The Goddard Bigfoot Video
Posted by: Loren Coleman on March 29th, 2010
Anna Marie Goddard
The following enhanced version of what was formerly entitled the “Playmate video,”named in honor of Anna Marie Goddard, was taken on August 28, 1995. It is footage well-worth reconsidering. For an semi-scholarly discussion of the footage, see the BBC Wildlife, September 1998 sidebar, by Jeff Meldrum and Richard Greenwell.
For the historical record, Dr. Jeff Meldrum renamed what was at first called the “Playmate Bigfoot video” to the “Redwoods video” (so it would be taken more seriously).
The crew was filming a pilot in which a Playboy Playmate named Anna Marie Goddard was involved. She does not appear in the “Redwoods video” but was in the RV when the footage was taken. Nevertheless, the undertones of her presence are significant in analyzing this entire scenario and how this video is viewed today.
The question must be asked, would the initial attention to this video have even been there without Ms. Goddard’s involvement? Were her rather outspoken candid statements (for example, on the “Tonight Show” with Jay Leno and on “Weakest Link”) that she had seen a Bigfoot, critical to this video being viewed more widely? What about acknowledging her bravery in coming forward as an eyewitness? What about examining the themes of speculation (that a Bigfoot penis is visible in the footage) underlying this video because of her part in the story?
While Goddard’s presence may be underplayed by other researchers, maybe the time is proper to take another look at why this was originally entitled the “Playmate video,” giving her due credit for her openness about her experience.
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.
I had been hoping to see this video for years after first reading about it in your book. (Yes, I was hoping she was in it-but still very interesting) And I agree, you have to give her credit for coming forward about something few others would have.
Spooky footage but my money’s on a publicity stunt that never really took off. The big, swinging “Bigfoot penis” is especially weird considering:
A) most non-human primates have very small penises relative to their bodies (gorillas and chimps, for example, only have 2″ penises).
B) it’s just flopping around out in the breeze, which is something never seen or even spoken about in any other Bigfoot accounts I’ve heard of.
C) The footage is connected to a Playboy Playmate and may have been a publicity stunt for a pilot that needed all the attention it could get. “Playboy Playmate Draws Attention from Bigfoot Penis” seems like a headline written for the AP (or at least the Weekly World News).
Still, that doesn’t invalidate the footage by itself. It only means that the “penis” may have just been something else the sasquatch was carrying.
Also, the thing moves like a man in a suit and the crappy, shaky, blurry quality of the footage is a little suspect, considering this was a professional camera crew with professional grade equipment everywhere. Why did someone else not grab a second camera?
Glad to see this brought up for consideration.
Skunkmoney2002 makes some good points in his previous comment, though, it should be pointed out that penis size in non-human primates may be irrelevant if BF, should they prove to be real, turn out to be an archaic form of human and thus no closer from the standpoint of evolutionary adaptation to the ‘other non-human primates’ than we ourselves are, and even then, we see a considerable range in modern human males, and for that matter, when it comes to secondary sexual characteristics, we see a wide range of sizes and morphologies in both males and females in humans populations.
There are some other accounts of people reporting sexual aspects to BF behavior, though not the specifics seen here, which from one perpsective I can think of, makes this almost more compelling. Imagine two groups of campers with one being a bunch of guys or a family in a winnebago just like all the others, and another filled with people who are engaged in behaviors with a sexual overtone, in this case making a video with a sexualized theme. My contention is that if one had only ones olfactory senses to distinguish one group from another, the group with the playmate might very well exude the kind of pheremone signals that as socialized primates we’ve learned to ignore or have lost our ability to detect, whereas a solitary hominin adapted to living in a very large territory with a disperse lifestyle in which scent plays a significant role, could might very well have those sensibilities honed to a fine degree of sensitivity since its ability to identify and locate mates would be dependent on that ability.
As to its being a publicity stunt…seems like even the most enfeebled hollywood producer intent on pulling off a publicity stunt could have done a whole lot better and gotten a lot more mileage out of an incident than this one did.
Wait what was the question. I’m finding it really hard to concentrate for some reason. 🙂
Crappy looking suit, no muscles or clear shape other than the rubber dong for comedy effect. The fact of who this was filmed around says one of two things intended hoax or the crew was playing a joke on a ditzy blonde porno chic. My money’s on the later. Crap like this makes the uphill battle for bigfooters to be taken seriously quite difficult.
Okay, okay, korollocke, so you think this about Ms. Goddard, “Crappy looking suit, no muscles or clear shape.”
But how do you really feel about the video footage? Now don’t hold anything back!
All I really see is a vaguely blobsquatchy shape. And I (perhaps luckily) don’t see this Bigfoot penis everyone seems to be talking about.
I’ve seen a more convincing sexual interest of an ape in a human female in INGAGI! Circa 1930! Great grandaddy of the hoax documentary. Much like this is, it (INGAGI!) was pushed as real. INGAGI! even teased the reveal of human/ape hybrids!
I’m trying to find a “rubber dong for comedy effect” on the subject hominid.
I can’t. In fact, based on what is known, the subject hominid shouldn’t have a dong – of any sort – at all. The eye color and the gaze – particularly in the last photograph from the top – seem to be in line with what is frequently reported for the subject hominid.
Now, as to what is in the footage…
I will freely admit the footage is so dark and grainy as to be of little use however if it is a fake then the people responsible had to have gone up there with a fur suit a preconcieved notion to fake such a thing.
I doubt they just happened to have a fake gorilla or bigfoot suit hanging around in the back of the RV. Also, there were several people in that vehicle, you can hear their voices, so assuming they’re all in on the stunt, they’ve managed to keep their mouths shut for a fairly long time.
To the best of my knowlege, no ones come out and claimed they were the “man in the suit” or that they built the suit or sold them a cheap costume etc…. Now granted, none of this even comes close to proving this thing is in any way legitimate, I’m just pointing out some issues that haven’t been discussed as yet…..
Hmmmm, something tells me my husband will suddenly become much more interested in my cryptozoology obsession. 😉
It’s the lightly colored long object that person in the crappy suit bobs up and down while starring directly at the camera man.
Something wrong with that penis, flopping about like, that is not right!
And the size of the legs and movement reminds me of a guy in a suit, more specifically like Bear in the big blue house, where the body is low on the actors legs making the legs look much small and shuffle.
This bogus clip would be a lot more entertaining if it were synced to the Baby Elephant Walk song or perhaps the Swinging Safari. Then we could get Will “the thrill” Varhario to show it at Thrillville to a sell out crowd and use the proceeds to fund real bigfoot reasearch, just a thought…..
It should be noted: in Meldrum and Greenwell’s cited article, they argue, “after careful study”, that the film subject is “about 2.3m” in height, “shows the action of the gluteal muscle of the buttock during walking”, and seems to have spots of hair “rubbed off”, perhaps due to “sleeping side down or from rubbing a hip against a tree.” And, relating to genitalia: “One interpretation is that the subject is displaying an erect penis, perhaps as a form of threat…”
The investigators M and G seemed impressed, but also allowed for the possibility of a hoax.