Amanda Deutch is a native New Yorker whose mother and grandparents lived in Coney Island. She has worked with the Coney Island History Project since 2008 and is also a teaching artist and poet. Amanda is the author of four poetry chapbooks and her poems have been published widely in journals. In 2009, she founded Parachute Literary Arts, which utilizes poetry as a catalyst for community engagement and youth empowerment. Her passions include impressing bystanders with her Skee-Ball skills and riding the Wonder Wheel.
Interviews
Lived in Coney Island during the 50's
In the 1950s, Gene and his older brother lived in Coney Island. Gene has vivid memories of Steeplechase Park, the Wonder Wheel and his favorite ride, the Bobsled. He recalls his brother selling Good Humor ice cream on the beach, charging double or...
His father sold frozen seafood to Nathan's
David grew up in Sheepshead Bay and shares two particular memories of Coney Island. He remembers his father, an early importer of frozen seafood, being the first person to sell frozen seafood to Nathan Handwerker of Nathan's Famous. David...
Memories of the Bobsled, Caterpillar and Parachute Jump
Joan grew up in Brooklyn and describes it as a magical place where neighborhood people all knew each other and the smell of tomato sauce was in the air on a Sunday. In the summer, her father worked in an arcade near the Parachute Jump. She recalls...
Rode the Cyclone at 4 years old
Marion is 75 years old and tells the story of first coming to Coney Island with her grandfather and riding the Cyclone when she was four years old. She subsequently took her children to Steeplechase regularly and then five years ago, she rode the...
Great-grandson of strongman The Great Sandow
Chris's great-grandfather was strongman The Great Sandow, Eugen Sandow, who was born 1867 and died 1925. He describes how many bodybuilders in the 20th century, including the Mighty Atom, modeled themselves after his great-grandfather, who at...
Got stuck on the Parachute Jump
David was born in Sea Gate in 1935 and, except for his time at Brooklyn College and in the army, has lived in Coney Island or Sea Gate all his life. One of his strongest memories is getting stuck on top of the Parachute Jump for 15 minutes and using...
Architectural preservationist
Melissa is passionate about Coney Island because of the stories her mother would tell her about the times she visited Coney as a young woman. Melissa recalls two details in particular, accounts of visiting the Sodamat and various Coney Island...
Retired bus driver
Ronald, a retired New York City bus driver who lives in the Bronx, came to Coney Island on this day with his daughters via the Nostalgia Train, a set of six fully restored 30's and 40's era IND subway trains that the New York Transit...
Rode the Steeplechase horses
Billy came to Coney Island as a child with his brother and specifically remembers the terror of riding the Steeplechase horses because they were very fast and there were no safety regulations back then. He recalls riding next to a woman who fell off...