Behind the Hedgerow: Eileen Slocum and the Meaning of Newport Society

Behind the Hedgerow: Eileen Slocum and the Meaning of Newport Society takes viewers inside the private world of aristocratic Newport, Rhode Island – a world of privilege that began with the Gilded Age, when Vanderbilts and Astors reigned. WSBE Rhode Island PBS is proud to present the television premiere of the critically-acclaimed film on Wednesday, April 6 at 8 p.m., with re-broadcast as part of the ongoing WSBE series, Rhode Island Stories on Saturday, April 9 at 7 p.m., and Sunday, April 10 at 11 p.m.

The story's central character is Eileen Gillespie Slocum, descendant of the Nicholas Browns and friend to all of the 20th century Newport (and New York and Philadelphia) elite. When Slocum died on July 27, 2008, at the age of 92, a storied period of American history ended. Slocum was the last of the Newport grand dames – one of the last grand dames anywhere. America had changed, and so had the world; a new moneyed class now ruled, although descendants of the Gilded Age elite continue to live on and near one of America's most exclusive addresses, Bellevue Avenue, Newport.

Slocum's family granted filmmakers G. Wayne Miller and David Bettencourt exclusive access to her archives and private Bellevue Avenue estate, where much of the film was shot. The story is brought to the screen through the use of rare footage and still photographs, through filming of key Newport Society events during the summer of 2009, and through on-camera interviews of people in Eileen Slocum’s set and Slocum’s family. The filmmakers use Slocum’s extensive personal archive of photographs, books, belongings and papers – most notably, the diaries she began keeping at the age of nine as she was growing up in an eight-story mansion at the corner of New York’s 89th Street and Fifth Avenue. She continued to write these diaries into the 1990s. They are an intimate and never-before-seen account of life behind the hedgerow.

While Eileen Slocum is the protagonist of the story, Behind the Hedgerow has an intriguing supporting cast, including such prominent Newporters as Hugh D. Auchincloss III, known as Yusha, and Betty "Boop" Blake, a noted art collector who winters in Texas. Both Yusha and Boop were lifelong friends of Eileen. Both appear for the first time ever in a film.

The narrator of the film is Eileen Slocum herself. Through a newspaper series he wrote about Newport society, G. Wayne Miller, a longtime staff writer at The Providence Journal, became a confidante of Slocum's. During their long relationship, he spent hours recording Slocum as she discussed her life, her world, and her beliefs.

Because of Eileen Slocum’s stature, her relationships with virtually everyone in the world of old money, her long life, and her intelligence and candor, Behind the Hedgerow is uniquely entertaining, informative and, in certain passages, amusing.

Visit the film Web site for more information about Eileen Slocum and Behind the Hedgerow.

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WSBE Rhode Island PBS transmits over the air on digital 36.1; Cox/Verizon/Full Channel 08; DirecTV 36; Dish Network 7776; ComCast subscribers, please check local listings for the channel number in your area.

WSBE Learn transmits over the air on digital 36.2; Cox 808; Verizon 478; Full Channel 109; ComCast 294.

Viewers with high definition (HD) capability can receive WSBE Rhode Island PBS HD programming over the air on digital 36.1, Cox 708, Verizon 508, ComCast 819.

Covered Bridges and Rocky Point - A Little Yesterday Coming Tomorrow

During the 19th and early part of the 20th centuries, New England was home to almost 1000 covered bridges. Today, there are less than 200 in the six state region. In Covered Bridges of New England, award-winning cinematographer Jim Karpeichik takes us on a cinematic tour of more than 75 remaining bridges - filmed in all seasons - and takes a look back at many more covered bridges that are now gone from our landscape.

There is an excellent, informative review of Covered Bridges of New England by Michael Janusonis, film critic and arts writer for The Providence Journal.

We're proud to present the Rhode Island television premiere of Covered Bridges of New England on Wednesday, March 2 at 7:30 p.m. Jim Karpeichik will be in the studio with WSBE Rhode Island PBS President David Piccerelli, and talk is likely to include some behind the scenes stories about the making of the film.

Then at 9 p.m., "Come with your family, come with your friends - that's the Rocky Point tradition, 'cuz it's summertime again!"

Tune in for documentary that captures the magic - and mourns the loss - of the quintessentially Rhode Island summer landmark for amusement for more than 150 years. You Must Be This Tall: The Story of Rocky Point Park uses vintage photographs and first-person accounts of Rocky Point Park, told by those who lived, worked, and played there. Award-winning filmmaker David Bettencourt will be in our studio.

Rumor has it, David is bringing along a couple of secret guests - fans of Rocky Point Park. Just who will these guests be? Tune in to find out!

