Additional Information about the Howdy Doody And His Magic Hat

The first cartoon to feature directorial credit to Gene Deitch. This was commissioned by the Kagran Corporation as a pilot for a Howdy Doody animated series. Bob Smith, however, disliked the short, to the point that he ordered all negatives to be destroyed before it had a chance of being released.

Gene Deitch retained a lone 16mm copy, but it went missing in the mail when he moved to Prague in the early '60s. The film was thus considered lost, until 2010 when a 35mm print was located in the Library of Congress. The film has since then been uploaded on the internet.

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