Oral History Archive

Filtering by 1940 - 1949 back to all

Ellen Abrams

Memories of growing up on West 29th Street and meeting her lifeguard husband on Coney Island Beach

Norman Stock

Poet who grew up in Coney Island and was one of Dr. Couney's incubator babies

David Louie

David Louie's family owned the popular Wah Mee Restaurant on Mermaid Avenue

Jeffrey Berman

Longtime Sea Gate resident and watercolor artist who teaches at Seaside Innovative Senior Center

Juanhua Zhao

Tai chi teacher at Coney Island's Seaside Innovative Senior Center shares her life story

Nancy Gabriel

Memories of visiting Uncle Pete, who ran a food concession at Steeplechase Pool in the 1930s-50s

Greg Birbil

Greg Birbil's father, Paul, was a candy maker who owned the Paradise Ice Cream Parlor on Surf Avenue

Sheldon Krimsky

Memories of growing up on West 29th Street in Coney Island in the 1940s and '50s

Robert Levrini

Memories of growing up on West 5th Street and grandfather's shoe repair shop on Ocean Parkway

Alonzo Kittrels

Memories of bus trips to Coney Island with the Good Will Family Club from the 1940's through 1961

Richard Termini

Memories of growing up at Bensonhurst's Termini's Bakery and riding Coney Island's Astroland Rocket

Lois McLohon

Brooklynite who posed for a now iconic 1950's NY Daily News pin-up photo on Coney Island Beach

Richard Glazer-Danay

Artist who grew up in Coney Island and whose artwork celebrates his Mohawk iron worker ancestry

Steven Feinstein

Reflections on running Wilensky Hardware, a 100-year-old family business on Mermaid Avenue

Chris Cuomo

Memories of riding the Steeplechase Horses, Human Roulette Wheel and Parachute Jump 70 years ago

Lu Zhao

Calligrapher recounts his artistic journey from China's Guangdong Province to Brooklyn's Bensonhurst

Anne Green

Memories of growing up in Coney Island in the 1930s and '40s

Steve Burke

Memories of working at Coney Island's pony track as a boy in the 1940s for "no pay, just tips"