A childhood watching boats in the Coney Island Channel led to the founding of a tugboat company
Gerard Thornton's childhood fascination with the maritime industry began when he and his brother Rick would watch shipping traffic from their window in the O'Dwyer Gardens housing project in Coney Island. The Coney Island Channel with its tugs and...
Content type: Oral History Item
Author of two books about Coney Island basketball
Delbert Prince is the author of two books tracing the history of Coney Island basketball and what the sport meant to the community. Prince grew up in Coney Island and played ball on all the local courts. His detailed personal history includes the...
Content type: Oral History Item
Girlhood memories of visiting Coney Island in the 1930s and '40s
Toby Deligdish, 92, grew up in the Borough Park neighborhood of Brooklyn. She shares memories of going to Coney Island at around age 10, when her family rented a room in a home for the summer, and returning as a teenager with friends from school....
Content type: Oral History Item
Boyhood memories of visiting Coney Island in the 1930s and getting lost on the beach
Norman Finkel, 94, grew up on 48th Street and 8th Avenue in Brooklyn, where the candy store was the social center of the neighborhood and he played stickball on the street. He shares memories of visiting Coney Island with his family during the 1930s...
Content type: Oral History Item
Retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel who emigrated from Ukraine to Brighton Beach as a child
Alexander Vindman was born in 1975 in Soviet Ukraine and emigrated at age four with his family to Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach. He shares memories of growing up and going to school in Brighton, being photographed with his twin brother by the...
Content type: Oral History Item
Washington Baths pool and the scary movies at the Mermaid Theater
Arthur Galka was born in Coney Island and spent his 1950s childhood summers at Washington Baths. He tells tales of the swimming pool watermelon races, Shatzkins Knishes, the Mermaid Theater, and the rivalry with Ravenhall.
Content type: Oral History Item
"Best of the Best" slugger at the Coney Island Batting Range
In 2003, at the age of 66, Joe Miller won the "Best of the Best" slugging Contest at the Coney Island Batting Range. He had also won it three years earlier. Joe tells about his college baseball career and shares memories of the annual contest held...
Content type: Oral History Item
Working the Rides: From the streets of Coney Island to the war in Vietnam
Jeffrey Brettler began working in Coney Island at the age of 12 during the early 1960s. He got to know all the ride operators. He shares vivid memories of the colorful characters he met and describes the idiosyncrasies of some of the most beloved...
Content type: Oral History Item
A life in Coney Island
For more than 60 years Benny Harrison brought fun and smiles to visitors who enjoyed his delightful, artistic creations. During the last ten years Benny’s stands on West 12th Street entertained thousands with a storefront of quirky games and...
Content type: Oral History Item
A poet and roller coaster lover describes her weekly ritual of riding the Coney Island Cyclone
In 2023, Angbeen Saleem, who grew up in Pennsylvania riding roller coasters at Knoebels and Six Flags Great Adventure, made it her weekly ritual to ride the Coney Island Cyclone. "I just told myself that this is something I would do every week and...
Content type: Oral History Item