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Congressional Gold Medal Recipient
Harry Chapin
HARRY CHAPIN
1942-1981
TO PROVIDE GOLD MEDALS HONORING THE FAMILY OF HARRY CHAPIN THURSDAY, MAY 1, 1986
House of Representatives
Subcommittee on Consumer Affairs and Coinage,
Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs
Washington, DC. The subcommittee met at 10 a.m., pursuant to notice, in room 2222, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Frank Annunzio (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Present: Chairman Annunzio; Representatives Hiller and Gonzalez. Chairman Annunzio: The meeting of the subcommittee will come to order. Will the witnesses take their seats at the table. This morning the subcommittee meets to hear testimony on H.R. 1207, legislation authorizing the presentation of a specially struck congressional gold medal for the family of Harry Chapin. This medal would be presented by the President on behalf of the Congress in recognition of Harry Chapin's efforts to address issues of world hunger. Pursuant to the rules of the subcommittee, no bill authorizing gold medals may be considered unless it is cosponsored by at least 218 Members, a majority of the House. H.R. 1207 has 232 cosponsors, meeting the cosponsorship requirement. The cosponsorship requirement was instituted in 1980 to make certain that only events and individuals that have truly contributed to the history of this country will be considered for gold medals. The provision was intended to make certain that by requiring the support of a majority of the Members of the most democratic legislative body in the world, only the most important acts and individuals would be honored. The issue of world hunger has been gaining increasing attention in the past several years, in large part due to drought and famine throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Harry Chapin worked to combat world hunger before such campaigns were fashionable. Unfortunately, his life ended in a tragic accident in 1981. H.R. 1207 will honor and remember Harry Chapin's work in combating hunger around the globe. [The text of H.R. 1207 follows:] 99th Congress
H.R. 1207
To award a special gold medal to the family of Harry Chapin
In the House of Representatives
February 21, 1985
Mr. Dorgan of North Dakota (for himself, Mr. Downey of New York, Mr. Jeffords, and Mr Mrazek) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs.
A BILL To award a special gold medal to the family of Harry Chapin. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That (a) the President is authorized to present, on behalf of the Congress, to the family of Harry Chapin, a gold medal of appropriate design, in recognition of Harry Chapin's efforts to address issues of hunger around the world. (b) For the purposes of the presentation referred to in subsection (a), the Secretary of the Treasury shall cause to be struck a gold medal with suitable emblems, devices, and inscriptions to be determined by the Secretary. (c) Effective October 1, 1985, there are authorized to be appropriated not to exceed $20,000 to carry out this section. Sec 2. (a) The Secretary of the Treasury may cause duplicates in bronze of the medal provided for in the first section to be coined and sold under such regulations as the Secretary may prescribe, at a price sufficient to cover the cost thereof, including labor, materials, dies, use of machinery, and overhead expenses, and the cost of the gold medal. (b) The appropriated used to carry out the first section shall be reimbursed out of the proceeds of such sales. Sec. 3. The medals provided for in this Act are national medals for the purpose of section 5111 of title 31, United States Code.
Harry Chapin Gold Medal
July 16, 2001
Twenty years ago today, my husband and I were planning on going to an outdoor concert at Eisenhower Park, Long Island, packing a picnic for ourselves and our two small sons, getting ready to listen to some Harry Chapin magic. Our annual pilgrimage to Eisenhower Park was one of many times wed seen Harry perform. We were there at the beginning, as newlyweds, when he rented out the Village Gate after hours and played his heart out for crowds of 15-20 people. We were there the first time he ever sang Taxi. We were there at My Fathers Place in Roslyn, the Westbury Music Fair when he opened for Carly Simon, Farmingdale High School where he did a benefit for the Performing Arts Foundation (PAF.) No matter how many times Harry performed on Long Island, we always managed to catch a show at least twice a year.
This July 16th was different, for, as Harry was driving on the Long Island Expressway in his Volkswagen Rabbit, he was struck and killed by a Pathmark truck. He was only 38 years old.
The following year, we were back at Eisenhower Park listening to a concert of his music performed by his brothers, Tom and Steve, his old band members and friends.
What I noticed most the first time I met Harry, Tom and Steve was how different their family was from mine. My parents had grown up during the Great Depression. My grandfather had inherited a vast fortune from his brother, a real estate tycoon, but the Crash of 1929 took place before the estate was probated. Uncle Mikes will read: Give $10,000 to my chauffeur. Give $10,000 to my butler. Give $10,000 to my maid. Leave the rest of my vast fortune to my dear brother and sisters. By the time the estate was probated, there wasnt even enough money to pay off the small bequests to the butler, chauffeur, and maid. The Great Depression, and the possibility that it could happen again, colored every aspect of my parents lives. They became civil servants, and my father rose to the highest levels of New York City government. They advised us all, from the time we could walk, to become civil servants when we grew up, to find good jobs with pensions, and never, never invest in the stock market. I wanted to major in the arts in college, but was told by my parents that Id have to major in Education, so that Id have something to fall back on.
