Well, that is proof enough for me....

Thanks, Santa. It's not your fault, but I was just adding the long post to go with the photos as an edit, and it all got lost when you posted. I just spent a half hour on it.

I will come back and redo the whole thing later.

The jist is that Phillip Morris, the owner of Morris Costume in Charlotte, NC--one of the largest costume supplies in the world--claims to have made and sold the Big Foot suit used in the famous movie clip from 1967, to Roger Patterson, the maker of the film. I will fill in the details later.

The Hawaiian shirt disguise fools nobody Bigfoot.

No costume! It is REAL! I know because back in 1969 we stopped in the woods so my dad, who had a few beers, could go wee wee. He goes behind a rock and when we got to Washington....his wallet was gone! A couple weeks later his wallet shows up in the mail with everything BUT the cash. Who else but Bigfoot would have found the wallet? Huh? Huh? As the youngsters say...nuff said.

Lots of people might have found the wallet. Only Bigfoot would have sent it back, though.

I hate losing a post after a lot of writing!

- Mary Mowder

I know that Bigfoot is real. I personally own one of his toes. It's authenticity was verified by a member of the Café! So it MUST be real.

And Pop: one would think that with over 5,000 posts you'd learn how to do it without large chunks of text disappearing into the Internet version of the Bermuda Triangle.

Who's the hairy geeezer holding the costume?

You would think. But the first time I tried, I lost the whole thing when one of the photos had a bad url, and then I got the photos right, but before I entered the text, MagicSanta posted and everything was lost again. It was late Sunday night, so I guess I just didn't expect anyone to be on the board. Usually I copy my posts before posting them, but this time I didn't. Oh, well.

Does this store owner have a copy of the reciept or any actual proof?
This guy claims to have rented out a Bigfoot, other people claim to have seen a Bigfoot... I want to know who can prove it.

I thought the Horror Dome guys had the costume....

Nope!

There are men with big feet in Virginia!

You know what they say about men with big feet... "In Virginia"...



Wait, that's not what this is about right?

-awkward moment-

Oh... you mean that "Bigfoot"...

I'm part Virginia Appalachian Melungeon. Don't mention it much because most folk don't know what it is. And those that do usually think we're some sort of mountain cannibals.

I went to see my old friend Phillip Morris give a lecture at the Queen Mary in Long Beach on Big Foot. I have known Phillip since the early Seventies. He is a great magician, was a pioneer in the traveling spook shows, a showman, and costumer.

He owns the largest costume supply in the world in Charlotte, NC--Morric Costume.

He began by making gorilla costumes for carnivals for the Girl to Gorilla illusion.

He manufactures custom gorilla and bear suits for people like David Copperfield, Blackstone, Jr., Lance Burton and others. He was just on the bill of the SAM National Convention in Atlanta.

The whole story is told in a 2004 book by Greg Long, "The Making of Big Foot."

Roger Patterson had seven people invest money in a film venture, none of whom were ever paid. They said that he planned to do a documentary of Big Foot and planned to get actual footage of Big Foot in the wild--before he got the footage in the famous 1967 film. The man who wore the suit was named Bob Heironimous, and he admitted to his part in the hoax and passed a lie detecter test. Gene McCarthy of New Zealand and Amy, Phillips wife, were both involved in manufacturing the suit for Roger Patterson. The gorilla costume was altered by Robertson to look more human. He used molded leather to create the face and added breasts.

Patterson did not understand how to use black makeup to darken the eyes, and that is why they have that odd shiny appearance--it is the white skin showing through the eye holes of the costume. You can see how the eyes of the costume look even at a short distance with the skin of my hand behind them.

Phillip has film of Bob Heironimous walking down a city sidewalk, and he walks just like the "thing" in the movie.

The long arms are made by the hands being mounted on sticks held in the operators hands, balanced by old 60's style football shoulder pads. The movement of the many sectioned pad looked like muscles operating under the "skin" of the costume.

Phillip had a copy of the costume he made for Patterson at the lecture, one that he had made for a National Geographic television special on the hoax.

The whole myth began in the mid-Fifties when a guy named Wallace and some of his co-workers and friends began using carved wooden feet to put giant foot prints all around logging country in Northern California. They wanted to create a story about a large hairy monster that lived in the woods. They called him Big Foot because of the giant footprints that were first found in 1958. It was the first use of the term.

Since his death, Wallace's wife and family and co-workers have admitted to the prank.

Ten years later, Roger Patterson decided to cash in on the story. He told people, "I'm going to make a million dollars with this!" when he was soliciting them for money to back the venture.

Some further info can be found on Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patterson-Gimlin_film

It was my understanding that the earliest recorded mention of the creature was from settlers here in Spokane who were told by the local Spokane Indian Tribe about a large hairy ape creature called the "Skookum."

The part with the sticks makes sense. It would explain the unnatural movement. I would still like to see some conclusive proof though.
I've also heard about the Wallace thing.
Expert tracker Tom Brown Jr has stated that he does not believe that Bigfoot exists because the pressure releases (little sand or mud ridges within and on the edges of tracks which give various clues about how the track was made) do not indicate any kind of muscle action in the actual foot in any tracks he has observed.

I...I've seen a big foot type creature. No kidding.

I thought Skookum was Chinook for something strong or impressive. Which I suppose a large hairy ape would be...

John

I remember reading it somewhere. I never followed up on the sources, that's why I specified that it is my understanding. I can't say it's a fact because I don't know for sure that it is.

There are a number of native American legends that have been connected to the Big Foot legend in some way. There is a giant hairy lady demon that steals bad little boys and girls, in another group there is mention of hairy men who were dangerous, of bear men and so forth. None of them really Big Foot like except in retrospect.