Alan Abel

Cast · Director · Writer

Born

August 2, 1924 · Zanesville, Ohio, USA

Died

September 14, 2018

Birth name

Alan Irwin Abel

Writer, musician and film producer whose greatest claim to fame is in being one of the country's greatest practical jokers. Four years out of Ohio State University, Abel perpetrated his first major hoax in 1959 as the mastermind of the "Society for Indecency to Naked Animals" in which he persuaded actor Buck Henry to portray the president of the Society and appear on Television recommending the diapering of farm animals for decency's sake. Other classic hoaxes by Abel involved him and his wife Jeanne lobbying for a nude postage stamp of Jane Fonda, promoting a fictional Sex Olympics, and convincing the press that General Idi Amin was getting married in a lavish wedding at New York's Plaza Hotel on the sly. Abel and his wife were constantly able to fool the public and the press alike.