Monstervision 100% Weird presents

Bigfoot: Man Or Beast?

movie posterFor a brief time back in the mid-fifties, a flurry of rumors about strange creatures roaming the snowy peaks of Tibet captured the public's imagination. Although no concrete evidence of these creatures' existence has ever been proven, that didn't stop Hammer Film Studios from exploiting the public's curiosity by producing The Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas in which Peter Cushing and Forrest Tucker come face to face with these ape-like beings.

Peter Cushing was also in the first Star Wars movie (1977) as Darth's flagship Captain
Eventually, reports of these strange creatures the Tibetan people call the 'yeti' became less and less frequent and the Abominable Snowman craze soon went the way of the hula hoop and pet troll dolls.
Then, something strange happened. Another version of the Abominable Snowman surfaced. This time in and Canada. In his book, The Search for Bigfoot: Monster, Myth or Man?, Peter Byrne wrote:
Bigfoot, a creature described as standing 7 to 10 feet tall and weighing more than 500 pounds, has been seen in the mountains of California, Oregon, and Washington, and in British Columbia in Canada. Hundreds of people have described the monster as apelike, with thick fur, long arms, powerful shoulders, and a short neck.....
The Canadians think there might be a whole family of monsters roaming around. They call the creatures Sasquatch ("hairy men") after the legendary tribe of aboriginal giants in the folklore of the Indians of the Northwest Coast. The Chehalis Indians near Vancouver, British Columbia, believe that the monsters are the descendants of two bands of giants who were almost exterminated in battle many years ago.
In 1957 a Canadian lumberman claimed that 33 years earlier he had been kidnapped by a family of hairy apelike creatures while on a camping trip near Vancouver Island. He was held captive for about a week before he escaped. When the lumberman reached civilization, he decided to keep the story of his strange encounter to himself, for fear nobody would believe him. [But when sightings of the strange monsters began to occur in the northwestern United States and Canada in the 1950s, he decided to reveal his experience.]
One strange creature was even captured — at least on movie film — by a startled monster hunter in the mountains of northern California in 1967. And although the film is jumpy and unfocused, it shows the image of a tall, long-legged, apelike animal covered with dark hair.
Later referred to as the Bluff Creek encounter, this famous film from Roger Patterson & Robert Gimlin (Why, it's almost as popular as the Zapruder JFK assassination footage!) is still a favorite topic of debate among Bigfoot believers and skeptics and the question still persists — is it real? Or is it a man in a fur suit? Most primatologists and zoologists who have seen the film — in fact, most of the scientific community — have declared the film a fake, stating that 1) Nothing walks like that, 2) The beast in the film has hairy breasts and apes do not have breasts, nor do humans have hairy breasts, and 3) If it was real, science would have proven their existence before now.

Now you have a chance to view the famous home movie footage of Bigfoot and hear eyewitness accounts from people (why do they all appear to have German accents?) who have encountered this strange creature in Lawrence Crowley's documentary featurette, Bigfoot — Man or Beast? (1975), showing exclusively on TNT.
And now, here's what you've been waiting for! Bigfoot's vital statistics: 100% Weird logo
* Footprint measurements vary between 12 and 24 inches long and about 7 inches wide.
* Massive upper body, short neck, wide shoulders, deep chest.
* Stomach usually flat as in humans.
* Arms long, muscular, but not simian and reaching only to knees.
* Legs massive, muscular, but reported in considerable variation as to proportional length.
* All or most of body hair-covered, except for face, or parts of face, palms, soles of feet.
* Coloration varies, from black, light brown to reddish brown, to white.
* Reports of powerful, lingering unpleasant orders.
* Reports of loud noises, howls, screams, hootings, and whistlings.
* Females reported with pendulous breasts, usually hair-covered (sorry, Joe Bob).
So there you go! Happy hunting!

Don't miss "Bigfoot — Man or Beast?" (1975), showing exclusively on TNT on June 13, 2000 at 5:15 am ET/PT

Ask Bigfoot


Back to Monstervision, or Scifans

MonsterVision 100% Weird description above
©2000 Turner Network Television. A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved

WARNING: Consumption of alcohol may cause you to roll over in the morning and see something really scary (whose species and/or name you can't remember).