Charles Denson is executive director of the nonprofit Coney Island History Project, which has created an oral history archive and sponsors educational exhibits, school programs and performances. He is the author of Coney Island: Lost and Found, named 2002 New York Book of the Year by the New York Society Library. Mr. Denson grew up in Coney Island and began documenting his neighborhood as a boy, a passion that continues to this day. A writer, photographer and art director, he began his career in 1971 as a photographer for New York magazine and has since worked as art director for numerous publications. In 1999 he was awarded a Chronicle journalism fellowship at the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley. In 2013 the New York State Marine Education Association presented the Herman Melville Award to him for his environmental advocacy on behalf of Coney Island Creek.
Interviews
Friends since Mark Twain Junior High years
Steve Garone (pictured above on the right) and Dan Pisark met as students at Mark Twain Junior High School and continued on together through Lafayette High School. Steve grew up in Gravesend Houses and recalls being poor but very happy as a kid in...
Photographing his Coney Island neighborhood for 50 years
Abe Feinstein moved with his wife and children to Luna Park Houses in 1962 and lived there for 31 years. Working at a camera store, he could get discounts on film and processing, which enabled him to take as many photos as he wished. He had a habit...
Lived in Coney Island from 1938 thru early 1950's
Harry spent his formative years in Coney Island and has many memories of the sights and sounds from his youth. Before being drafted into the military during the Korean War, he had various part-time jobs including a stint at Silver's Bathhouse...
Holders of Coney Island History
82 year-old Ben Grisar and his wife Vivian both grew up in Coney Island. Ben's grandfather owned many businesses in Coney Island including partial ownership in Dreamland Park, which was destroyed by fire in 1911. He shares his personal memories...
Descendants of Max "Kid Twist" Zweifach
Sue Fox is the granddaughter of Max Zweifach (aka Zwerbach), a notorious Jewish gangster who was the original "Kid Twist" and the leader of Monk Eastman's gang. He died in Coney Island in 1908 at the hands of rival gangster Louie...
Owner of Philips Candy Store
A Coney Island classic, Philips Candy Store, has moved to Staten Island but owner John Dorman recalls his decades open for business in the Stillwell Avenue train terminal. The shop originally opened in 1930 in that location, but Dorman began working...
Member of the Seven Immortals
John recalls being a member of The Seven Immortals, a Coney Island gang, back in the 1970's. He talks about joining forces with the other gang in the area, Homicides Inc., to defend Coney Island from gangs from other neighborhoods. John's...
Relatives lived under the Thunderbolt
Harold Kramer's great aunt and uncle, Molly and George Moran, owned the Thunderbolt roller coaster and lived in the house under its tracks. Harold remembers Molly and George just laughing when the coaster shook their house since it was "...
First in line for a ride on the Cyclone
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.
13-year-old side show worker and activist
Thirteen-year-old Coney Island activist Patrick Burns works at the Side Show, Astroland, and El Dorado. He speaks of his love for Coney Island, "one of the great world wonders," and his plans for saving the place he loves.