Bigfoot - The Patterson-Gimlin Film

[William Parcher]

Meet Paddlefoot. I found this animation last night. You can also see the costume material bunching up on the upper right thigh.

Enlarged still images of this animation: Paddlefoot

 

[aargh57]

Here's a link to an interview with Daegling concerning bigfoot in which he too mentions Groucho Marx. Trouble is, when you walk with a compliant gait, it's hard to leave footyprints that sink 1 1/4" into the ground.
RayG

Unless of course you made the prints in the ground later trying to resemle an exaggerated stride. Also, if the ground is moist, 1 1/4" inch is not that deep (especially if you're using a great big bigfooty type stamp).

 

[casebro]

Meet Paddlefoot. I found this animation last night. You can also see the costume material bunching up on the upper right thigh.




Enlarged still images of this animation: Paddlefoot

This also seems to show an Eyehole in the face area, with a blackened face visible inside it....or do it's proponents claim that as a photographic anomaly of some kind?

 

[Hitch]

Meet Paddlefoot. I found this animation last night. You can also see the costume material bunching up on the upper right thigh.

That bunching up of the fur on the right leg has been discussed at length. Patty had a torn muscle in her leg which made it look like that. Most Bigfoot enthusiasts will explain how it's typical of that sort of injury and further proof that it can't be a costume. The injury also explains why Patty just ambled off into the woods rather than running so fast there wasn't even less footage. It also explains the extraordinarily long stride (since she's unusually short for a Bigfoot at only about 6' 5"). Wait...

 

[William Parcher]

Here's another frame from the film showing the thigh bulge.

Another stabilized animation showing the bulge. You can actually see a whole section of the thigh lift upwards as a unit...

Cool graphics in some of the threads at the Bigfoot Forum.

 

[bruto]

Looking at that foot clogged with snow makes me wonder how the prints that were cast could have shown such nice detail of the toes. It looks from the little we see here of the raised foot as if it is totally iced up.

 

[Z]

Looking at that foot clogged with snow makes me wonder how the prints that were cast could have shown such nice detail of the toes. It looks from the little we see here of the raised foot as if it is totally iced up.

Forget the thigh for a minute - look at the butt in the first of the four frames of the stills linked above. Does that or does that not look like a fur diaper or skirt?

weird.

 

[William Parcher]

I found a comparison of the guy who says he was Bigfoot in the film (Bob Heironimus shown from new footage of him walking like Bigfoot) and the film itself.

Pretty close walk conformity.

 

[Thurkon]

It seems very odd that the leg would swing up that high so that the foot is pretty much perpendicular to the ground.

The only reason the foot would swing up that high is if the subject was purposefully stretching his stride to an unnatural distance in relation to the length of subject’s legs.

Try it sometime.

 

[Thurkon]

In that case, they seemed to have thought of everything. Not only did they destroy the one-of-a-kind monkey suit that nobody's been able to duplicate or produce,

This is a common mantra parroted by Footers that has absolutely no basis in reality.

As Chris Walas, a notable costume man in Hollywood himself, stated in a Bigfoot thread...there were even better monkey suits at the time, much less now.

 

[Skeptical Greg]

I found a comparison of the guy who says he was Bigfoot in the film (Bob Heironimus shown from new footage of him walking like Bigfoot) and the film itself.

Pretty close walk conformity.

In my opinion the PGF subject looks like a man walking, with maybe the stride exagerated a bit. Certainly no limp, from a ruptured thigh muscle.

Some people see muscles rippling.. I see a fur suit bouncing.

What seems most unnatural to me is the butt. It should be bouncing, and it doesn't.

There should be a point in any walk when the glutes relax and bounce. In the PGF, they don't..

 

[Skeptical Greg]

From BFF

http://www.bigfootforums.com/index.php?showtopic=11909

A poll about whether or not the PGF should be debunked if it is a hoax..

When I read this, it floored me..

For me, one of my biggest concerns is that if the film is exposed as a hoax beyond a shadow of a doubt, it would dash many strongly-held beliefs, and sweep away the foundation upon which some of the old-timers of BF research have built their research.

Sanity seemed to have prevailed though, and most responding agreed it should be debunked, if it is a hoax..

 

[Dr. DRE]

After looking at the sabilized animation posted by Willam Parcher two things are obvioius

1. The creature doesn't have a bilateral buttocks and therefore no standard waste disposal port

2. The ass and legs move independently of each other. Or more accurately, the ass doesn't move at all and legs move. The buttocks should clench and release in time with the legs moving. They don't

This is a guy in a suit.

