Joey Bishop’s Patterson Bigfoot Link
Posted by: Loren Coleman on October 19th, 2007
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.
Click here for more on the Patterson Gimlin Bigfoot Film’s 40th Anniversary.
And to see visuals on the iconic imagery of Patty, please click here.
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.
See what I mean. You learn something new every day on this site.
Good article, I never knew this about Joey Bishop. Thanks Loren.
We’re losing so many bright lights. You never really realize just how old celebrities are until they’re gone.
I mean it’s a good article even though it bring’s sad new’s. RIP Joey
One ‘person’ never discussed in P/G film lore is Patty herself. I guess it goes without saying that *if* this is not a hoax, she is likely dead, now 40 years after the fact. The walk being so human, and the face (if the enhancement is accurate) as well, makes me wonder if ‘they’ take care of dead relatives. After all, there have to be many, and based on this film they seem nearly human. Sometimes though, it all just seems to fantastical to contemplate.
One is always surprised to learn a once well-known person has died because we had ASSumed they were already dead. I wonder if a web site exists listing those who are still alive from all walks of life.
I suppose Bigfoot communities could be similar to Neanderthal communities. They may well remember their dead in the same way the elephant graveyards
exist.
I did read a very good article once concerning alleged Bigfoot burials. The accounts recorded in the article were all anecdotal, of course; if a Biggy grave were ever located, we could then have the solid proof of his existence that everyone is looking for, without having to capture OR kill. In one alleged instance, a site was marked by a crude circular arrangement of stones. Perhaps Sasquatch researchers should be on the lookout for such unusual stone “markers” on the ground in known Sas territory, especially accompanied by evidence of recent digging at such a site.