Kabel certainly was a popular font. My Kelsey catalogue has two knockoff versions of it - one of which, they note, doesn't have the same baseline as "real" Kabel while the other one does. And I even own an antique typewriter whose monospaced font is based on Kabel.

"Meine Dispatcher says zer is somesing wrong vis deine Kabel."
—Karl Hungus, Log Jammin'

"Don't be fatuous, Jeffrey."
—Maude Lebowski, The Big Lebowski