Bigfoot

No, it’s not a new or old rock band. I have posted on many icons and events of the 1960s-1970s but never really concentrated on this big fellow. 

I know as a kid…Bigfoot was part of the culture and kids thought yea…he is real. Native American legends tell of large, hairy human-like creatures that have been part of Indigenous cultures across North America for centuries. Many tribes have their own names and variations of Bigfoot, each with distinct characteristics and significance.

The most famous film clip was the Patterson-Gimlin footage from 1967.

 Jeffery Meldrum is a professor of anatomy and anthropology at Idaho State University, and he’s known for being one of the few academics to openly study Sasquatch. “It’s all so easy to say, ‘Obviously that’s a man in a fur suit.’ Until you see it up against a man in a fur suit.” 

The National Geographic documentary Mystery 360: Bigfoot Revealed, where they went absolutely all-out to try and recreate the Patterson-Gimlin bigfoot with modern technology (suit and all…) but ultimately couldn’t. Before this documentary, everyone assumed there was someone with a gorilla suit. 

No matter how real the subject in the film appears, how much muscle movement you think you see, or how unhuman they claim the gait is, the subject has no corroborating specimen, and can therefore be no more than a question mark. The film has always been, is, and likely always will be an unsettled controversy. 

In 2003 Bob Heironimus, a retired Pepsi bottler from Yakima, Washington came out and said that he played Bigfoot in the film. “It’s time to let this thing go. I’ve been burdened with this for 36 years, seeing the film clip on TV numerous times. Somebody’s making lots of money off this, except for me. But that’s not the issue — the issue is that it’s time to finally let people know the truth.” Heironimus, 63, makes his full “confession,” as he calls it, in a published book by paranormal investigator Greg Long. He also wanted money from the film and filed a suit but it never went anywhere. 


Tom Malone, a lawyer in Minneapolis, on behalf of Bob Gimlin, an associate of the now-dead Bigfoot filmmaker. “I’m authorized to tell you that nobody wore a gorilla suit or monkey suit and that Mr. Gimlin’s position is that it’s absolutely false and untrue.” And the mystery lives on . . .

Many have broken the film down frame by frame and investigating it. It’s really interesting. 

I remember on television that some shows featured Bigfoot. The Six Million Dollar Man featured Bigfoot and don’t think we were all watching at the time. There has been many documentaries on him and movies including Harry And The Hendersons. We cannot forget the monster truck Bigfoot. 

Bigfoot is part of our popular culture and will probably always be but I would guess he peaked in the 1970s. 

The Stabilized Clip

 

Unknown's avatar

Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

44 thoughts on “Bigfoot”

  6. We have supposedly a mythical creature called the beast of Bodmin that roams the moor in Cornwall, not that far from where I live. It’s been reported as being like a very large black cat! I’m very sceptical. 🙂

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  7. Momo, my shaking wife, is afraid of Big Foot. She is convinced that he, or she, lives in the woods behind our home. Before bed, I have to close all blinds and pull all curtains so BF can’t look into the house. We are in Colorado Springs right now, and her son-in-law has a BBQ business named “Sasquatch BBQ.” Folks up here would vote for BF for congress if he would run.

    Like

    Reply

  8. I’m a believer…my brother & I (8 months younger than you are) loved watching those documentaries when we were kids & I’ve stayed very much interested in Bigfoot. Lol, I guess I’m just a hopeless conspiracy believer from extra terrestrial’s existing to the JFK assassination researchers theories. I love to believe in that stuff…lol. Nice story today Max.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  9. There’s something in the human brain that seems to struggle against reason and rationality. While believing in supernatural or un-reasonable things like Bigfoot, Santa Claus, Roswell aliens and the like is innocent, it gets dangerous when spilling into politics and religion. Sadly, humans often prefer the lie to the truth.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. It’s a way to rationalise the out of the ordinary. It can be a bit deflating to find out there is no ghost in the old haunted house up the road, D. B. Cooper didn’t walk out of some forest in Washington a rich man, alien crop circles turned out to be a crock. There IS something in us that prefers fantasy fiction to dry as dull facts. Do some still do believe Mulder and Scully were onto something? I believe so.

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

  10. My son went through a phase where he watched Finding Bigfoot. It’s a dumb show and totally implausible, but nevertheless entertaining. There’s something fascinating about Sasquatch lore and the people obsessed with it even if it’s not real.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  11. Great post! I’ve long been fascinated by ‘Bigfoot’ and certainly see arguments for and against it. It defies logic that the gun-crazy settlers in the 19th Century who shot at anything that moves wouldn’t have shot at least a couple . Then again, maybe they did but saw it more as protection than scientific research and left the body out in the wild. The compelling evidence for it, to me is that so many Native cultures have creatures like this in their own history and stories and there are so many late-1800, early 1900s reports that all seem to have the same characteristics, down to the animal’s odor, from far-spread people. Settlers in BC in 1880 weren’t talking to miners in California or farmers cutting brush in Colorado, but all reported similar encounters. So I’m inclined to believe, even if a good number of sightings are hoaxes or bears misidentified. The video on that old footage is amazing – I’d only seen the original (perhaps 5th Gen) bouncy, grainy footage so the restoration makes it seem more likely that it was true.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. Yes there was a lot of sitghtings back when it wasn’t front page news trying to get attention. It’s very interesting I would say. It’s a fun topic no doubt…to think on how many times something was reported.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  15. ohhhh……….until Jordan Peterson and Donald Trump weigh in, I believe the jury is still out on this….the weird thing is, I don’t remember Muldar and Scully chasing big footz down?

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

      1. The show I mentioned to Randy (?) UnXplained Mysteries, with William Shatner, covered several folkloric creatures, including that beast in France that killed so many people in a short time. Brotherhood of the Wolf movie is a fictionalized account and was one Quinn reviewed back in one of the movie drafts. They had some really good info in that episode!

        Liked by 1 person

      2. I’ll have to check that out…I remember that show’s name so I’m sure I’ve seen an episode. West Virginia has The Moth Man.

        Liked by 1 person

Leave a comment