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Overcast Oyster Bay takes the gold home at the Emmys
Oyster Bay residents were rubbing shoulders with the stars as the Arty and Evans-Sheppard families won gold at the 65th Annual New York Emmy Awards on Oct. 6 in two separate categories for documentary short films on their home and family history, respectively.
The Arty family of Oyster Bay had already made headlines in local and national newspapers thanks to the effects of matriarch Jaime, who has been continuously documenting the ongoing process of renovating the family’s 1834 mansion on her Instagram and Facebook accounts. The house has a storied history and was owned by a well-known local judge and abolitionist William Townsend McCoun as well as Theodore Roosevelt III, the eldest son of the famous president.
Arty explained that an editor from Newsday named Estelle Lander reached out to her and expressed interest in making a short documentary piece on the family’s story. She and her husband Frantz discussed the history of the property, as well as the exhaustive process of turning it from a crumbling wreck to a livable and lovely home.
“Being an African American family, the fact that the previous owner of this house was fighting to end slavery and was on the good side of history was just incredible to us,” Arty explained. “I didn’t realize that people, you know, would find any of that remotely interesting, but they loved it.”
The program, which was titled “Restoring an 1834 Mansion in Oyster Bay” and debuted on Nov. 21, 2021, was selected as a finalist in the Historical/Cultural – News (Single Shift) category.
He purchased a family home in Oyster Bay in 1865, known forever as “Carll Hill,” which has subsequently housed five generations of his family. The documentary looked at Carll himself, while also examining the life he was able to provide for his numerous descendants who continue to live on the property to this day.
Evans-Sheppard mentioned how she met Ebony Roundtree, a producer for WABC-TV, at a community picnic at Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Park a few years ago. The two got to talking, and Roundtree loved the Carll family story, and by the next year they began working on the project.
Evans-Sheppard spoke about how amazing it was to see people appreciate the history of her ancestor and family, and that she was honestly surprised at how much interest there was in David Carll and his story.
“It was a great opportunity for us to share our story through our perspective and lens,” Evans-Sheppard said. “I never thought in a million years that I would have had that opportunity.”
“David Carll’s Long Island Legacy” was a finalist in the Historical/Cultural – Short Form Content category, which was for pieces 10 minutes or shorter in length. It also won in its category, and although neither Arty nor Evans-Sheppard actually received awards, which are reserved for the filmmakers, they did get the opportunity to celebrate with them.
Ravin Chetram, community member and Vice President of the Oyster Bay-East Norwich Chamber of Commerce, who attended the event as a guest of the Artys with his wife Denise, explained that as he saw it, this was an amazing moment not just for Oyster Bay, but especially for the Black and Brown residents of the community.
“Oyster Bay just doesn’t see that many people of color, being that we were like 16 percent of color at one time and know it’s two or three percent,” Chetram said. “When you see Jaime’s home makeover, when you learn about Denice’s family, it’s truly inspiring and incredible.”
