Edward G. Brown introduced this type of sequence in his “Three Guesses” from The Sphinx, Vol. 42 No. 3, May 1943, p. 59. The Brown sequence uses three cards with a secret extra card. Brown displays the card with a triple lift, followed by a double lift, and then steals the bottom card away before showing the selection once more.
Bill Simon published a handling without an extra card as “The Ubiquitous Jack of Spades” from Effective Card Magic, 1952, p. 144. It was Edward Marlo's various published handlings that eventually popularized this type of false display, starting with that in his Future Classic, 1953, n.p.