The confessions of a hoaxer

Alan Irwin Abel was born in Zanesville, Ohio on August 2, 1924. He enlisted in the Army in 1943. After the war, he received a bachelor's degree in education from Ohio State University in 1950, with concentrations in speech, English, and social science. He was a jazz drummer and stand-up comic who was later became a writer, campus lecturer, and show more filmmaker. He also became a professional hoaxer. His hoaxes included the founding of the Society for Indecency to Naked Animals, Yetta Bronstein's 1964 presidential campaign, Omar's School for Beggars, the Topless String Quartet, the Ku Klux Klan Symphony Orchestra, and faking his death in 1980. He and his wife Jeanne Abel wrote, produced, and directed two comic mock-documentaries entitled Is There Sex After Death? and The Faking of the President. His books included The Great American Hoax, The Confessions of a Hoaxer, and Don't Get Mad - Get Even!: A Manual for Retaliation. He died from complications of cancer and heart failure on September 14, 2018 at the age of 94. (Bowker Author Biography) show less