Meeting the Chapins, whose entire vast extended family was full of musicians, artists, philosophers, and academics, showed me that some families raised children who were warned not to be civil servants, not to become teachers to have something to fall back on, and not to let their creative talents die.
If I werent married to a sensible man with a sensible job and sensible medical benefits and pension, my parents surely would not have approved of some of the ways Ive been earning a living--publishing a newsmagazine and playing in a band, for example. Sadder still, if I werent married to a sensible man, I dont think I would have the courage to work in the arts as I do.
Ive tried to raise my three kids to follow their joy, and have always encouraged them in their writing, music, and artistic pursuits. Meeting Harry and his brothers showed me that life without risk is life without joy.
I first read
Taxi: The Harry Chapin Story in 1995, and devoured all 475 pages in a day. When I reread it this weekend, I was captivated again by the story song that was Harrys life. Harry had great dreams, great charisma, and a great work ethic, but, in the end, he is remembered twenty years after his death because of his great heart.
Peter M. Coan, managing editor of World Tennis Magazine, was only eighteen years old when he first heard Cats in the Cradle while driving to a family dinner with his Dad. The words of the song seemed to crystallize the emptiness in their relationship, and served as a catalyst for genuine change. As Coan got to know more of Harrys songs, and to see him in the Broadway production, The Night That Made America Famous, he realized he wanted to write Chapins biography.
Chapin, recognizing that he had hunger and heart, agreed to let him do the biography as long as it wasnt a puff piece. They enjoyed a seven-year friendship, during which Coan got to know Harry better than almost anyone. One week after Chapins death, with the book near completion, Sandy, Harrys widow, sought to prevent it from being published. After eight years of disputes, Carol Publishing Group published Chapins story.
Although I can understand his widows desire for privacy, Chapins biography deserved to be printed, for his life, although far from perfect, could serve as an inspiration to many who wonder how to live successfully while dealing with fame and fortune.
Like many great people before him, Chapin experienced failure before experiencing success. His stepfather, Henry Hart, was harsh and punitive to Harry, his three brothers and two stepbrothers. At Harts insistence, Chapin went to the US Air Force Academy in Colorado, where, unable to cope with the rules and regulations, he dropped out after a semester. He was accepted at Cornell, where he flunked out twice, first as architecture major and then as a philosophy major. In between, although he enjoyed some success performing with his brothers and drummer father as The Chapin Brothers, his life was a series of short-term jobs and several failed relationships.
When he fell in love with Sandy, who was divorced with three young children, he was unprepared for the responsibilities of supporting and raising a family. He worked sporadically in the film industry, but his unstructured, hyper focused way of approaching work did not always please the structure, nine-to-five management. He went on a long-term film assignment in Africa, and first came in contact with poverty and hunger in the world. Upon returning home, he started to experience success in a variety of arenas. One of his films, Legendary Champions, a history of boxing from the late 1800s through the 1920s, received documentary film honors in several state festivals and was nominated for an Academy Award. He began to experiment with the genre of story song writing, and also wrote songs for his brothers Tom and Steve, who were trying to launch a rock group called The Chapins.
Harry realized that his story songs were not suited to his brothers performing style, and put together his own group--old friend and bass guitarist John Wallace, country lead guitarist Ron Palmer, and cellist Tim Scott. They opened at the Village Gate after hours for his brothers band, and soon became the main attraction. A number of record companies tried to sign him. His first album, Heads and Tales, was recorded, featuring the hit single Taxi, and became hugely successful.
But while Harry received ovations at his many concerts, he had lost track of what was important at home. Since their marriage, Harry and Sandy had two children of their own, bringing their family size to seven. Later, he adopted his teenage stepsister from a short-lived marriage of his fathers. When he heard Sandys poem, Cats in the Cradle, he agreed to go to counseling and change his life. During counseling, Chapin vowed to return home every night after a concert whenever it was physically possible. Often this meant catching a red-eye flight, getting home at 4:00 a.m., and cooking pancakes for his kids at 6:00 a.m.
Fr. Bill Ayres, the Chapins counselor and friend, also suggested that Harry become involved in some of Sandys philanthropic work. Harry became President of the Performing Arts Foundation in Huntington, rescuing it from bankruptcy through good management and benefit concerts. In addition to helping the Performing Arts Foundation, he was influential in arranging a merger between Nassau and Suffolk Countys symphonies into one strong, financially viable symphony organization, the Long Island Philharmonic.
