Documentary on Harry Chapin's 'Cat's in the Cradle' screening at Cinema Arts Centre in Huntington
Harry Chapin's biggest hit, "Cat's in the Cradle," has endured for more than 50 years. Credit: Greenwich Entertainment
A documentary on Harry Chapin’s most famous song will be screened at Huntington's Cinema Arts Centre, just a few days before it arrives on streaming services.
"Harry Chapin — Cat's in the Cradle: The Song That Changed Our Lives," will be shown Nov. 1 at, close to where Chapin lived during his most active years (he was a resident of Huntington Bay), and will help support Long Island Cares, the food bank that he founded in 1980. Chapin’s brother Tom, a folk singer who has released dozens of his own albums over a roughly 50-year career, will perform at the screening and take part in a Q&A. VIP tickets include a copy of the book "Story of a Life: The Harry Chapin Family Photo Album" and admission to a pre-film reception with Plainview-raised director Rick Korn and others in the late artist's family.
The film will be available to stream digitally and for purchase on DVD on Nov. 4. It had been previously screened in August at the Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame's first Music Documentary Film Festival, where it won Best Feature.
Chapin’s biggest hit, "Cat’s in the Cradle," reached No. 1 in late 1974. Korn’s film, originally subtitled "50th Anniversary," explains how the song began as a poem written by Chapin’s wife, Sandy, to explore the chilly relationship between her first husband and his father. Chapin reworked her raw material but added the cleverly paired nursery rhymes — "And the cat’s in the cradle and the silver spoon / Little Boy Blue and the man in the moon" — and set the new lyrics to a lilting yet rueful melody. The result, a cautionary tale about a father who realizes too late that he has missed his son’s childhood, became a rarity on pop radio: a catchy tune with a sledgehammer emotional impact.
It would be Chapin’s last Top Ten hit. He was killed several years later, in the summer of 1981, in a traffic collision on the Long Island Expressway. By then Chapin had become as much humanitarian as musician, having formed the global nonprofit WhyHunger in 1975 and Long Island Cares in 1980. Both were made possible by the success of "Cat’s in the Cradle," according to Korn, who also directed the 2020 documentary "Harry Chapin: When in Doubt, Do Something."
"Here we are, 50 years later," Korn said, "and because of this song, it gave Harry this platform to help people."
To purchase tickets or for more information on the Cinema Arts Centre event, call 631-423-7610 or go to cinemaartscentre.org.
An earlier version of this story incorrectly said the movie was having its Long Island premiere at Cinema Arts Centre. The movie previously screened in August at the Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame's first Music Documentary Film Festival.
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