Memories of growing up in Coney Island Houses and on Mermaid Avenue in the 1950s and '60s
Musician Andy Fuhrman grew up in Coney Island Houses and on Mermaid Avenue and remembers every store in the neighborhood. Andy was on the football team at Lincoln High School in the 1960s, worked games on the Bowery, and was a pioneering surfer at...
Content type: Oral History Item
Sea Gate resident on her girlhood memories of Coney Island and passing them on to her daughter
Currently a resident of Sea Gate, Irene Karas was born in Belgium and grew up in Bensonhurst and on Ocean Parkway. She recalls excursions to Coney Island beach with her family. As a young girl, Irene would "roam all of the nooks and crannies of...
Content type: Oral History Item
Memories of growing up in the 1940s and '50s in a tight-knit Jewish community in Coney Island
Susan Meyer (a.k.a Dalbir Khalsa) grew up on Sea Breeze Avenue across from Seaside Park, in what she describes as a tight-knit Jewish community of East European origins. She recalls going to Washington Baths and Steeplechase Park every summer with...
Content type: Oral History Item
Jazz musician and bandleader of the Afro-Peruvian Sextet has lived in Coney Island for the past decade
Born and raised in Lima, Peru, Gabriel Alegría has lived on Coney Island's Mermaid Avenue since 2007. The trumpet player, composer, and bandleader of the Afro-Peruvian Sextet talks about what drew him to Coney Island, Afro-Peruvian jazz music and...
Content type: Oral History Item
Architect who grew up in Coney Island in the 1980s and designed the renovated Ruby's Bar & Grill
Eric Safyan grew up in Coney Island's Brightwater Towers overlooking the Aquarium. His parents were political refugees who emigrated from Odessa in Ukraine when he was 3-1/2 years old. After graduating from Brooklyn Tech and architecture school in...
Content type: Oral History Item
Memories of growing up on Mermaid Avenue and working games in Coney Island from age twelve
Michael Goldstein, known as "Looch," worked games in Coney Island for over half a century. He started out in 1954 at age twelve, earning 75 cents an hour, and by his fourth year was a partner in the game. "It was a different era, a different...
Content type: Oral History Item
A nine-year-old artist whose favorite place is Coney Island paints a mural at Deno's Wonder Wheel Park
Lola Glass, whose artistic name is Lola the Illustrator, talks about her new mural at Coney Island's Deno's Wonder Wheel Park. Called "Coney Wonders," the mural depicts a snow globe of the Wonder Wheel flanked by two mermaids. The nine-year-old ...
Content type: Oral History Item
Owner of Peluso Machine and Iron Works
Machinist John Rea emigrated from Naples, Italy, and began working at Peluso Machine and Iron Works in Coney Island in 1947. He bought the business, and operated it until his retirement in 1966. He repaired or worked on nearly every famous ride in...
Content type: Oral History Item
On growing up in Coney Island in the 1940s and the history of Greek-American businesses in the area
Father Eugene Pappas, the pastor of Southern Brooklyn's Three Hierarchs Greek Orthodox Church for the past 35 years, shares his memories of Coney Island, where he was born in 1940. His family lived at 2812 Stillwell Avenue across from the subway...
Content type: Oral History Item
Got a tattoo of the Astroland Rocket in honor of her first date in Coney Island
Sarah Schneider, who visited the Coney Island History Project in 2017, shares her story of getting a tattoo of the Astroland Rocket in honor of her first date in Coney Island.
Content type: Oral History Item