-extending sticks in his costume and said that he wore "gloves, a little bit longer than my actual hands were . ... "


Ray Wallace

After the death of
Ray Wallace Ray or Raymond Wallace may refer to: * Raymond L. Wallace (1918–2002), American Bigfoot researcher & hoaxer *Raymond Wallace, a pseudonym of English songwriter Huntley Trevor (1881–1943) * Ray Wallace (footballer) (born 1969), English footballe ...
in 2002, following a request by Loren Coleman to ''
The Seattle Times ''The Seattle Times'' is an American daily newspaper based in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1891, ''The Seattle Times'' has the largest circulation of any newspaper in the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region. The Seattle Time ...
'' reporter Bob Young to investigate, the family of Wallace went public with claims that he had started the Bigfoot phenomenon with fake footprints (made from a wooden foot-shaped cutout) left in Californian sites in 1958. * Mark Chorvinsky, editor of ''Strange'' magazine, promoted Wallace's claim that he tipped off Patterson exactly where to look for a Bigfoot. Chorvinsky wrote, "'Roger Patterson came verdozens of times pumping me on this Bigfoot,' Ray Wallace explained to researcher Dennis Pilchis in 1982. 'I felt sorry for Roger Patterson. He told me he had cancer of the lymph glands and he was desperately broke and he wanted to try to get something where he could have a little income. Well, he went down there exactly where I told him. I told him, 'You go down there and hang around on that bank. Stay up there and watch that spot. David Daegling summarized Chorvinsky's argument and concluded that Wallace "had a degree of involvement" with the Patterson–Gimlin film, and that this gave grounds for suspicion of it. * Loren Coleman has written that Patterson was an early Bigfoot investigator, and that it was only natural that he sought out and interviewed older Bigfoot-event principals, which included Wallace, because of the 1958 Bluff Creek track incidents. Coleman has asserted that Wallace had nothing to do with Patterson's footage in 1967, and has argued in an analysis of the media treatment of the death of Wallace that the international media inappropriately confused the Wallace films of the 1970s with the Patterson–Gimlin 1967 film. * Meldrum has written extensively about Wallace, his allegations (continued by his family after his death), and the significant problems with them in his book, ''Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science''.


Books on the subject

The major hoax allegations are summarized and criticized in: * Two of Christopher Murphy's books. * Loren Coleman's ''Bigfoot!: The True Story of Apes in America''. * David Daegling's ''Bigfoot Exposed.''Daegling, 116–18, 140–41


See also

*
List of photographs considered the most important This is a list of photographs considered the most important in surveys where authoritative sources review the history of the medium not limited by time period, region, genre, topic, or other specific criteria. These images may be referred to as t ...
*
List of topics characterized as pseudoscience This is a list of topics that have been characterized as pseudoscience by academics or researchers, either currently or in the past. Detailed discussion of these topics may be found on their main pages. These characterizations were made in the c ...
* Peter C. Byrne


References


Bibliography


Skeptical

* * * * *


Other by scientists

* * * * * * *


Other by non-scientists

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Tate Hieronymus (2018). Interview with Bob Gimlin in front of the big tree, visible in frame 352 of the Patterson - Gimlin Film. The full interview can only be seen at Cliff Barakman’s “North American Bigfoot Center” in Boring, OR.


Further reading


Skeptical

* Robert Todd Carroll (2003). ''The Skeptic's Dictionary: A Collection of Strange Beliefs, Amusing Deceptions, and Dangerous Delusions''.
John Wiley & Sons John Wiley & Sons, Inc., commonly known as Wiley (), is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Publishing, publishing company that focuses on academic publishing and instructional materials. The company was founded in 1807 and pr ...
. . pp. 55–57. * * Kal A Korff and Michaela Kocis (2004
''Exposing Roger Patterson's 1967 Bigfoot Film Hoax''
publisher Committee for Skeptical Inquiry * *


Other

* * * * * * *


External links



at
The Skeptic's Dictionary ''The Skeptic's Dictionary'' is a collection of cross-referenced skeptical essays by Robert Todd Carroll, published on his website skepdic.com and in a printed book. The skepdic.com site was launched in 1994 and the book was published in 2003 ...
* *


Suit-related


Transcript of Bobbie Short's taped interview with John Chambers, October 27, 1997
(Original print copy of the interview: ''NASI Newsletter'', January 1998. Reprinted in ''The Track Record'', November 1, 1998)


Heironimus-related


"Sasquatch Speaks: The Truth Is Out There" by Richard Lei
(Brief; quotes from Heironimus and counter-quotes by Goodall,
Green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a com ...
, and a lawyer, March 7, 2004) at
washingtonpost.com ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

Interview of Bob Heironimus, March 22, 2004, ''Countdown with Keith Olbermann''
at countdownlibrary.com (begins 80% of the way through)

at northwestmysteries.com (via
Wayback Machine The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web founded by Internet Archive, an American nonprofit organization based in San Francisco, California. Launched for public access in 2001, the service allows users to go "back in ...
)
"Some Reasons for Caution about the Bigfoot Film Exposé," by Michael Dennett, ''Skeptical Inquirer'' Volume 29.1, January/February 2005
at csicop.org (paywalled) {{DEFAULTSORT:Patterson-Gimlin film 1967 films 1967 in California 1967 short films 1960s American films Amateur filmmaking American silent short films Articles containing video clips Bigfoot films Culture of Humboldt County, California Films shot in California History of Humboldt County, California Mass media-related controversies in the United States Surviving American silent films