King of Hoaxes

While Alan Abel is hardly a household name, more well-known political and media pranksters, including Michael Moore, Abbie Hoffman, and Sacha Baron Cohen, owe Abel a great debt. His ingenious pranks and hoaxes have been around for over forty years, creating both discord and hilarity depending on your perspective.

Who is Alan Abel, you might ask. Now 76 years and still creating his own brand of humorous media chaos, Abel's influence is celebrated in the 2005 Slamdance Film Festival "Best Documentary" winner "Abel Raises Cain" directed by Jeff Hockett and daughter Jenny Abel.

"A Nude Horse is a Rude Horse"

Abel's first media hoax was concocted with comedian/writer Buck Henry in 1959. S.I.N.A., or the Society for the Indecency to Naked Animals, was their "crusade" to clothe all animals for the sake of decency, including pets, barnyard animals and large zoo animals. "Decency today means morality tomorrow" and "A nude horse is a rude horse" were some of their campaign slogans.

Henry made the rounds of talk shows, playing it straight as Society president G. Clifford Prout. They picketed the Kennedy White House and dressed San Francisco Zoo animals in breakaway shorts and wraparound skirts. While this seems like a fairly transparent stunt, S.I.N.A. claimed to gain a serious membership into the thousands as well as significant financial contributions. As late as 1963, S.I.N.A. was still going strong until Time Magazine exposed it.

OTHER NOTABLE ALAN ABEL HOAXES INCLUDE:

1) "Howard Hughes Comes Out of Hiding"

In 1972, Howard Hughes, his face wrapped in bandages, held a press conference at New York's St. Regis Hotel where he claimed that he was about to have his body cryogenically frozen. The "event" was covered by much of New York's local media; then a couple of days later Abel revealed that he was the one wrapped in bandages, not Hughes.

2) "Omar's School for Beggars"