For over fifty years, Alan Abel fooled CBS, NBC, and the New York Times -- repeatedly. He faked his own obituary in the Times. When he actually died in 2018, they had to triple-check.

Alan Abel (1924-2018): America’s Professional Hoaxer

Reference Document – The Man Who Proved Media Is Credulous

The Man

Alan Irwin Abel (August 2, 1924 – September 14, 2018). American hoaxer, writer, satirist, and mockumentary filmmaker. For over half a century, he made a career of fooling the American media – not for money, not for fame, but to demonstrate that the media will believe anything if you present it with a straight face and a press release.

He called his work giving people “a kick in the intellect.”

His daughter Jenny described his philosophy: “It is a release of the hostility we all have because we’re being stepped on in little ways every day. The pressure builds and you should let it out.”

Born in Zanesville, Ohio. Served in World War II. Studied at Ohio State University. Worked as a jazz drummer, writer, and lecturer. But his real work – the pranks and put-ons – was performance art that existed as its own reward. The Washington Post called him a “20th-century court jester.” He operated for decades before anyone coined the phrase “fake news.”

The Hoaxes

1. SINA – Society for Indecency to Naked Animals (1959-1963)

The Setup: Abel’s most elaborate and longest-running hoax. SINA was a campaign to clothe all naked animals – domestic pets, barnyard animals, and large wildlife – in the name of public decency. The slogan: “A nude horse is a rude horse.”

The Cast: Abel recruited his friend, the then-unknown comedian Buck Henry, to play SINA’s president, G. Clifford Prout. (Buck Henry would go on to co-create Get Smart, write The Graduate, and host Saturday Night Live a record-tying ten times. In 1959, he was a nobody with a straight face and good timing.)

The Campaign: SINA offered sartorial advice: Bermuda shorts for horses, burlap sacks for deer. They demanded that all animals over four inches tall and six inches long be clothed for the sake of public decency.

Media Fooled:

The Today Show (May 27, 1959) – first national appearance, launching the hoax
The Tonight Show – Henry as “G. Clifford Prout”
CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite (August 21, 1962) – Cronkite interviewed “Prout” for 7 minutes; the interview ended with Prout singing the SINA Marching Song while playing a ukulele
Numerous radio programs and print outlets

The Exposure: After running for nearly four years, a CBS staff member recognized Buck Henry during a broadcast. The jig was up. Abel later said he was tired of it by then anyway.

What It Was Actually About: SINA was a satirical commentary on censorship. The Abels were poking fun at the “true moral maniacs who were banning books and records during that time period.” The humor worked because SINA’s rhetoric was indistinguishable from actual conservative moralist campaigns of the era.

2. Yetta Bronstein for President (1964, 1968)

The Setup: Abel created a fictional presidential candidate – Yetta Bronstein, a Bronx housewife running as an independent write-in candidate under the “Best Party” banner. His wife Jeanne Abel played Bronstein in media interviews, while Alan served as her campaign manager.

The Platform:

National bingo
Allowing voters to vote twice
Taking Congress off salary and putting them on straight commission
Allowing guns in homes but decreasing the velocity of bullets by 95 percent

The Props: Campaign materials used a photo of Alan’s own Jewish mother.

The Book: Abel published The President I Almost Was (1966), purportedly by Yetta Bronstein herself.

Media Fooled: Multiple outlets covered the candidacy as a legitimate fringe campaign.

3. The Fake Obituary in the New York Times (1980)

The Setup: In December 1979, Abel staged his own death from a heart attack near the Sundance ski resort in Utah. He employed a team of twelve accomplices:

An actor posing as a funeral director collected his belongings
A woman impersonated his widow and called the New York Times
Multiple “eyewitnesses” confirmed the story

The Obituary: The New York Times published it on January 2, 1980: “Alan Abel, a writer, musician and film producer who specialized in satire and lampoons, died of a heart attack yesterday at Sundance, a ski resort near Orem, Utah, while investigating a location for a new film.”

The Reveal: On January 3, Abel held a press conference and announced: “The reports of my demise have been grossly exaggerated.” (Riffing on the famous Mark Twain line.)

The Aftermath: It was the first retracted obituary in New York Times history. When Abel actually died in 2018, the Times made absolutely certain he was dead this time – seeking independent confirmation from his family, a hospice organization, and a local funeral home.

4. Omar’s School for Beggars (1975-1988)

The Setup: Announced during the economic recession of the 1970s, this hoax claimed to be a professional training school for panhandlers. Abel appeared in character as “Omar” on numerous television talk shows.

Media Fooled:

Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder
Morton Downey Jr.
Sally Jessy Raphael
Mike Douglas Show
Sonya Friedman

The Longevity: Abel kept this one running for over a decade, from 1975 to 1988, despite being exposed several times. The media kept booking him anyway.

The Book: The Panhandler’s Handbook (1977), by “Omar the Beggar.”

5. Females for Felons (1970s)

The Setup: Abel formed an organization of supposed former Junior League members who provided sexual relations to men in prison as “rehabilitation.” He appeared in disguise on numerous talk shows, accompanied by fellow pranksters, promoting the cause.

The Response: Hosts and audience members were infuriated. Which was the point.

What It Was Actually About: Commentary on the treatment of incarcerated people within the American prison system.

6. Citizens Against Breastfeeding (2000)

The Setup: At the 2000 Republican National Convention in Philadelphia, Abel launched a campaign to ban all breastfeeding.