 

[I'll_buy_that]

Two things that have always struck me as curious about the Patterson film:

• The flex -- If it's a guy in a suit, how was he able to flex his calf muscle as he walked
• The stride -- from measurements at the film site, the typical stride was around 81" or 6 feet 9 inches. The subject walks in a manner whereby the sole of the foot points directly to the rear with each step. How does one leisurely walk along as indicated, leaving that type of stride measurement, without looking like Groucho Marx?

RayG

The stride at 6' 9"? is this correct? Is this a common belief or documented? holy crap! I am 6' 3" and my stride is about 3'. A stride more than twice that would require the beast to have legs that are about 1.5 to 2 feet longer than mine, never mind the extra length in the torso for proportion. (not scientific and probably grossly underestimated) is she supposed to be 9' tall?

 

[Hitch]

Height estimates place her at about 6' 5" with a 6' 9" stride on a badly injured leg. (Carrying a baby baboon, but that's the subject of some debate.)

 

[Batman Jr.]

(4) Arms/legs proportion seems a lot like human. I think a human walking with his/hers shoulders down and bent knees would look quite like that.

Keith Olbermann did a story on Bob Heironimous, and the man's normal gait looks exactly like the bizarre Bigfoot one. He doesn't even have to do anything special. He just walks and that's how it looks.

 

[lenina4sammy]

The stride at 6' 9"? is this correct? Is this a common belief or documented? holy crap! I am 6' 3" and my stride is about 3'.

Stride length means right foot to right foot (with the left step in between) or vice versa. I'm 5'9" and my stride length is just under 6'. 6'9" would not be difficult to attain.

Also, as far as the costume goes, don't think about how costumes are built today. In the '60s they were built one at a time, and not on an assembly line. They were also built out of much heavier material and with far more layers. Costumes of that era have an attitude of their own and do not move in an easily predictable way... hence, the legs moving independantly of the butt, the material being bunched up, etc.

They were BIG, HEAVY, AWKWARD costumes. Sadly, this doesn't really help either argument much, just something to think about when analyzing the footage. I believe it's a hoax, but only because of the costume itself, which sadly is the only part of this I really have any expertise on.

 

[RayG]

This is a common mantra parroted by Footers that has absolutely no basis in reality.

As Chris Walas, a notable costume man in Hollywood himself, stated in a Bigfoot thread...there were even better monkey suits at the time, much less now.

Full body suits? Really? Got some links or pics? Did Chris Walas provide the name of the creator, or a location for the suit?

If the suit made back then can be so easily produced, where's the reproduction? I've yet to see anyone come forward with the original suit, or a duplicate, or a replicated version. Granted, some pretty impressive suits have been made in more recent years, (Harry and the Hendersons for example) but I've not seen a full-body suit made at the time of the Patterson film that would equate to the suit used in his film.

RayG

 

[RayG]

Height estimates place her at about 6' 5" with a 6' 9" stride on a badly injured leg. (Carrying a baby baboon, but that's the subject of some debate.)

Keep in mind Patterson (7' 4") and Gimlin (6' 1" or 6' 2") differed by over 12" on the guesstimate for the height. Krantz thought the film subject to be 6' in height.

The stride is measured from the heel of one foot to the heel of the same foot. Not impossible to duplicate. I'm 6' in height and have laid out the reported stride length of 81.5" on the floor and tried to duplicate it. Matching the stride length isn't too much of a problem for lanky people, but duplicating it with the bottom of each foot perpendicular to the rear with each step makes it more difficult. If you watch the film, the subject doesn't appear to be stretching or exaggerating its walk, which makes the stride length (if true) puzzling if no Monty Python gymnastics are involved.

RayG

 

[Hitch]

Keep in mind Patterson (7' 4") and Gimlin (6' 1" or 6' 2") differed by over 12" on the guesstimate for the height. Krantz thought the film subject to be 6' in height.

The stride is measured from the heel of one foot to the heel of the same foot. Not impossible to duplicate. I'm 6' in height and have laid out the reported stride length of 81.5" on the floor and tried to duplicate it. Matching the stride length isn't too much of a problem for lanky people, but duplicating it with the bottom of each foot perpendicular to the rear with each step makes it more difficult. If you watch the film, the subject doesn't appear to be stretching or exaggerating its walk, which makes the stride length (if true) puzzling if no Monty Python gymnastics are involved.

RayG

Okay, but Bigfoot enthusiasts tend to point to the extraordinarily long stride length as proof that the tracks must have been made by a non-human creature. But now you're saying that they're well within the norm for a fairly tall human. You need to pick a story and stick to it.

Something else that occurs to me. Did anyone ever count the steps seen in the film and compare that to the tracks that were found later? Do the numbers match? (I'm not claiming they don't, just sincerely asking if anyone ever checked that.)