Joey Bishop’s Patterson Bigfoot Link

Joey Bishop’s publicist and longtime friend, Warren Cowan, announced Bishop died from multiple causes at home in Newport Beach, California, on Wednesday, October 17, 2007, aged 89.

Joey Bishop (February 3, 1918 – October 17, 2007) was perhaps best remembered as being a member of the “Rat Pack” with Frank Sinatra, Peter Lawford, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis Jr. He was the last survivor of that group of entertainers.

The comedian, who often filled in for Johnny Carson, tried his own hand at a similar show in the 1960s.

Few realize that Joey Bishop is part of the history of the Patterson-Gimlin film. Bishop was one of the first to have Roger Patterson appear on his late-night program soon after the October 20, 1967, filming of the Bigfoot at Bluff Creek.

The television talk show, The Joey Bishop Show (1967-1969), was a 90-minute late-night talk show on ABC. Bishop’s co-host for the show was then-newcomer Regis Philbin.

Roger Patterson also appeared on Merv Griffin’s program, with Dr. Grover Krantz offering his analysis of the Patterson-Gimlin film, in the fall of 1967. Merv Griffin, born on July 6, 1925, likewise recently died, on August 12, 2007. In 1965, Griffin launched a syndicated talk show for Group W (Westinghouse Broadcasting) entitled The Merv Griffin Show, which lasted 21 years on the air.

As far as I have been able to determine, no copies of Roger Patterson’s appearances, showing the film of Bigfoot, on The Joey Bishop Show or The Merv Griffin Show have surfaced in the last 40 years.

Roger Patterson died of Hodgkin’s disease in January 1972, at the age of 38, a little over four years after filming Bigfoot.

Loren Coleman About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct). Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015. Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.

Email • Facebook • Twitter •