The Argument: Breastfeeding “is an incestuous relationship between mother and baby that manifests an oral addiction leading youngsters to smoke, drink, and even becoming antisocial.”

The Point: The absurdity of the claim was designed to mirror the absurdity of actual moral panics being peddled at political conventions.

7. Euthanasia Cruises, Ltd. (1983/1993)

The Setup: When euthanasia and Jack Kevorkian were dominating the news cycle, Abel set up a bogus Florida company offering cruises for the terminally ill. The deal: three days of partying, then you jump into the ocean.

Media Coverage: Covered as a legitimate (if horrifying) business story by multiple outlets.

8. The International Sex Bowl

The Setup: Using the alias Dr. Harrison T. Rogers, Abel announced the International Sex Bowl – an event where couples from around the world would “compete” in front of a black-tie audience, as a Super Bowl alternative.

The Actual Purpose: A publicity stunt to promote the release of the Abels’ cult comedy film Is There Sex After Death? (1971).

9. Other Notable Hoaxes

The Topless String Quartet – Exactly what it sounds like
The Donahue Faint-In – Organized audience members to faint on Phil Donahue’s show
Idi Amin Marries a WASP – Satirical announcement
KKK Symphony Orchestra – Announced a Ku Klux Klan symphony
Jenny McCarthy Urine Sales – Late-career prank
Faking a winning lottery ticket (1990) – Made national news

The Books

The Great American Hoax (1966)
Confessions of a Hoaxer (1970)
Don’t Get Mad, Get Even (1983)
How to Thrive on Rejection (1983)

In-character books (themselves part of the hoaxes):

The President I Almost Was (1966) – “by Yetta Bronstein”
The Fallacy of Creative Thinking (1972) – “by Bruce Spencer”
The Panhandler’s Handbook (1977) – “by Omar the Beggar”

The Documentary

Abel Raises Cain (2005). Directed by his daughter Jenny Abel and Jeff Hockett. Played at the Boston Independent Film Festival and won first prize for Best Documentary at the 2005 Slamdance Film Festival. Released on DVD.

The Media Outlets Fooled

A partial list of outlets that fell for Abel’s hoaxes across his career:

The New York Times (published his fake obituary, 1980)
CBS Evening News / Walter Cronkite (SINA, 1962)
NBC / Today Show (SINA, 1959)
The Tonight Show (SINA)
Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder (Omar)
Phil Donahue Show (multiple hoaxes)
Morton Downey Jr. (Omar)
Sally Jessy Raphael (Omar)
Mike Douglas Show (Omar)

His Actual Death (2018)

Alan Abel died on September 14, 2018, at his home in Southbury, Connecticut. He was 94. Cause of death: complications of cancer and heart failure.

His daughter Jenny confirmed the death.

The Times verified it this time. Due to the 1980 incident, The New York Times sought independent confirmation from his family, a hospice organization, and a local funeral home before publishing the obituary. The NPR headline: “Alan Abel Has Died, For Real This Time.”

Abel’s Own Words

“A kick in the intellect.” – Alan Abel, describing the purpose of his hoaxes

“It is a release of the hostility we all have because we’re being stepped on in little ways every day. The pressure builds and you should let it out.” – Alan Abel

“The reports of my demise have been grossly exaggerated.” – Alan Abel, press conference, January 3, 1980 (riffing on Mark Twain)

The Slogans

“A nude horse is a rude horse.” – SINA (Society for Indecency to Naked Animals)

About Abel

“Alan Abel, a professional hoaxer who for more than half a century gleefully hoodwinked the American public – not least of all by making himself the subject of an earnest news obituary in The New York Times in 1980 – apparently actually did die.” – The New York Times, 2018 obituary

“Alan Abel, professional hoaxer and ‘20th-century court jester,’ dies at 94.” – The Washington Post, September 2018

“Alan Abel Has Died, For Real This Time.” – NPR headline, September 2018

From Citizens Against Breastfeeding (2000)

“[Breastfeeding] is an incestuous relationship between mother and baby that manifests an oral addiction leading youngsters to smoke, drink, and even becoming antisocial.” – Abel, in character, 2000 Republican National Convention

Why It Matters: Decades Before “Fake News”

Alan Abel proved – over and over, for more than fifty years – that the American media is credulous. Not once. Not in a single gotcha moment. Repeatedly, systematically, across decades, fooling the same outlets multiple times.

Key lessons from the Abel career:

Credentials are theater. Abel had no organization, no members, no budget. He had a phone number and a confident voice. That was enough for CBS, NBC, and the New York Times.
The media does not verify. SINA ran for four years on national television. Omar appeared on talk shows for thirteen years despite repeated exposures. Nobody checked.
Outrage is currency. The more absurd the claim, the more coverage it got. “Clothe the animals” was more newsworthy than anything actually happening in animal welfare. “Ban breastfeeding” got more airtime than actual health policy debates.
You can fool the same outlet twice. The New York Times published Abel’s fake obituary in 1980. They had to verify his actual death in 2018. The lesson did not generalize. The media’s vulnerability is structural, not incidental.
The hoaxer was always the sanest person in the room. Abel was not deranged. He was a satirist testing a hypothesis: will the media broadcast obvious nonsense if you present it with confidence? The answer was always yes.

Abel was doing in the 1960s what the internet would automate in the 2010s. The difference is that Abel was one man with a telephone. The internet gave every teenager the same power. The media had fifty years of warning. They learned nothing.

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