1967 - Background - Magician and Costume Maker Philip Morris (RIP)

[Trogluddite]

Greg Long's book The Making of Bigfoot contains a useful chapter on Philip Morris, 1935 - 2017, who claimed to have made the "the Bigfoot suit for a famous film" according to AI.  This chapter is useful because it locks in Philip Morris's story about how he sold the gorilla suit used in the P-G film to Roger Patterson.¹  More on that later. 

 

An abbreviated autobiography of Philip Morris can be found at https://www.circusesandsideshows.com/performers/phillipmorris.html.  It should be acknowledged that Philip Morris was apparently a talented and hard-working entertainer.  He was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan and was performing publicly as a magician at a young age, as shown in this article from The Kalamazoo Gazette on October 21, 1953.  

 

 

In 1960 Philip Morris started, and starred in, Dr. Evil's Horror Theater - a show like Svengoolie, Elvira Mistress of the Dark, and Chilly Billy Cardille, where hosts showed old horror movies and interjected humor (of a sort).  This photo shows Philip Morris (seated) and may or may not include one of his gorilla costumes. 
 

 

By 1967 and 1968, Philip Morris was performing his Wonderful World of Fantasy nationwide, a show which continued into the 1970s. 

 

 

Morris told Greg Long that he began making gorilla costumes in the basement of his house and was selling them to circuses and vaudeville shows which could not afford the high price of a Hollywood gorilla suit (which were usually owned by the actors who played gorillas themself).  It is one of these gorilla suits that was allegedly used by Roger Patterson to create Patty. 

 

¹  Philip Morris apparently first claimed to have sold Roger Patterson a gorilla costume during a August 16, 2002 interview on WBT-AM, Charlotte, North Carolina radio.  He was also interviewed, apparently briefly, on the issue by Ormon Grimsby on September 16, 2009.  See http://www.horrorhostgraveyard.com/2009/09/ormon-grimsby-interviews-dr-evil.html.  This interview was identified by Forums member Apeman; however the link to the actual interview (http://mcftv.com/) is now dead.  

 

Edited 2 hours ago by Trogluddite
To correct Philip Morris's name from Robert; small edits for conciseness. Then to add a footnote.