Revisiting the Spook-A-Rama and Wonder Wheel of his boyhood
Michael Borruto shared his memories of riding Spook-A-Rama and the Wonder Wheel as a 10-year-old. On an August 2016 visit to Coney Island with his wife and friends, he wanted to revisit and ride Spook-A-Rama. "I didn't even know it was still there...
Content type: Oral History Item
Girlhood memories of summering in a Coney Island bungalow in the 1950s
On her first day back to Coney Island since 1959, Kathy Duke O'Melia shares memories of joyful summers spent with her family at a bungalow colony in Coney Island. Located on West 31st Street near Coney Island Creek, the bungalows provided an...
Content type: Oral History Item
Coney Island resident since the 1970s, community gardener and musician
Santos Torres has lived in Coney Island since 1973, tends the Santos White Community Garden, and plays music on the Boardwalk during the summer. Located on Mermaid Avenue, the garden was founded in 1995 and is part of the City's GreenThumb network...
Content type: Oral History Item
Memories of Coney Island in the 1930s and '40s and growing up in Brooklyn in an Italian family
Commendatore Aldo Mancusi, the founder of the Enrico Caruso Museum of America, brings his Hofbauer street organ from the museum to our annual Coney Island History Day celebrations. Born in 1929, Mancusi shares his memories of coming to Coney Island...
Content type: Oral History Item
Teacher and community advocate at Public School 188 in Coney Island
Scott Krivitsky grew up in Brighton Beach and is a teacher and community advocate at P.S. 188 in Coney Island. He talks about the Brooklyn Marine STEM Alliance of over 30 schools to give students a "real life education" in science, technology,...
Content type: Oral History Item
Science teacher at John Dewey High School and advisor for the Robotics Team
Filippo Dispenza is a science teacher at John Dewey High School in the Gravesend neighborhood of Southern Brooklyn. He teaches and advises Dewey's award-winning Robotics Team, which recently placed 7th out of 75 teams in a competition. Dispenza...
Content type: Oral History Item
Historian delves into the life of E.J. Perry, African-American silhouette artist at Luna Park
Historian Eric K. Washington's 2013 essay "E.J. Perry, African-American Silhouette Cutter of America's Leisure Circuit" brought the long forgotten Perry into the public eye once again. Called "America's most famous silhouette cutter" by The...
Content type: Oral History Item
Musician and founder of a jazz big band recounts his journey from Leningrad to Southern Brooklyn
This interview was conducted and recorded in Russian. Read Mark Markov's transcript and translation below. Интервью было проведено и записано на русском языке. Читайте транскрипт и перевод Марка Маркова которые расположены ниже.
Coney Island...
Content type: Oral History Item
Coney Island handball champions Albert Apuzzi and Dori Ten on the mecca of handball
Husband and wife Albert Apuzzi and Dori Ten are one-wall handball champions who have long played at Coney Island's famed Seaside Courts, known as the mecca of handball. Apuzzi tells how he started playing handball in kindergarten when the game was...
Content type: Oral History Item
Partnerships for Parks' Catalyst community specialist on waterfront parks along Coney Island Creek
Ted Enoch works with the Catalyst Program of the Partnerships for Parks in Coney Island, supporting community efforts in the waterfront parks along Coney Island Creek. He talks about the decade-long history of educators and community members...
Content type: Oral History Item