The Legend of Boggy Creek: Drive-In Promotion
Posted by: Mark Jaramillo on March 8th, 2013
To promote The Legend of Boggy Creek at a drive-in back in the 1970s, one of the owners dressed in a monster costume to scare the patrons. This is vintage Super 8 footage/photos of him in the costume. (Courtesy of Michael McGaughey & Mark Jaramillo.)
I was made aware of the initial photos in a Facebook group when I posted a review of Lyle’s book. Michael McGaughey was a member of the group and shared the pics of him in the costume at the Drive-In entrance. He explained that his brother was the manager of the Drive-In and Michael was appointed to wear the homemade costume to help promote the film and have fun at the theater with the attendees. I asked Michael if he had any more photos, so he provided this video to me.
Mark Jaramillo has been a lifelong enthusiast of Cryptozoology and monster movies with a special love for Japanese Science Fiction Cinema and Television. Field Research has included Bluff Creek and Boggy Creek, with Lochs Ness and Morar upcoming. He lives in Monrovia, California.
That was awesome! If that were me in the costume, I would have aped the walk of the costumed characters from Planet of the Apes to look more authentic. Brilliant costume.
Man, I miss drive-ins. I saw classics like “Godzilla vs. Megalon” and “Swamp Thing” from the back seat of a ’71 Impala, the sound coming from a big metal speaker hanging on the partially rolled-down window. Good times.
HAHA! That costume was great!
At about the time Boggy Creek was making its second run a half decade later, at the height of the disco era, I saw another film on the subject which impacted me as much, if not more, entitled Sasquatch: The Legend of Bigfoot. The re-creation of the attack on the miners in Ape Canyon scared the hell out of me!