Meanwhile, backstage at the studio, the folks from B&M Catering Company will keep our volunteers well-fed, with a special dinner menu reminiscent of Rocky Point favorites. (Thank you!)

WSBE Rhode Island PBS asks, "What's YOUR Source?"

'What's your source?'

In a multi-media promotional campaign targeting community stakeholders, policy makers, and local audiences, WSBE Rhode Island PBS asks that cryptic question, and then offers testimonial evidence of the public television station's role in local education, and its impact on the community. The campaign is part of a national 'My Source' public media impact communication grant project, administered by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the National Center for Media Engagement. WSBE's application was one of only 40 chosen from among 111 proposals submitted by public television and radio stations nationwide. WSBE's 'My Source' campaign launches this week.

"It's not often we have an opportunity to call attention to our work this way," said WSBE President and CEO David Piccerelli. "The grant made it possible to go outside our own air to remind Rhode Islanders about the great resource they have in WSBE – we're more than just great television."

The print and Web creative for the 'My Source' campaign sets the atmosphere of an investigation – complete with evidence folder, scattered notes and photos – and asks, 'What's your source?' The on-air component is comprised of six spots, presenting testimonial evidence from students, teachers, and administrators, as well as from local filmmakers and media professionals. The spots range in length from 30 seconds to one minute and 20 seconds, and are built around the themes of class enrichment, community connection, local storytelling, and adult learning success. The companion Web site adds background information and puts the testimonials into context. The campaign will link to the station’s Facebook page, and the on-air spots are available on the station’s YouTube channel.

The underlying message of the campaign focuses on WSBE's success in expanding the traditional definition of education, from classrooms to living rooms, from instructional programming to panel discussions and independent documentaries about local contemporary and historical issues and events.

"Education is at the core of our mission," Piccerelli said, "but it isn't limited to the classroom."

The first 'My Source' on-air spot starts in the classroom. It features students, teachers, and administrators from Lincoln High and Northern Lincoln Elementary Schools describing their experiences using WSBE's video streaming and education services. The spot concludes with, "Rhode Island PBS is my source for enriching my students' day-to-day curriculum."

All of the spots have a similar ending, "Rhode Island PBS is my source for…" with the final words fitting the particular spot's theme.

The second spot to air will feature four local independent filmmakers David Bettencourt (You Must Be This Tall: The Story of Rocky Point Park, On The Lake: Life and Love in a Distant Place, and It's a Bash!), director of photography Jim Karpeichik (Rhode Island's Historic Lighthouses, When the Reds Ruled the Roost, Navy Heroes of Normandy), Professor Marian Gagnon (HERstory: The Founding Mothers of Johnson & Wales University and Johnson & Wales University's Men of Vision) and Maria Saracen (Ghost and Vampire Legends of Rhode Island). Their documentaries have aired as part of Rhode Island Stories, WSBE's one-hour Saturday night feature, dedicated to presenting local independent films with a Rhode Island connection.

In the coming weeks, two more spots with school connections will debut. One features adult Hispanic students at Progreso Latino in Central Falls, who are studying for their GED certificate using video streaming technology made available by WSBE. The other spot features the founder and director of the Urban Collaborative Accelerated Program (UCAP), an independent middle school in Providence for students at risk of dropping out of school. Director Rob DeBlois shares the remarkable story about UCAP receiving several large donations from viewers after WSBE aired the documentary about three of the school's students, Accelerating America, by award-winning filmmaker and Brown University graduate Tim Hotchner.

The final two testimonials are by Dave Layman, veteran Rhode Island television news director and anchor, and a frequent panelist on WSBE's flagship weekly political affairs program, A Lively Experiment; and Barbara Morse Silva, health check reporter for WJAR NBC-10. Barbara hosted two WSBE specials, one about the H1N1 (Swine) flu outbreak in late 2009, and one about the rising costs of RI health insurance and its alternatives.

The print ad campaign will run in local newspapers and Web sites through January. The on-air spots will air throughout 2011 on a rotating basis on WSBE Rhode Island PBS (digital 36.1, Cox/Verizon/Full Channel 08, DirecTV 36, and Dish Network 7776; Comcast subscribers should check local cable listings) and on WSBE Learn (digital 36.2, Cox 808, Verizon 478, Full Channel 109, and Comcast 294).







Click here for more videos in the My Source series.

"We've Got Your Summer at Rocky Point"

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Missing Rocky Point Park? Let WSBE Rhode Island PBS help cure some of those nostalgic summer blues this July with local filmmaker David Bettencourt’s award winning documentary You Must Be This Tall: The Story of Rocky Point Park.

