"The PG Film, What's YOUR Opinion"

By Frank Cali Vice President Team Tracker

     If you've been reading the skeptic's point of view on this blog over the past few days, it would be interesting to get your opinions on the PG film aka "The Patterson/Gimlin Film"

     Many prominent people in the Bigfoot community are of the opinion that the film is fake. Rick Dyer, Musky Allen, Dallas Gilbert and many more stand firm that the film is a hoax. The creature in the PG film does not look like the Bigfoot's I have personally seen.

"2 stills from the PG Film. 3rd is an artist retouching of the "Face"

     Since 1967 when the film was shot by Roger Patterson, the controversy continues to this very day. If you have read the book by Greg Long called "The Making of Bigfoot", you get a very good idea of the type of person Patterson was. Even his own brother-in-law, Al DeAtley when asked if Patterson could have faked the film, he states "Yes, he could have. I never asked him because I didn’t want to know". So, here goes the question to all of you that reads this blog. What is YOUR opinion on the film? Is it real or is it fake.

     You can email you comments at: teamtracker2013@aol.com and we will post them on this blog in a few days. We won't use your names, we just want your opinion. A yes or no would be fine also.

     Soon, you will all see a 100% real Bigfoot body that was shot and killed by Rick Dyer on September 6, 1012. Then the PG film will be irrelevant.

"A Skeptic's View Of The PG Film Part 2"

Two still shots of the PG film, 3rd is an artist touch up of the face

 

 

(Editors note: This is part 2 in a series from a skeptics point of view in the PG film.  These opinions do not necessarily express the opinions of Rick Dyer or any Team Tracker member. Again, These are the opinions of a skeptic and his point of view of the PG film.)


Patterson was quite a character, and had always been. He'd been a competitive rodeo cowboy, part-time rancher, and full-time slacker. Few who knew him had anything positive to say about him. His reputation was that he never paid his bills. He borrowed money, lied about it, and never paid it back. He was physically very strong — not an ounce of fat, and thick with muscles — and was fond of showing it off. He knew everything better than anyone, and nobody could tell him a thing. He never kept interest in one career very long. One day he'd build stagecoaches for miniature horses; the next day he'd repaint junk found at the dump and sell it. But his one saving grace was his wife Patricia. Patty had a brother in Yakima, WA, Al DeAtley, a successful asphalt contractor, who provided money whenever it was needed. It was this even keel that got Roger Patterson through.

The story goes that Patterson and Gimlin had developed a strong interest in Bigfoot, and in October 1967 they rented the movie camera and went off on horseback for a couple weeks to look for it. Next thing they knew, they'd become the luckiest Bigfoot hunters in history, when the creature obligingly stepped out of the woods and strode across the clearing for Patterson's camera, in the early afternoon of October 20th. Gimlin chased it on horseback, lost it, but found its footprints; then they rode about 5 kilometers back to camp for their plaster of paris. They rode back, poured plaster into the footprints, waited for it to dry, then went back to camp again. They loaded their horses into the trailer and drove 40 kilometers on rough fire roads back to Willow Creek, and posted the film off to Yakima to get it developed. It was about 4:00 in the afternoon.


The glaring impossibility of this timeline is what first raised suspicions among skeptics. In response, Patterson and Gimlin began providing all sorts of different versions of their story. Other suspicious cryptozoologists, such as Peter Byrne, found holes and contradictions in those stories. In the end, the version Patterson and Gimlin settled on was that they put the film onto a plane and flew it to Yakima, where Al DeAtley picked it up to have it developed. Byrne found that the only charter planes that could have flown that route that day were all grounded due to rain and bad weather. Since then, few serious researchers took Patterson and Gimlin's story seriously.

Roger Patterson

But the film had already grown larger than all of them. It was a sensation, and to this day, rakes in revenue in licensing fees. DeAtley backed Patterson and formed Bigfoot Enterprises on November 1, just 10 days after the shoot, and reported $200,000 in the first year. Make no mistake about it: for the late 1960's and a man who used dig through the dump, Bigfoot was big money. Throughout the 1970's, Patty Patterson, Al DeAtley, Bob Gimlin, and a wildlife film company fought numerous lawsuits with one another over the rights to the footage. The biggest winner was a Bigfoot fan named Rene Dahinden, who ended up with about half of the rights, and Patty with the other half.

It was in 2004 that author Greg Long dug into this mess to sort everything out. Over a period of six years, he actually went and met face to face with all of these characters who were still alive, and many other people — anyone he could find who knew Patterson or was involved in the film in any way. His entire adventure was published in his entertaining book The Making of Bigfoot: The Inside Story.



