In an IMHO thread about super-8 filmmaking, I mentioned Lenny Lipton, author of The Super-8 Book and Independent Filmmaking. I looked his name up on IMDB, and he’s only credited with one film; and that one isn’t mentioned in his books, since they were written prior to the one on IMDB. No mention of the films he did make in the 1970s.
So I did a google search. According to this site, Lipton, then 19 years old, let himself into his friend Lenny Edelstein’s house and wrote a poem on the typewriter in about three minutes. Edelstein’s roommate, Peter Yarrow, found the paper later and used it in his performances. In 1963, Puff the Magic Dragon was a hit; Peter Yarrow being part of Peter, Paul and Mary. Apparently, Yarrow didn’t use the whole poem; and credited Lipton with co-authorship. A search of the ASCAP website does list Lipton as one of the writers.
It’s funny what you find out on the Internet. I thought that Lipton was some hippy 1970s filmmaker wash-out, who fell in love with super-8 and whose career died with that format. But it turns out that he came up with one of the most popular folk songs of all time.