Ayres spoke to Harry about the problems of world hunger and the good that performers could do to raise consciousness and funds to change the world. Most performers sang at a benefit and went on with their lives. Chapin, remembering his trip to Africa, said, I will change my life because of this. And he did.
He recognized that the problem lay not so much in a shortage of food but in a failure to distribute it where it was needed. He also knew that projects allowing nations to become self-sufficient in food production might be more beneficial than mere shipments of supplies.
And so, besides donating all the proceeds of 130 of his more than 200 annual concerts to World Hunger Year, the foundation he founded with Ayres, Chapin became involved in the political process, testifying before Congressional Agricultural Committees and convincing President Carter to establish a Presidential Commission on Hunger.
After every concert, Chapin would stay and sign autographs for everyone who purchased souvenirs to help the cause of world hunger, no matter how many hours it took.
In his enthusiasm for the cause of world hunger, other things sometimes fell by the wayside. He lost some band members who didnt want to perform free 130 times a year, sometimes in small concert halls with poor sound systems and few creature comforts. His story songs didnt always yield the desired single Top 40 cuts that Elektra wanted. In the last year of his life, Harry was with a new record company where he had signed a one-album deal. It wasnt a perfect life. His great heart was matched by great distractability and a short attention span. He was sometimes abrupt, and sometimes hurt the people he loved the most. But, in the summer of 1981, most things had come full circle. His last album had a popular cut, Sequel, revisiting the Taxi theme after a number of years had passed. He had just taken most of his extended family, about 20 people, on a Hawaiian vacation. The government had begun to take the crisis of world hunger seriously.
He was about to perform a free concert in Eisenhower Park for his loyal Long Island fans. But, on the Long Island Expressway near Woodbury, his light was extinguished.
Other performers came up to carry the torch. We Are the World brought numerous American singers together to support USA for Africa. Annual events such as Farm Aid and Comedy Relief became commonplace. But no ones torch ever burned quite so brightly as Harrys had.
Listening to him on records is like reading about an orgasm, a reviewer once said. He has to be seen live to be appreciated. When I saw Harry perform in concert, it seemed impossible that the energy he expended only seemed to energize him to devote more time to the things that mattered to him most--his family, the arts on Long Island, and world hunger.
The lesson that I learned from Harry Chapins life is: Follow your joy. Throw yourself into what you love with a passion. And take whatever emotional and material rewards result from your work and share them with others.
On December 7, 1987, at a Carnegie Hall benefit concerted hosted by Harry Belafonte, Chapin was awarded, posthumously, the
Congressional Gold Medal for his efforts to eliminate world hunger. Only 200 other Americans have received this honor, and Harry took his place in history beside such honorees as
Thomas Edison and the
Wright Brothers. It would have been his 45th birthday.
This review is being written as part of a small writeoff honoring artists who died too soon. Quasar and I wrote about Harry Chapin.
Cat's in the Cradle
by Harry Chapin (lyrics by Sandra Chapin). My child arrived just the other day,
He came to the world in the usual way.
But there were planes to catch, and bills to pay.
He learned to walk while I was away.
And he was talking 'fore I knew it, and as he grew,
He'd say, "I'm gonna be like you, dad.
You know I'm gonna be like you." And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon,
Little boy blue and the man in the moon.
"When you coming home, dad?" "I don't know when,
But we'll get together then.
You know we'll have a good time then." My son turned ten just the other day.
He said, "Thanks for the ball, dad, come on let's play.
Can you teach me to throw?" I said, "Not today,
I got a lot to do." He said, "That's ok."
And he walked away, but his smile never dimmmed,
Said, "I'm gonna be like him, yeah.
You know I'm gonna be like him." And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon,
Little boy blue and the man in the moon.
"When you coming home, dad?" "I don't know when,
But we'll get together then.
You know we'll have a good time then." Well, he came from college just the other day,
So much like a man I just had to say,
"Son, I'm proud of you. Can you sit for a while?"
He shook his head, and he said with a smile,
"What I'd really like, dad, is to borrow the car keys.
See you later. Can I have them please?" And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon,
Little boy blue and the man in the moon.
"When you coming home, son?" "I don't know when,
But we'll get together then, dad.
You know we'll have a good time then." I've long since retired and my son's moved away.
I called him up just the other day.
I said, "I'd like to see you if you don't mind."
He said, "I'd love to, dad, if I could find the time.
You see, my new job's a hassle, and the kid's got the flu,
But it's sure nice talking to you, dad.
It's been sure nice talking to you."
And as I hung up the phone, it occurred to me,
He'd grown up just like me.
My boy was just like me. And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon,
Little boy blue and the man in the moon.
"When you coming home, son?" "I don't know when,
But we'll get together then, dad.
You know we'll have a good time then."
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