The starting point of the multiple-prediction effect best known as “Confabulation” (named after a version of it by Alan Shaxon) is Stewart James's “The Perfect Prediction” in The Sphinx, Vol. 28 No. 4, June 1929, p. 140, which includes a loading of the prediction into a wallet.

James returned to the idea in an article, “Two Fearless Feats” (the first trick of which was later retitled “The Ball of Fortune”), in the June 1940 issue of The Jinx, No. 98, June 1940, p. 601, wherein the prediction was found inside a ball of wool.

George Grimmond came up with “Triple Forecast” c. 1947. It was released in early 1951 by Harry Stanley’s Unique Magic Studio (see The Gen, Vol. 11 No. 6, Mar. 1951, p. 345). In Grimmond's trick, the prediction is found inside two nested envelopes that were hanging from a stand at the outset.

In 1948, Al Koran reinvented the use of a wallet as the container for his triple prediction, contributed to Pentagram, Vol. 3 No. 1, Oct. 1948, p. 1, under the title of “A Letter from Al Koran”. For his performances, by 1950 he had developed a “Dream Holiday” presentation for the trick. By 1956 he was using a 'Dream Car“ presentation.

Specifically inspired by Grimmond's “Triple Forecast”, Alan Shaxon developed “Confabulation” in the 1960s, and later marketed it with Ken Brooke in 1970.

(This history courtesy of Max Maven.)