There is some version of a cardboard top hat bunny production out there I am trying to find a bit more information on. Something along the lines of a flat cardboard top hat that has a flap so you can open it up toward the audience to show it empty, open it back up to show a drawing of a bunny or display a paper with picture of a bunny, then close it up again and finally reach in a produce a real rabbit.

Anyone know who the inventor is of this?

Several variations of this type of trick can be found in the Encyclopedia of Dove Magic Volume 2 by Ian Adair. Most are made of hardboard rather than cardboard, but they follow the same plot- two pieces of hardboard, hinged together like a book, are opened and shown to have a flat image (of a dove usually), then when closed and opened again, a live dove appears. If you have a rabbit small enough to fit one of these, the book could be made in the form of a top hat. I would guess the originator would be Ian Adair. His "Double Dove Cote" on page 124, which is shaped like a birdhouse, would fit your description if shaped like a top hat.

Thank you Jim Gerrish

You guess is as good as any, all the traditional magic manufactures/dealers are out of business and selling only China and India junk.

What you describe sounds like an old Supreme Magic in the U.K., effect. The company has been defunct for over 40 years. No one ever said what happened to their huge inventory, and I have never seen any of it for sale to the magic community.

If you seen this on YouTube or the web, please post a reference for us, so that we may know what you are exactly talking about.