The feature-length  film, airing Saturday, July 3rd at 7:00 P.M. and again on Sunday, July 4 at 11 P.M., looks at Rocky Point’s 150-year history, from its prominent place in New England summers to the ghost town it has now become.

Every summer for decades, generations of New Englanders flocked to Rocky Point Park - the amusement park and shore dinner hall once situated on Warwick Neck, along the coast of the Narragansett Bay - for a game of Sunday baseball, for a picnic, for a rock-n-roll concert, or to ride on the Tilt-a-Whirl.
 
Then, in 1996, the park closed. With its rides sold off, the park sat for years as a ghost town, scheduled for demolition and primed for the construction of condominiums.

You Must Be This Tall: The Story of Rocky Point Park is told entirely by the people who lived there, who worked there, and who spent every summer at the park. The film uses archival footage, family photos, and memorabilia from the park, as well as photographs taken for this film of the inside of ruined buildings and the grounds of the former amusement park.

From the Shore Dinner Hall to the Midway, from blizzards to iconic rides, no aspect of the Rocky Point Park experience is overlooked. You Must Be This Tall: The Story of Rocky Point Park takes viewers on a rollercoaster ride all its own.


FUN FACTS ABOUT ROCKY POINT PARK

--- In 1847, Captain William Winslow and his passengers aboard the Argo landed at the area known as Rocky Point to enjoy a Sunday picnic.

--- The 19th President of the United States, Rutherford B. Hayes, visited Rocky Point Park and became the first president to make a telephone call. He talked briefly on this new invention with Alexander Graham Bell, who was 13 miles away in Providence.

--- George Herman “Babe” Ruth played numerous baseball games at Rocky Point while playing for the Providence Grays.

--- The park was completely destroyed by the Great Hurricane of 1938. It took years to re-build.

--- The park was again destroyed by Hurricane Carol in 1954. Owner Vincent Ferla spent over $100,000 to re-build it. At its re-opening, traffic is so bad that it holds up major roads in Warwick and Cranston.

--- Rocky Point had six major roller coasters in its history:

1. The Flying Turns
2. The Wildcat
3. The Cyclone
4. The Comet Junior
5. The Up ‘n’ Atom
6. The Corkscrew

-- The Cyclone, sold off at a ride auction in 1996, is currently running at Sandspit-Cavendish, an amusement park on Prince Edward Island, Canada.

-- The Corkscrew was bought, moved and re-named “The Wild Thing.” It currently runs at a theme park outside of Seattle in Federal Way, Washington.

RI Stories presents On The Lake: Life and Love in a Distant Place

**This is an updated version of an earlier post about this documentary.** ON THE LAKE airs as part of RI Stories, the ongoing WSBE Rhode Island PBS series that features documentaries from the Ocean State. Catch RI Stories Saturday nights at 7 PM and Sundays at 11 PM on WSBE Rhode Island PBS, digital 36.1; Cox/Verizon/Full Channel 08; DirecTV 36; Dish Network 7776. (ComCast subscribers, please check local listings for the channel number in your area.)**




After more than a year of work, filmmakers David Bettencourt and G. Wayne Miller have released their feature-length documentary ON THE LAKE: Life and Love in a Distant Place, an emotionally powerful look at the tuberculosis epidemic in 1900s America and globally today.

ON THE LAKE tells its story with never-before-seen footage and stills, and the on-camera accounts of TB survivors – including Barbara Parkos of Newport; Emily Martineau and Sheila O'Brien, both of Harrisville; John Lynes of Pascoag; Russ Denham, who summers in the Ocean State winters in Florida; and 80-year-old Frank Beazley, who has been a patient at Zambarano for almost 42 years.

Much of ON THE LAKE is based at Zambarano Hospital on remote Wallum Lake in Pascoag, R.I., which opened in 1905 as a TB sanatorium. But what started as a local story about the institution unfolded into a much larger story about tuberculosis worldwide and that led the filmmakers to sanitoria around the country. Segments were filmed in Massachusetts, North Carolina, Maryland, Colorado, and Saranac Lake, N.Y. – a community actually built around the disease.

ON THE LAKE has been endorsed by prominent health care activist Dr. Paul Farmer, professor at Harvard Medical School and co-founder of Partners in Health in Boston. Farmer, one of the world’s foremost health care activists in the fight against global TB and AIDS, endorsed and applauded ON THE LAKE for its “human story of the tuberculosis epidemic.”

