An adventuresome youth in Coney Island
Naomi Starss shares this story from her youth about getting in trouble with the police for panhandling with a girlfriend in Coney Island when they were fourteen years old. She describes how they made friends with a good-looking policeman who...
Content type: Oral History Item
Band organ expert
Born in 1920, Max has been in the band organ restoration and maintenance business, which he learned from his father at an early age, all his life. After serving as a paratrooper in World War II, he went back to work with his dad until his death in...
Content type: Oral History Item
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...
Content type: Oral History Item
Worked at the RKO Tilyou Theater
John Landi worked as the house electrician for the RKO Tilyou Theater in the early 1960's when the Tilyou family still operated the theater. He was 19 years old when he started the job and stayed for two or three years. John describes his...
Content type: Oral History Item
Son of West End and Sea Gate shopkeepers in the 1940's and 50's
Fogel grew up in Coney Island's West End and Sea Gate in the 1940's and 50's, attending PS 80 and PS 188. His parents ran several shops in the West End, providing him with an interesting perspective on life in the bungalow colonies...
Content type: Oral History Item
Lived in Coney Island since 1961
Dorothy moved to Coney Island in 1961 from the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant. She has also lived in Brighton Beach and Ocean Parkway and remembers "the west side" near Seabreeze Park (now known as Asser Levy Park). She...
Content type: Oral History Item
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...
Content type: Oral History Item
Actor, performer, artist, teacher
Glenn has lived in Coney Island all his life and, concurrent with the interview, performed on the boardwalk on weekends. He passionately recounts many detailed memories, including the Tuesday fireworks, the First Baptist Church, the YMCA, the movie...
Content type: Oral History Item
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.
Content type: Oral History Item
Artist and Champion Break-Dancer
Coney Island artist and champion break-dancer Daniel Blake (aka Africasso) tells true-life tales of Coney Island's real "Warriors," the gangs that roamed the amusement parks in the 70's and 80's.
Content type: Oral History Item