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HOLLYWOOD MAKEUP ARTISTS BELIEVE FAMOUS BIGFOOT FILM IS OF A PERSON IN A SUIT

PLANET OF THE APES MAKEUP MASTER JOHN CHAMBERS
A "PRIME SUSPECT"

For almost thirty years, many Bigfoot enthusiasts have thought there actually was a Bigfoot in the famous Patterson Bigfoot movie footage photographed in October 1967 at Bluff Creek, California. But new information indicates this footage, seen in countless television programs, was likely of a man in a suit.

Strange phenomena investigator Mark Chorvinsky, in his article "The Makeup Man and the Monster: John Chambers and the Patterson Bigfoot Suit" in the current issue of Strange Magazine (#17), calls the film into question. The Patterson Bigfoot film has been largely considered the best evidence for the legendary beast's existence. Bigfoot buffs have long claimed that makeup artists believed that the suit would have been hard, if not impossible, to fabricate, but numerous Hollywood makeup artists interviewed by Chorvinsky have contradicted this.

The majority of them have now gone on record saying John Chambers, designer of the pioneering Planet of the Apes(TM) makeups in 1968, made the suit.

Academy Award®-winning Chambers denies designing the suit, but is noted for his secrecy and has in the past admitted to fabricating at least one other fake Bigfoot. The belief that Chambers made the suit in this most famous Bigfoot film has circulated among the makeup community for many years; Chorvinsky's investigation reveals it to the public.

In an investigation spanning over a year, much of it devoted to coaxing oft-secretive masters of makeup to speak for publication, Chorvinsky brought much vivid material to light.

Many leading figures in the field made their opinions known. Figuring prominently is Rick Baker (Harry and the Hendersons, Gorillas in the Mist), from whom many makeup artists heard that Chambers made the Patterson Bigfoot suit. Baker claims that he no longer to believes that Chambers fabricated the suit.

John Vulich (Babylon 5) heard the Chambers story from various people in the makeup industry, and opines that "Chambers was building suits and creatures and was really pretty much the only game in town in the '60s. It is a combination of my gut instinct, my knowledge of makeup, and all that I have heard, that makes me think that Chambers made the Patterson suit... I definitely believe he made it."

Famed film memorabilia collector and gorilla fabricator/impersonator Bob Burns says, "It is generally known in the special effects business here ...that the [Patterson] film footage was faked by John Chambers."

Chambers' onetime partner Tom Burman (Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Waterworld) differs, citing Chambers' busy 1967 schedule that might have precluded his making the suit. An anonymous informant, however, alleges Burman himself was in the suit.

Michael McCracken, Jr. (Communion) proclaims: "I'd say with almost absolute certainty that John [Chambers] made it."

And Michael McCracken, Sr., a longtime Chambers associate, opines that, "Given the time it was filmed, the appearance of the character, and the number of people capable of doing it at the time, circumstancially, John would be a very good candidate for the creator of the suit."

Virtually every makeup artist interviewed by Chorvinsky has said that the Patterson creature was most likely a person in a suit, a point that may be the most significant of his findings.

Chorvinsky, the editor/publisher of Strange Magazine, has, for the past decade been an objective full-time investigator of the "unexplained." Chorvinsky's major in-depth investigations have included the Selbyville Swamp Monster, the phony photos of Irish lake monster hoaxer Tony "Doc" Shiels, the possible extraterrestrial origin of Venus flytraps, the 1958 Birth of Bigfoot case, and the crystal skulls.

END

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