Even before it premiered on the big screen on February 13, 2009 the film had already become part of a worldwide initiative to stem the epidemic rise of TB and has been recognized by the Stop TB Partnership, a Geneva, Switzerland-based healthcare organization that includes members of the World Health Organization, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the US Agency for International Development.

But the power of the film is its story. Through letters, postcards, and on-camera interviews with survivors, the moving stories - interwoven throughout - put a human face on the epidemic.

For additional insight, read The Providence Journal review by Michael Janusonis and the movie review for WJAR NBC10 by Jim Taricani

Woof! Clifford and Martha Visit Barnes & Noble for Rhode Island PBS

Buying a book, music CD, or movie for this weekend? Here's a great idea and painless way to support Rhode Island PBS by doing something you plan to do anyway.

On Thursday, April 2, all three Barnes & Noble Booksellers in RI will host a "Bookfair" to benefit Rhode Island PBS. The B&N Bookfair starts at 9 AM and runs all day through closing at 10 PM in the Warwick, Smithfield, and Middletown Barnes & Noble stores.

The way it works is simple:

1. Download and print out THIS SPECIAL VOUCHER

2. Take it with you to your local Barnes & Noble store

3. Buy books, magazines, music, movies - even refreshments from the in-store cafe!

4. Present the voucher at the register and a portion of your purchase will be donated by Barnes & Noble to Rhode Island PBS.

That's it! Use a gift card or your B&N membership card for discount savings! The restrictions are minimal: purchase of textbooks, magazine subscriptions, or gift cards are not eligible.

Also, vouchers must be printed beforehand and brought with you to the store; no vouchers will be distributed in the stores. Feel free to pass vouchers along to family and friends, too! There's no limit to the number of vouchers you can pass around.

As a thank you for your support, there's lots of fun in store (pardon the pun)!

For the kids, Clifford the Big Red Dog and Martha from Martha Speaks will visit the Smithfield and Warwick stores; sing along with Grammy winner Bill Harley; play in Bananagrams tournaments (ages 7 and up), hug or high-five Tunes the Turtle from Coast 93.3 Kidz 'n' Family Club.

For the grown ups, David Bettencourt, director of the documentary "You Must Be This Tall: The Story of Rocky Point Park" will autograph his new book, Rocky Point Park (Images of America); live music by Eric Fontana, Eric French, Joseph Fletcher, John Fuzek, Jacqueline Bartlett, Chris Monti with Nick Pagano, Steve Allain.

Check the times and locations of all these activities on the RI PBS Kids Club calendar.

On The Lake: Life and Love in a Distant Place March 25th

After more than a year of work, filmmakers David Bettencourt and G. Wayne Miller have released their feature-length documentary ON THE LAKE: Life and Love in a Distant Place, an emotionally powerful look at the tuberculosis epidemic in 1900s America and globally today.

Told with never-before-seen footage and stills, and the on-camera accounts of TB survivors – including Barbara Parkos of Newport; Emily Martineau and Sheila O'Brien, both of Harrisville; John Lynes of Pascoag; Russ Denham, who summers in the Ocean State winters in Florida; and 80-year-old Frank Beazley, who has been a patient at Zambarano for almost 42 years – ON THE LAKE makes its television premiere WSBE Rhode Island PBS at 8 PM on March 25 (digital 36.1; Cox, Verizon, Full Channel 8 in RI; MA cable subscribers should check local listings for channel number; DirecTV36; Dish 7776).

Much of ON THE LAKE is based at Zambarano Hospital on remote Wallum Lake in Pascoag, R.I., which opened in 1905 as a TB sanatorium. But what started as a local story about the institution unfolded into a much larger story about tuberculosis worldwide and that led the filmmakers to sanitoria around the country. Segments were filmed in Massachusetts, North Carolina, Maryland, Colorado, and Saranac Lake, N.Y. – a community actually built around the disease.

ON THE LAKE has been endorsed by prominent health care activist Dr. Paul Farmer, professor at Harvard Medical School and co-founder of Partners in Health in Boston. Farmer, one of the world’s foremost health care activists in the fight against global TB and AIDS, endorsed and applauded ON THE LAKE for its “human story of the tuberculosis epidemic.”

Even before it premiered on the big screen on February 13, the film had already become part of a worldwide initiative to stem the epidemic rise of TB and has been recognized by the Stop TB Partnership, a Geneva, Switzerland-based healthcare organization that includes members of the World Health Organization, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the US Agency for International Development.

But the power of the film is its story. Through letters, postcards, and on-camera interviews with survivors, the moving stories - interwoven throughout - put a human face on the epidemic.

For additional insight, read The Providence Journal review by Michael Janusonis and the movie review for WJAR NBC10 by Jim Taricani