QUOTE
‘Bigfoot’ still attracts believers
Despite recent hoax, the mythical creature’s popularity endures
By CHRISTIAN BOONE - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution - Friday, August 29, 2008
Without the benefit of handlers, publicists or even a stylist, Bigfoot once again wandered into the spotlight.
Even though the half-man, half-ape’s latest comeback in Georgia ended badly, don’t assume we’ve seen the last of him. The creature, or at least the myth, endures, in spite of all the wannabe P.T. Barnums who have tried to cash in on his fame.
“It’s amazing to me that people made a big of deal out of it as they did,” said Bradd Shore, director of the Emory Center for Myth and Ritual in American Life. “But our myths and stories are so populated by the part-man, part-animal, and Bigfoot represents that. It attracts and repels at the same time.”
Former Clayton County cop Matt Whitton and Rick Dyer, a onetime corrections officer, informed the world they had found a bigfoot corpse in the North Georgia mountains, promising to produce the frozen body and accepting $50,000 from a promoter. Media outlets here and abroad, including National Geographic and the BBC, covered their press conference, with Whitton’s police background lending credibility.
When it was revealed the body was a Halloween costume filled with road kill, the duo admitted it was a hoax all along. They are being investigated by Clayton County police but no charges have been filed.
“Bigfoot doesn’t exist,” Dyer explained in an interview with WSB-TV, calling their ruse “a big joke.” He and Whitton have since refused all requests for comment.
Not everyone shares Dyer’s conviction. While the scientific community is almost uniformly dismissive of Bigfoot and his believers, some prominent dissenters have emerged, including famed primatologist Jane Goodall.
“Well now, you’ll be amazed when I tell you that I’m sure that they exist,” she told National Public Radio in a 2002 interview. “I’ve talked to so many Native Americans who all describe the same sounds, two who have seen them.”
For lay people, the mystery of Sasquatch — as he was known among the Indian tribes of southwest British Columbia — is too compelling to ignore, said Robert Thompson, founding director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University.
“In this MapQuested, GPS nation of ours, that there could be something like this out there in the woods is fascinating,” Thompson said.
But in this case the thing out in the woods is also a celebrity, particularly for the children of Baby Boomers who grew up fearing Bigfoot, the go-to bogeyman of the 1970s.
While he never quite reached the A-List, Bigfoot was ubiquitous through much of the decade, appearing in several movies and television shows. He famously battled the Six-Million Dollar Man and even starred in a short-lived Saturday morning series (alongside D-lister Wildboy, who has yet to resurface).
“There is a nostalgic quality to it,” Thompson said. “The idea of Bigfoot as something that scares us is kind of quaint in this time when there are such real fears out there. We would be so lucky if Bigfoot was our biggest fear.”
Tales of human-like beasts exist in most cultures. Tibet and Nepal have the Yeti. China’s “Bigfoot” is known as the Yeren. In Australia, he’s the Yowie.
Sasquatch has been a staple of North American folklore for generations, though his popularity soared when, in 1967, Roger Patterson and Robert Gimlin captured a purported Bigfoot on film, striding through the woods near Bluff Creek, Calif.
There are more true believers than assumed, said Matt Moneymaker, president of the Bigfoot Field Researchers Office in Southern California.
“The intensity of the curiosity over Bigfoot continues to grow,” said Moneymaker, whose organization thinks a tribe of Sasquatch exists in the North Georgia mountains where Whitton and Dyer claim to have made their discovery.
While the BFRO has called for charges to be brought against Dyer, Whitton and promoter Tom Biscardi — a longtime Bigfoot tracker who claimed in 2005 to have access to a captured Sasquatch — the attention hasn’t been bad for business.
“We had a million hits the day of their announcement,” said Moneymaker, who believes “legitimate remains will one day be found. “It’s inevitable.”
“I don’t know any news operation that can resist shark attacks or Bigfoot sightings,” Thompson said. “They’ll be with us forever.”