(More to come in Part 3)

 

"A Skeptic's Look At The PG Film Part 1"

Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin

 

 

(Here's a skeptic's point of view regarding the famous Patterson-Gimlin film. These opinions do not necessarily express the opinions of Rick Dyer or any Team Tracker member. Again, These are the opinions of a skeptic and his point of view of the PG film.)
 

You've seen it a hundred times: the iconic picture of Bigfoot striding heavily through the clearing, arms swinging, head and shoulders turned slightly toward the camera. This famous image is frame 352 of a 16mm silent color film shot in 1967 in northern California by rancher Roger Patterson, accompanied by his friend, Bob Gimlin. The impact that this film has had on Bigfoot mythology is inestimable; and correspondingly, so has its impact upon paranormal, cryptozoological, and pop culture mythologies in general. I might well not be doing this if the 1967 Patterson-Gimlin film had not turned legend and fancy into concrete, tangible, see-it-with-your-own-eyes reality.


Whether or not Bigfoot exists is one question — the answer to which has not exactly whitened the knuckles of science — but the authenticity of the Patterson-Gimlin film is something else. If Bigfoot were known to be a real animal, an investigation into the authenticity of the film would make sense. If Bigfoot were known to not exist, then it would be logically moot to study the film at all; it must be a fake. But for today's purpose, we're going to brush aside the larger question (which should never be done in real science) and focus only on this detail. We'll assume that the existence of Bigfoot is an open question (a big assumption), and just for fun, let's see what we can determine on whether this famous film clip is a deliberate hoax, or whether it shows a real animal, or whether there might be some other explanation. Maybe it's a misidentification, or an elaborate film flaw, or an unknown third party hoaxing Patterson and Gimlin. There are many possibilities.


Roger Patterson died of cancer only a few years after the film was shot, and never offered any clue other than that the film was genuine. Bob Gimlin remained silent for 25 years, and ever since he began speaking about it in the 1990s he has firmly stated that he was unaware of any hoax, but allowed for the possibility that he may have been hoaxed himself. Nobody else is known to have participated, and so the only two people whom we can say for certain were present when the film was shot are both stonewalls. So we must look elsewhere.


The original film no longer exists (only copies), and there is no record of anyone ever having possessed the original print. We don't know why, but we're left without the original film's leader, which would have included the date when it was developed. Thus, we have only Patterson's word for when it was developed, so we can't verify that the film was shot and developed on the days he claims it was. The original also would have included any other shots that were taken, such as possible alternate takes. If these were ever seen, we'd know for a fact that it was faked. So that's one more line of evidence that is unavailable to us.


No one has ever produced documentation like receipts showing when and where the film was developed. We know when and where Patterson rented the camera, but that's not really in dispute. He had it in his possession for plenty of time before and after the alleged date of the filming. So that's yet another dead end. Patterson covered his tracks very effectively (no Bigfoot pun intended).

 

 

(Part two to be contined)

"Bob Gimlin Endorses Squatchlt"

 

by Frank Cali Vice President Team Tracker

 

 

 

Alot of people say Bob Gimlin didn't make much money on the Patterson/Gimlin film allegedly showing a Bigfoot in 1967. It's been called the PG film, but mostly the Patterson film that was  filmed on October 20, 1967 on Bluff Creek a tributary of the Klamath River about 25 road miles north-west of Orleans, California. The film was shot by Patterson as Gimlin looked on with gun at the ready.

We know Patterson made money on the film as he showed it all over the country. Patterson died on January 15, 1972 of cancer. The copyright is now held by his wife.

Gimlin has now been signed up to endorse the gadget called Squatchlt. It looks kind of like a duck caller and sounds like a duck in heat. It's a novelty item really and it's a fun thing to play around with when your bored. I'm sure the kids would love it, but it isn't going to bring in them Squatch. I can see the BFRO using it on the "Finding Bigfoot" TV show. Hell, why not? they've done just about all the stupid things you can do week after week with no results. Flying in air balloons, ATV's and fireworks. So why not try the Squatchlt? Cliff Barackman endorsed as well.

I can see Bobo using it now if the show remands on the air? The ratings will start to drop, as each show is the same as the last. They should have named it "Not Finding Bigfoot".

Rick Dyer didn't use the Squatchlt and he actually shot and killed a Bigfoot. They don't call him "The Greatest Bigfoot Tracker in the World" for nothing.

Maybe Santa will bring you your very own Squatchlt this year, A great way to drive your neighbors crazy or if you want to break your lease on your apartment blowing it 3am in the morning