The Horse Without a Head first headed to television on this day in 1963, originally airing in two parts on Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color. When a kindly junk dealer gives a group of poor French children a headless toy horse, the kids dub themselves
“The Knights of the Headless Horse.”
The broken toy becomes their only source of fun, but soon turns into a “knight mare” when it becomes the pawn in another game… a deadly race against time between a ruthless gang of train robbers and the town’s honest police instructor. For kids of the ’70s, this plot may sound familiar. The film aired as an eight part serial in 1977 on The New Mickey Mouse Club. Years later, Disney Chief Archivist Dave Smith, while rummaging around the backlot at the Studio, found the original headless horse prop — it is now lovingly preserved in the Walt Disney Archives.
