Inside the private world of aristocratic Newport

Overview

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BEHIND THE HEDGEROW 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. The story is told through the focus of Eileen Gillespie Slocum, descendant of Browns (as in Brown University) 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, as The New York Times noted in her obituary. Slocum was the last of the Newport grand dames –– and one of the last grand dames anywhere. She left no successor. America had changed, and so had the world; a new moneyed class now ruled, though the descendants of the Gilded Age elite (many of them on-camera in this film, the first time ever) continue to live on and near Bellevue Avenue, Newport, still one of America's most exclusive addresses...
 
This is an exclusive, inside look at a vanishing society, placed in historical context and providing a deeper understanding of what F. Scott Fitzgerald meant when he observed: “Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me.”
 
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 HEDEGEROW is uniquely positioned to entertain, inform and, in certain passages, amuse audiences.

A film by Eagle Peak Media filmmakers David Bettencourt & G. Wayne Miller