Cyclone, The

Memories of operating Steeplechase Park's Sports Car ride in 1963-1964 and fighting the Ravenhall fire
Born in 1946, Jim Lucarelli grew up in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. He describes "the opportunity and the privilege" of working at Coney Island's Steeplechase Park in 1963 and 1964, the last two summers before the park closed.  As a 16-year-old ride...
Content type: Oral History Item
Brooklynite who posed for a now iconic 1950's NY Daily News pin-up photo on Coney Island Beach
In 1954, Lois McLohon posed for a Daily News photographer as a bathing beauty against the backdrop of Coney Island beach and its famous skyline.  When the photo appeared as a "cheesecake photo" in the paper's centerfold,  she and her friends thought...
Content type: Oral History Item
Artist whose watercolors of the Astroland Rocket and Wonder Wheel sign are emblematic of Coney Island
Watercolor artist Frederick Brosen is a native New Yorker whose boyhood memories include Steeplechase's revolving barrel at the park's entrance, wooden slide, and horse race ride.  As a father, he rediscovered the joy of Coney Island through a...
Content type: Oral History Item
Memories of going to Coney Island Beach as a child in the 1930's and a teenager in the '40s
Born in 1932, Connie Scacciaferro grew up in Ridgewood and enjoyed outings to Coney Island Beach as a young girl. "Anybody that could carry a shopping bag when we were little, carried a shopping bag on the train to the beach," she says of taking the...
Content type: Oral History Item
Growing up in the Russian community in Coney Island and Brighton Beach
Born in 1986, Brooklynite Sam Shlivko grew up in the Russian community in Coney Island and has lived here ever since.  His parents met in Brighton Beach after emigrating from Ukraine and Belarus in the late '70s and Russian was his first language. ...
Content type: Oral History Item
Memories of growing up on Coney Island's first block and working in the Cyclone photobooth's darkroom
Brooklynite Mindy Gress and her family moved to Coney Island when she was 3-1/2 years old and she has lived here ever since.  "I'm living in Coney Island till I die," says the resident of West 5th Street, who describes her street as the first block...
Content type: Oral History Item
Memories of going to Steeplechase Park as a teenager in the 1950s
Visiting the Coney Island History Project and seeing an original Steeplechase horse brings back vivid memories for Rosalie Diamond of coming to Coney Island as a teen in the 1950s. She recalls the clowns at Steeplechase, riding the Parachute Jump,...
Content type: Oral History Item
Growing up in Coney Island in the 1970s and '80s and coming back to photograph it
Barry Yanowitz grew up in Coney Island where he could see the Cyclone and hear the screams of riders from his window. "The Cyclone was it," he recalls. "The secret thing that me and friends of mine had who lived in the area that I felt like the rest...
Content type: Oral History Item
Memories of family picnics under the Boardwalk and making new memories at Spook-A-Rama
For Carmen Arcendiga, a trip to Coney Island with her granddaughter Zoe evokes memories of family picnics under the boardwalk, riding the Cyclone, and the Laughing Lady. They came to Coney Island after Carmen won an essay contest for a behind-the-...
Content type: Oral History Item
30-Nov-06
Detail of Cyclone sign.
Content type: Collection Item
Collection type: Documentary photograph