English

Russian-born artist preserves the past as book and paper conservator at Brooklyn College Library
This interview was conducted and recorded in Russian. Read Mark Markov's transcript and translation below. Интервью было проведено и записано на русском языке. Читайте транскрипт и перевод Марка Маркова которые расположены ниже. Artist Slava...
Content type: Oral History Item
Mary Hood came to Coney Island as a child and worked on the Bowery well into her 90s
95-year-old Mary Hood (a.k.a. Mary Fish) was a regular at the bar at Peggy O'Neill's. She was either working long hours as a ticket taker at the Eldorado Skooter or she was drinking into the wee hours. It was hard to pin her down or to keep up with...
Content type: Oral History Item
The story behind the Boardwalk Lido Restaurant and the family who operated it from 1927 until 1960
Steve Arniotes and his family operated the Lido Restaurant and Bar on the Coney Island Boardwalk from 1927 until 1960. Steve and his brother were lawyers and both became judges. Arniotes describes his family roots and what it was like to operate a...
Content type: Oral History Item
An immigrant sign painter recounts his journey from Jamaica and the UK to Coney Island.
(Hector) George Wallace tells the story of his immigration from Jamaica to England to Coney Island, where he has been an itinerant sign painter for the past four decades. Wallace's painting style is ubiquitous, and can be seen on the facades of Ruby...
Content type: Oral History Item
5D Cinema entrepreneur on Coney Island's Bowery
For the Coney Island History Project's first-ever "on-ride" oral history, interviewer Samira Tazari mixed recordings of her ride on the Bowery's 5D Cinema and an interview with the indie attraction's owner Terry Zheng. Known as  "Tommy" to his...
Content type: Oral History Item
Mermaid Spa founder talks about bringing the Russian banya tradition to Coney Island
This interview was conducted and recorded in Russian. Read Mark Markov's transcript and translation below. Интервью было проведено и записано на русском языке. Читайте транскрипт и перевод Марка Маркова которые расположены ниже. A native of Kyiv,...
Content type: Oral History Item
Memories of a Yiddish literary household in 1940's and 1950's Coney Island and Sea Gate
Eva Zucker grew up in Coney and Sea Gate in the 1940s and 1950s in a literary household. Yiddish was her first language.  She recounts memories of her father, the Yiddish poet A. Lutzky, who made a living writing Saturday poems for the newspaper Der...
Content type: Oral History Item
Coney Island homeowner recalls fleeing Vietnam with his family in 1981 and settling in New York City
This interview was conducted and recorded in Cantonese Chinese. Read Audrey Tam's transcript and translation below. 本采访以粤语进行并记录。阅读下面的Audrey Tam的笔录和翻译。 Among the more than 800,000 refugees who fled Vietnam in the years after the fall of Hanoi and...
Content type: Oral History Item
Subsistence U.S.A. and the Coney Island History Project
Before her career in the amusement business, Carol Albert worked with famed photographer Bruce Davidson to produce an acclaimed book of oral histories titled Subsistence U.S.A. Her interest in oral history led to the founding of the Coney Island...
Content type: Oral History Item
Getting engaged on the Wonder Wheel, the most romantic ride in the world
One Saturday in May when we arrived to open up the Coney Island History Project exhibit center, a group of people holding signs that spelled out WILL YOU MARRY ME??????? caught our eye. A couple was getting engaged on the Wonder Wheel! A popular...
Content type: Oral History Item