Alan Abel

Alan Abel (b. 1930) is an American writer, musician and hoaxer. He is famous for a series of hoaxes that he was able to turn into major media circuses with surprising ease.

Related Topics:
American - Hoax - Media circus

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Abel graduated from Ohio State University with a B.S. in Education.

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One of Abel's earliest hoaxes took place in the early 1960s. Abel posed as a golf expert who taught Westinghouse executives how to employ ballet positions to improve their game.

Related Topics:
Golf - Westinghouse - Ballet

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During the Watergate scandal, Abel hired an actor, Bill Deprado, to pose as Deep Throat. The man called a news conference in New York City before 150 reporters and literary agent Scott Meredith offered $100,000 to buy the rights to his story. The would-be-Deep Throat argued with his wife, who did not want him to testify, then he fainted and was spirited away in a private ambulance.

Related Topics:
Watergate - Scott Meredith

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Omar's School of Beggars was a supposed school for professional panhandlers. In his new disguise he was invited to the Tomorrow Show by Tom Snyder, whom he angered because Erma Bombeck was waiting to come on but Omar stole the show for its entire hour. Other Omar victims included Morton Downey, Jr., Sally Jessy Raphael , Mike Douglas and Sonya Friedman who was very upset because Omar ate his lunch on camera during the interview.

Related Topics:
Panhandler - Tomorrow Show - Tom Snyder

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With S.I.N.A. Society for Indecency to Naked Animals, Abel claimed that low moral standards in USA are due to publicly naked animals. Their motto was A Nude Horse Is a Rude Horse. The society even managed to attract contributions that were always returned. Walter Cronkite helped fuel their cause with one of his nightly news shows on CBS-TV. Reporters Pete Hamill and Susan Brownmiller tried to infiltrate S.I.N.A. without success. The hoax lasted five years until Time Magazine blew the whistle and published an expose.

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In 1966-1967 Abel wrote a weekly humor column for San Francisco Chronicle as "The Private World of Prof. Bunker C. Hill." It was syndicated in Washington, DC and earned Abel a visit to the White House to meet President Lyndon Johnson. He was held at the gate for an hour because his invitation ID read "Prof. Bunker C. Hill." Chronicle editor Scott Newhall was finally located to clear things up.

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In 1979 Abel staged his own death from a heart attack near the Sundance ski Lodge. He hired a fake funeral director to collect his belongings and his "widow" notified the New York Times. The Times published a long obituary January 2, 1980 (a rare example of a premature obituary). Three days later Abel held a news conference to announce the "reports of my demise have been grossly exaggerated" and the Times published a retraction the next day for the first time in its history.

Related Topics:
1979 - Sundance ski Lodge - New York Times - January 2 - 1980 - Premature obituary

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In 1997 Abel invented a special gift; a gift-wrapped pint of urine from Jenny McCarthy. The product was supposedly offered in the name of CGS productions, with a contact named Stoidi Puekaw ("Wake up idiots" backwards). Her copyright lawyer threatened to sue. Abel's pun was based on an appearance by McCarthy in a shoe commercial where she was sitting on a toilet.

Related Topics:
1997 - Urine - Jenny McCarthy - Copyright

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Abel also ran for Congress in a platform that included paying congressmen based on commission; selling ambassadorships to the highest bidder; installing a lie detector in the White House and truth serum in the Senate drinking fountain; requiring all doctors to publish their medical school grade-point averages in the telephone book after their names and removing Wednesday to establish a 4-day workweek.

Related Topics:
Congress - Ambassador - Lie detector - White House - Truth serum - Grade-point average - Wednesday

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At the 2000 Republican Convention in Philadelphia, Abel introduced a volatile campaign to ban all breastfeeding because "it is an incestuous relationship between mother and baby that manifests an oral addiction leading youngsters to smoke, drink and even becoming a homosexual." After two- hundred interviews over two years, Abel confessed the hoax in "U.S. News and World Report."

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In 2004, his daughter Jenny Abel along with Jeff Hocket made a documentary film on his life called Abel Raises Cain. It played at the Boston Independent Film Festival and won the first prize for Best Documentary at the Slamdance Film Festival in 2005.

Related Topics:
Documentary film - Abel Raises Cain

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