When I was a young lad in Erie PA, I think in the middle to late 70s, once there was a travelling sideshow-like display in our local mall, “The Creature In Ice”. It was supposed to be a bigfoot/sasquatch in a block of ice.
If it is the same thing, I don’t recall it being advertised as a “fabricated illusion”, but that may simply be a failure of my memory. No doubt even if it was mentioned at all, it was downplayed.
Of course, even if they claimed it was real I’d be sure today it was fake, but it sure was quite a thrill to me a kid! Anybody else see this thing?
Yes! I recall its promoters saying something like “We’re not saying it’s real, and we’re not saying it’s fake; you decide.” I hadn’t thought of it in years.
I think I saw one of the carnival, knock-off shows in the early eighties. A very poor and obvious fake, it was still pretty cool… The anticipation was worth it.
“Scientists have proven that the sasquatch he is real
Take a look at the plaster cast of his foot now you know he’s real
Listen real close to the audio tape not human now you know he’s real
Couldn’t be a man in gorilla suit no fuckin’ way now you know he’s real
Real real real-real real real really-real real”
Wait a minute. By 1974 I had already been married and divorced and was living in Nashville trying to sing country music. :eek: I was not going to mall exhibits with my sisters and parents. Mid-60s is a more likely date for the “iceman” I remember. So it may not be the same one, unless he enjoyed a longer and more successful career than I’m giving him credit for.
I pretty much forgot about it too, which I find odd. As a “believer” until after I hit puberty or so, I thought it would have made a bigger impression on me.
I remember reading the Argosy article back in the 1960s. The writer was shown the creature in a block of ice by a carny somewhere. A drawing accompanied the article. IIRC, supposedly it was a Yeti that had been encased in a glacier, broke off, and was washed down a river in China.
Yes, that sounds entirely plausible. I suppose there’s places in Minnesota where one can purchase enough marijuana to find the guy’s story believable.
I must say, though; I’m a bit distressed at Mr. Hansen’s insistence that he has the world’s oldest tractor on display. I myself have what appears to be an older tractor, that was entrusted to me personally by a shadowy cigarette-smoking figure in the parking garage of the Atlanta Marriott Marquis on the evening of September 3, 2005. The vehicle in question was supposedly discovered in the mid-1800’s on a remote island in the South China Sea, where it was worshipped as a god by the natives. It was recently smuggled into the United States disguised as a crate of live Madagascar lemurs for country music diva Lee Ann Womack (whose shameful dietary addiction is nonetheless well-known in certain circles). The machine is reputedtly crafted of mithril-steel and Atlantean orichalc; metallurgical tests are pending, as the mysterious patron does not wish to endanger his anonymity with the global archaeological and religious upheaval that would no doubt ensue from the revelation of antediluvian tractor worship.
Now that just silly, everyone knows Lee Ann Womack actually is addicted to Fiji Island banded iguana. You expect us to believe these stories at least make them plausible.
Jim
Invisible disclaimer: If anyone treats my responce seriously I feel very sorry for you, I don’t even know who Lee Ann Womack is other than a quick google.
I’m sad that I have no recollection of any of this, child of the '70s that I was. But I’d like to suggest that maybe there was a host of these creatures, making the rounds. It’s not that hard to come up with an imitation, when you think about it. Hmm… maybe time for a revival?
I saw one of those back then as well. I remember that one of its hands was near enough to the surface of the ice that you could see pores and the hairs on its wrists . If it was a fake, it was a pretty good one. As a <10 year old, it scared the crap outta me. I remember that you could se a fair amount of its body as well. Its face was distorted and obscured by what appeared to be bubbles in th ice. I suppse it could have been a wax casting of a person, or a very detailed fake. Or even a real human corpse frozen. Never really thought much about it till now. Thanks for dredging up that little horror from my childhood memories.
And now, having read the article, I am convinced that that was the same one I saw. The picture of the dispaly stand in a mall meshes exactly of my memory of it. So it WAS a phony then? Huh. Pretty damn good one.
