HARRY CHAPIN – HIS
AMERICA & BEGINNINGS AS A FILMMAKER
Live Reading by Tom Chapin of “Searching for Harry Chapin's America: Remember
When the Music” and Film Screening of Harry Chapin’s LEGENDARY CHAMPIONS
Thursday, May 11th at 6:30 PM
Members $10 | Public $15
Q&A after the film with Josh Chapin and historian Michael Silver
Singer/Songwriter Harry
Chapin (“Taxi”, “Cat’s In The Cradle”) made Huntington his home and Long
Island the community he cared most about. But, before he found overnight
success at age 28, achieved any level of fame and settled into family life, he
balanced his vagabond troubadour existence as a would-be folk-rock musician
with his day job: editor and filmmaker.
Harry worked for a company called The Big Fights, Inc, run
by Bill Cayton and Jim Jacobs, the men that later formed the management team
for Mike Tyson, among others. Cayton and Jacobs were originally collectors of
fight footage and archivists. They hired a young Harry to make the documentary,
Legendary Champions. It would go on to be nominated for the Academy
Award for best documentary in 1968 and won the Atlanta Film Festival Gold
Prize. Join us for a special screening of that riveting look at heavyweight
boxing during the first half of the 20th Century. After the film, we
will be blessed to be joined by boxing historian, Michael Silver.
Prior to the screening of Harry’s Legendary Champions,
there will be selected readings of the recently released book “Searching
for Harry Chapin's America: Remember When the Music” by Patrick Fenton. Pat
became a dear friend of the Chapin Family before his passing in January 2022.
We honor his singular voice and warmth with Tom Chapin leading us through “Searching…”
in which Fenton describes his road trips to the towns and people that inspired
Harry Chapin's most renowned songs.
On Pat Fenton and his book:
"Patrick Fenton
has written a unique appreciation of a musical artist's work by going on tour
in the footsteps of Harry Chapin and listening to the American Everyman tell
the other half of this timeless troubadour's wonderful story-songs. In the
clear, beautiful prose of a blue-collar scribe, Fenton records the thumping
heartbeat of the American heartland that keeps the music and stories of Harry
Chapin alive, decades after his death."
- Denis Hamill, author of Fork in the Road
Tom Chapin is a Grammy award-winning musician,
entertainer, singer-songwriter, and storyteller. We are fortunate enough to
have him emcee the program in the Sky Café and to read some of the Pat Fenton
book we treasure. His music and children’s books can be re-discovered at www.tomchapin.com.
Michael Silver is an internationally respected
historian and author. His first book "The Arc of Boxing: The Rise and
Decline of the Sweet Science" (McFarland Publishers, 2008) won two awards
for boxing journalism from the American Association for the Improvement of Boxing
and the Boston Veteran Boxers' Association. His second book, "Stars
in the Ring: Jewish Champions in the Golden Age of Boxing-A Photographic
History" (Lyons Press, 2016) was called "an achievement unlikely to
be equaled" by Publisher's Weekly. Mike's latest book is "The Night the Referee Hit Back: Memorable Moments From The World of Boxing" (Rowman & Littlefield 2020). His books can be found at his
website, www.mikesilverboxing.com.
