Page 77 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - September 2021

Costume Retailer: Bigfoot A Fake 77

Costume Retailer: Bigfoot

A Fake

By Tonya Jameson

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Philip Morris may own
one of the nation’s largest wholesale costume
retailers, but in his heart the 70year-old is still a
suave magician and storyteller.

Now, one of Morris’ stories has put him at the
center of a debate over one of America’s most
enduring legends -- Bigfoot.

Since starting his Charlotte, N.C., business in
the early ’60s, the entrepreneur has built Morris
Costumes into an empire. The company’s
costumes have appeared in big Hollywood
films, and some 10,000 businesses buy his
costumes, props and other stage products.

Although a giant in his field, the tale of one of
his gorilla suits is generating buzz outside the
amusement industry and has Bigfoot believers Patterson-Gimlin film became a disputed piece Morris says of the skeptics, “You’re interfering
stomping mad. of Bigfoot evidence, Morris said he never heard with their belief system. It’s like telling a child
from Patterson. Morris told friends and relatives there’s no Santa Claus. []
In “The Making of Bigfoot: The Inside Story,” that the creature shot with a 16mm camera was
(Prometheus Books) published in March, author actually someone wearing his gorilla suit.
Greg Long devoted a chapter to telling Morris’
alleged connection to the famed Bigfoot film He says he refrained from going public because
shot by Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin. The he did not want to expose a fellow illusionist.
film, which has aired on TV specials, shows a
grainy image supposedly of Sasquatch walking “In my mind it was a magic trick,” he said.
in a northern California national forest in
October 1967. Morris never met Patterson, Gimlin or Bob
Heironimus, the man featured in Long’s book as
Morris says the PattersonGimlin film depicts a the wearer of the suit.
man wearing a gorilla suit, which had been
hand-sewn in the basement of his home. “I wasn’t there when they shot the film,” Morris
said. “I didn’t know they were going to do that.” SOME OF KEVIN RANDLE’S
When he started his costume business more than GUESTS INCLUDE:
40 years ago, Morris was a touring magician Morris did not start speaking publicly about the
who recruited his wife and her friends to help Bigfoot suit until Patterson died in the early Robert Scheaffer * Mike Rogers * Dr. Abraham
make gorilla suits from their Charlotte house. ’70s. (Avi) Loeb * Peter Robbins * John Greenwald *
Don Schmitt * Robert Swiatek * Nick Redfern *
In 1967, a man called, identified himself as Long found Morris after a Bigfoot researcher Kathleen Marden * Jacques Vallee * Paolo
Roger Patterson and said he was a rodeo cowboy sent him an email about a Morris interview on a Harris * Don Ecker * Tony Bragalia * Bill
Konkolesky * Lawrence R Spencer * David
who wanted to buy a gorilla suit for a gag, Charlotte radio station in 2002.
Marler * James McQuiston * William Puckett *
Morris recalled.
When Long called Morris, he had finished most Colonel Richard Weaver * Ben Moss * Lee
Speigel * Susan Swiatek * Joe Murgia * Matt
Morris Costumes was one of the few companies of his book. After interviewing Morris four Tiller * John Steiger * Calvin Parker * Tom
making relatively inexpensive gorilla suits. times last November, the writer believed the Carey * Andy Marocco * Bernie O’Connor *
Patterson paid $435 plus shipping and handling Charlotte costume maker because many of his Diane Tessman * Curtis Collins * David
for the suit. comments corroborated things Heironimus said Halperin * Michael Hall * Robert Koford *
about the suit. David Shindele * Peter Davenport * Tim
“I didn’t think it was a real big deal,” Morris Whitmore * Kenneh Dudley * John Burroughs *
said. “It was just another sale.” Bigfoot researchers say Morris’ claim is just that Ryan Wood * Colonel Charles Halt * Jan Harzan
-- a story. * Jim Willis * Robert Cornett * Jim Penniston *
Don Burleson * Paul Davids * Stephen Bassett *
Patterson later called asking how to make it
more realistic, Morris said. Use a stick to extend “For him to suggest that is just wishful thinking Alejandro Rojas * Bruce Fenton * Dan Wright *
Dr. Bruce Mccabbe * Dan Fascas * Jerry Clark *
the arms, brush the fur to cover the zipper and on his part,” said Jeff Meldrum, an associate
Mark O’Connell * Larry Holcombe * Terry
wear football pads to make the shoulders bigger, professor of anatomy and anthropology at Idaho
Lovelace * Dr. Michael Masters * Bryan Sentes
Morris told him. State University, who has studied the Patterson * Nick Pope * Christopher Montgomery *
film. Auturo Interian * Keith Plaskett * Paul S Hynek
He never heard from Patterson again. * James Carrion * Adam Dew * Dr. Thomas
Bigfoot believers say the bend of the human Eddie Bullard * And Many More!
Sometime in October 1967, Morris was in his elbow debunks Morris’ theory that a stick
living room when he saw the now-famous extended the arms because the creature’s elbow Listen To All Kevin’s Past Shows At
Bigfoot footage on TV. joint is proportional to its body, its fur looks real
and its torso is longer and wider than an average https://www.spreaker.com/show/kevin-
Even after what would become known as the person’s. randle-different-perspective