The Topless String Quartet

"Professional media hoaxer" Alan Abel created this hoax in 1967.

ESQ: You have said that all of your hoaxes have a message behind them. What was the message behind the Topless String Quartet?

AA: At the time, Yoko and John Lennon were doing their nude-in-bed interviews, and there was a young lady who was playing concerts as a topless cellist. So I thought, why not have a quartet? Frank Sinatra wanted to record them, but I would say they were in Europe or Australia. They were never available.

-from a 2011 Esquire magazine interview with Abel

They also appeared in Abel's 1971 sex comedy, Is There Sex After Death performing something called "Breast Rock."

External Links

• Abel's website on the hoax
• San Francisco Chronicle article on the hoax
• 1992 article on Abel from the American Journalism Review

See also: KKK Symphony Orchestra