Despite recent hoax, the mythical creature’s popularity endures
By CHRISTIAN BOONE - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution - Friday, August 29, 2008
Without the benefit of handlers, publicists or even a stylist, Bigfoot once again wandered into the spotlight.
Even though the half-man, half-ape’s latest comeback in Georgia ended badly, don’t assume we’ve seen the last of him. The creature, or at least the myth, endures, in spite of all the wannabe P.T. Barnums who have tried to cash in on his fame.
“It’s amazing to me that people made a big of deal out of it as they did,” said Bradd Shore, director of the Emory Center for Myth and Ritual in American Life. “But our myths and stories are so populated by the part-man, part-animal, and Bigfoot represents that. It attracts and repels at the same time.”
Former Clayton County cop Matt Whitton and Rick Dyer, a onetime corrections officer, informed the world they had found a bigfoot corpse in the North Georgia mountains, promising to produce the frozen body and accepting $50,000 from a promoter. Media outlets here and abroad, including National Geographic and the BBC, covered their press conference, with Whitton’s police background lending credibility.
When it was revealed the body was a Halloween costume filled with road kill, the duo admitted it was a hoax all along. They are being investigated by Clayton County police but no charges have been filed.
“Bigfoot doesn’t exist,” Dyer explained in an interview with WSB-TV, calling their ruse “a big joke.” He and Whitton have since refused all requests for comment.
Not everyone shares Dyer’s conviction. While the scientific community is almost uniformly dismissive of Bigfoot and his believers, some prominent dissenters have emerged, including famed primatologist Jane Goodall.
“Well now, you’ll be amazed when I tell you that I’m sure that they exist,” she told National Public Radio in a 2002 interview. “I’ve talked to so many Native Americans who all describe the same sounds, two who have seen them.”
For lay people, the mystery of Sasquatch — as he was known among the Indian tribes of southwest British Columbia — is too compelling to ignore, said Robert Thompson, founding director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University.
“In this MapQuested, GPS nation of ours, that there could be something like this out there in the woods is fascinating,” Thompson said.
But in this case the thing out in the woods is also a celebrity, particularly for the children of Baby Boomers who grew up fearing Bigfoot, the go-to bogeyman of the 1970s.
While he never quite reached the A-List, Bigfoot was ubiquitous through much of the decade, appearing in several movies and television shows. He famously battled the Six-Million Dollar Man and even starred in a short-lived Saturday morning series (alongside D-lister Wildboy, who has yet to resurface).
“There is a nostalgic quality to it,” Thompson said. “The idea of Bigfoot as something that scares us is kind of quaint in this time when there are such real fears out there. We would be so lucky if Bigfoot was our biggest fear.”
Tales of human-like beasts exist in most cultures. Tibet and Nepal have the Yeti. China’s “Bigfoot” is known as the Yeren. In Australia, he’s the Yowie.
Sasquatch has been a staple of North American folklore for generations, though his popularity soared when, in 1967, Roger Patterson and Robert Gimlin captured a purported Bigfoot on film, striding through the woods near Bluff Creek, Calif.
There are more true believers than assumed, said Matt Moneymaker, president of the Bigfoot Field Researchers Office in Southern California.
“The intensity of the curiosity over Bigfoot continues to grow,” said Moneymaker, whose organization thinks a tribe of Sasquatch exists in the North Georgia mountains where Whitton and Dyer claim to have made their discovery.
While the BFRO has called for charges to be brought against Dyer, Whitton and promoter Tom Biscardi — a longtime Bigfoot tracker who claimed in 2005 to have access to a captured Sasquatch — the attention hasn’t been bad for business.
“We had a million hits the day of their announcement,” said Moneymaker, who believes “legitimate remains will one day be found. “It’s inevitable.”
“I don’t know any news operation that can resist shark attacks or Bigfoot sightings,” Thompson said. “They’ll be with us forever.”
