Capturing Bigfoot has captured the Bigfoot Community with evidence it presents as proof that the Patterson-Gimlin Bigfoot footage is a hoax.
Patterson-Gimlin Market Penetration
Children of the 1970s and 1980s have the Patterson-Gimlin film ingrained in their brains. The clip has been played in countless documentary TV shows that are usually narrated by Leonard Nimoy or Jonathan Frakes because they were on Star Track TV shows once. It is perhaps the most well-known clip outside of the Zapruder film.
Every time the Patterson-Gimlin clip plays, the Bigfoot community’s GDP increases by 3 percent, which buys a lot of flannel shirts. It’s a big deal to them.
Even Hollywood folk weigh in on the subject. Bill Munn, who worked on Swamp Thing, is a big-time believer in the footage.
Meanwhile, Stan Winston had this to say:
“It’s a guy in a bad hair suit — sorry! If one of my colleagues created this for a movie, he would be out of business…”
News of the new evidence being discovered and presented in Capturing Bigfoot hit the airwaves in March. The Bigfoot community immediately circled the wagons. Denials and fights began in earnest. Imagine a Phantom Menace talkback, but hairier…
Capturing Bigfoot’s Heart
What is this new evidence?
Director Marq Evans acquired 16mm film purportedly shot in 1966 by Patterson that is apparently a rehearsal of the famous 1967 clip.
The documentary features interviews with Patterson’s son, Clint, and surviving members of the expedition. The scuttlebutt is that the testimonies indicate many within Patterson’s circle kept the hoax quiet for decades to profit from licensing deals, broadcasts and convention appearances.
For those who don’t know the history of the Patterson-Gimlin footages, it is basically thus: Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin were out riding horses through remote timberland. They were actively researching Bigfoot and planned a docudrama about cowboys hunting the creature.
Lo and behold, a Bigfoot, whom everyone nicknamed “Patty” walked in front of their camera, which is super convenient. Interestingly, Patty also had boobs. Why is that interesting? Because Patterson published a detailed drawing of a female Bigfoot with boobs a year before he allegedly filmed one.
Coincidences like these have always made the Patterson-Gimlin footage a lightning rod for controversy. Things grew murkier when Bob Heironimus stepped forward in 1999 and claimed he was offered $1,000 to play Patty in the footage. He even took a lie detector test to make the claim maximum sensational.
As if that isn’t fun enough, alternate theories exist that the Patty suit was a modified costume from the caveman creatures featured in the Star Track episode The Galileo Seven. Patterson allegedly contacted John Chambers, makeup artist for Star Track, about the costume. Plus, Chambers was known to rent out or repurpose props from various productions.
This, of course, has not stopped believers from analyzing the grainy footage to the point where they can pinpoint a muscle spasm in Patty’s calf mid-step, which is proof positive it isn’t a costume. Costumes don’t spasm, you see.
Free Patty
Capturing Bigfoot is currently streaming on Prime for anyone who wants to check out the evidence and decide for themselves.
Personally, I’ve waited seven months for this release at the expense of all else in life. A man without priorities ain’t no kind of man, so I cheerfully tossed all other responsibilities over the side, laid in a supply of Spaghetti-O’s and chocolate milk and settled in for the great unveiling of the documentary. Never left the couch. Just ran hoses…
I have not actually watched the documentary yet (I did review Abominable many moons ago, though), but I was all set to dive into the discourse. I even went so far as to dip my toe in the water and….that was enough. It was too sad, and I am a man acquainted with grief. I had a dog once that had a choice to run to me or another person…and it chose the other person.
Despite that, even I could not handle the level of coping displayed in the threads. The plain fact of the matter is that if the Patterson-Gimlin film is a hoax, it leaves some very big shoes to fill in the Bigfoot community…
See what I did there?
