Patterson-Gimlin Bigfoot From One Million Years B.C.?

“Aaron Swepston, the person I invited to the Yakima meet, pulled this up [see below], after buying the DVD of One Million Years B.C. with Raquel Welch, so his kid can watch it. It was released in the UK in 1966 and in the USA February 21, 1967.

All the time I watched this movie I paid more attention to Raquel Welch than the creatures, so I was amazed that these critters were even in the movie. Aaron e-mailed me out of the blue earlier this year and I have met him one time, in Yakima in May.

The hairy apemen appear to be visible in this clip at exactly the 1:00 minute mark.

In creating One Million Years B.C. (1966), no doubt, the objective of the film’s producers was for people to pay “more attention to Raquel Welch than the creatures.” For example, the Archelon (a giant turtle) is three times the size of the actual prehistoric extinct Archelon.

One Million Years B.C. is an adventure film/fantasy film starring Raquel Welch as “Loana the Fair One” of the Shell Tribe set – loosely – in the time of “cave people.” The film was made by UK’s Hammer Film Productions, and was a remake of the 1940 Hollywood film One Million B.C..

It portrays dinosaurs and humans living together, even though the last dinosaurs became extinct roughly 65 million years before present, and Homo sapiens (modern humans) did not exist until about 200,000 years BC.

Special effects creator Ray Harryhausen stated in a commentary of the unfinished film, Creation, found on the King Kong 1933 DVD, that he did not make One Million Years B.C. for “professors” who in his opinion “probably don’t go to the cinema anyway.”

I admire greatly the art of Harryhausen, but I beg to differ with his characterization of “professors” on the above point, needless to say. 🙂

Professors, retired professors, students, and former students love Harryhausen films, but don’t look to this “B.C.” movie to be “P.C.” (“paleontologically correct” or “paleoanthropologically correct”).

More significantly for our purposes today, did the film have something to do with the Patterson-Gimlin footage? It is worthy of further investigations, that’s for sure.

Movie credits include,
Costume Design by Carl Toms;
Costume and Wardrobe Department
Ivy Baker (wardrobe mistress);
Special Effects by George Blackwell (special effects);
Visual Effects by Ray Harryhausen (special visual effects creator), and Bob Cuff (matte painter, uncredited).

No easy reference to the source of the “apemen” outfits shown above that appear to be similar in appearance to the Patterson-Gimlin Bigfoot can be found.

Cinema history has mostly overlooked John Richardson and the costumed anthropoids. It may be time to remedy this oversight, at least for the “hairy apemen.”

Appreciation to Daniel Perez for sharing the comparative Bigfoot/movie images.

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.

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