Oral Histories Commemorate National Roller Coaster Day

Coney Island History Project Oral History Archive

On August 16th, we'd ordinarily say Happy National Roller Coaster Day and propose celebrating with a ride on the Coney Island Cyclone.  Since New York's amusement park rides, including the Cyclone, have been closed this season by state executive order due to the pandemic, the word "happy" is hard to muster.  We're honoring the day with a selection of roller coaster-themed oral history interviews from the Coney Island History Project's Archive which you can listen to online. National Roller Coaster Day commemorates Edwin Prescott's August 16, 1898 patent for a vertical Loop the Loop. The looping coaster was built in 1901 on Surf Avenue in Coney Island where the 1927 Cyclone roller coaster is now.

Don Ferris, who passed away in 2018, was involved with everything that Coney Island had to offer. He was a carpenter, mechanic, and a showman who started his career with the Tilyou and McCullough families, operating roller coasters and road attractions. This recording describes how he started in the amusement business and how he wound up operating and living in an apartment inside the Tornado roller coaster.

Mindy Gress and her family moved to Coney Island when she was 3-1/2 and she has lived here ever since. She looks back on her job developing photos of Cyclone riders in the coaster's darkroom in the summer of 1977. "You had to wait for the ride to stop to develop it because the enlarger would shake and the photo would come out blurry." She also recalls riding the Cyclone for four hours straight with Richard Rodriguez, the roller coaster marathoner who was training for his record-breaking 104-hour Cyclone ride.

Harold J. Kramer shares memories of traveling from Chicago with his family to visit his great-aunt and great-uncle in Coney Island. Molly and George Moran owned and operated the Thunderbolt and lived in the house under the roller coaster, which was later immortalized in Woody Allen's 1977 film Annie Hall. Kramer recalls the cousins being given tokens to ride the coaster and play Skee Ball at Playland Arcade.

David Head is a retired NYC Transit worker and former chairman of the Black History Committee for TWU Local 100 who has championed the accomplishments of African-American inventor Granville T. Woods (1856-1910). Among Woods' many electrical patents was one for the world's first electric roller coaster, which was located in Coney Island a century ago. Head was instrumental in having a Coney Island street across from the Stillwell Avenue Subway Terminal renamed "Granville T. Woods Way."

Meg Feeley shares memories of a renegade ride on the Thunderbolt on a February night in the 1980s, a few years after the roller coaster had closed down. Meg is a writer who has written many poems inspired by her experiences in Coney Island.

Kyle Yapching had long awaited being tall enough to ride the Cyclone roller coaster. He visits his aunt and uncle every summer and finally in 2010 he was able to go on the historic roller coaster with his uncle.

Erik Knapp of the rock band Mystical Children arrives in the middle of the night to be the first person in line to ride the Cyclone on opening day. He shows off his fresh tattoo of the ride's top hill.

Avid roller coaster rider Bill Galvin recounts the time he wore a dress to participate in a women's marathon on the Cyclone roller coaster in 1997.

Visiting Coney Island from upstate New York in 2009, Robert Maxwell estimates that he has ridden the Cyclone at least 35-40 times since his first visit in the early 1990's. He describes why he likes riding in the front car best and how he worked with his tattoo artist to design his Cyclone tattoo. Riding the Cyclone is a fond memory Robert shares with his father who rode with him on his first visit to Coney Island.

If you or someone you know would like to share a story via phone, Skype or Zoom, sign up here. We record oral history interviews in English, Russian, Chinese, Spanish and other languages with people who have lived or worked in Coney Island and adjacent neighborhoods or have a special connection to these places.

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