Edited by Andrew Lampert. Text by Alan & Jeanne Abel.
An unprecedented exposé of an infamous hoax campaign to clothe animals that, decades later, remains completely uproarious
Perpetrated from the late 1950s through the mid-1960s, the Society for Indecency to Naked Animals (SINA) was a fabricated moralist campaign that received unimaginable amounts of international attention in newspapers, radio and on the TV news. Its goal? To clothe all animals higher than 4 inches and longer than 6 inches. Its leader? G. Clifford Prout, a bespectacled fuddy duddy with an inheritance to burn through and an even better catchphrase: "Decency Today Means Morality Tomorrow." A pioneering prank that lasted way longer than anyone would have expected, SINA was the comedic pipe dream of Alan and Jeanne Abel, a pair of anarchic lovebirds who perpetrated dozens of ambitious hoaxes and hysterical deceptions for well over 50 years. They were joined in this confounding crusade by their friend, Buck Henry, who served as the organization's honorable spokesman in the years before he became an acclaimed actor and screenwriter (The Graduate, To Die For). Together, they put pants on kangaroos, picketed the White House and pulled the wool over the eyes of mystified people everywhere. Inside SINA tells the whole crazy story through Alan Abel's words and an eye-popping array of original documents, news reports, correspondence and photos. As the first publication to compile the complete history of this legendary media hoax, this jam-packed book reveals, at long last, how these three jesters pioneered the perfect prank. SINA was a brilliant lampooning of traditional American values and hypocritical attitudes that remains strangely timely and forever funny.
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“WHAT TO DO IF YOU SEE A NAKED ANIMAL: 1. Provide temporary covering for the animal using an overcoat, shawl or blanket. 2. If no immediate covering is available, lead animal gently to nearest shed or areas hidden from public view. 3. Report the location, complete description of animal and any identifying marks by telephone to your nearest SINA headquarters. REMEMBER: ‘Decency today means Morality tomorrow.’”
Featured image is reproduced from Inside SINA
The Society for Indecency to Naked Animals, editor Andrew Lampert’s wild new scrapbook exposé of a years-long media hoax led by Alan and Jeanne Abel with actor Buck Henry. Collecting original documents, news reports, correspondence, photos and texts by the perpetrators, Alan and Jeanne Abel, this mind-boggling album tells the preposterous true story of the mediagenically successful, yet entirely fake moralist campaign to clothe all animals taller than four inches and longer than six.
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Alan & Jeanne Abel: Inside SINA The Society for Indecency to Naked Animals
Published by J&L Books. Edited by Andrew Lampert. Text by Alan & Jeanne Abel.
An unprecedented exposé of an infamous hoax campaign to clothe animals that, decades later, remains completely uproarious
Perpetrated from the late 1950s through the mid-1960s, the Society for Indecency to Naked Animals (SINA) was a fabricated moralist campaign that received unimaginable amounts of international attention in newspapers, radio and on the TV news. Its goal? To clothe all animals higher than 4 inches and longer than 6 inches. Its leader? G. Clifford Prout, a bespectacled fuddy duddy with an inheritance to burn through and an even better catchphrase: "Decency Today Means Morality Tomorrow." A pioneering prank that lasted way longer than anyone would have expected, SINA was the comedic pipe dream of Alan and Jeanne Abel, a pair of anarchic lovebirds who perpetrated dozens of ambitious hoaxes and hysterical deceptions for well over 50 years. They were joined in this confounding crusade by their friend, Buck Henry, who served as the organization's honorable spokesman in the years before he became an acclaimed actor and screenwriter (The Graduate, To Die For). Together, they put pants on kangaroos, picketed the White House and pulled the wool over the eyes of mystified people everywhere.
Inside SINA tells the whole crazy story through Alan Abel's words and an eye-popping array of original documents, news reports, correspondence and photos. As the first publication to compile the complete history of this legendary media hoax, this jam-packed book reveals, at long last, how these three jesters pioneered the perfect prank. SINA was a brilliant lampooning of traditional American values and hypocritical attitudes that remains strangely timely and forever funny.
