Oral History Archive

Filtering by 1940 - 1949 back to all

Randy Profeta

Great grandson of Coney Island sign painter Harry Wildman and grandson of Steeplechase's Vito Onorato

Rita Kaminsky

Coney Island during the Great Depression and World War II

Jeanette Bigelson

At age 103, Coney Island resident shares her memories and secrets to a long and happy life

Khonya Epstein

Author and leader of the Holocaust Survivors Group at Marks JCH of Bensonhurst

Frank Gurrera

Machinist at MTA's Coney Island Overhaul and Repair Shop and oldest active TWU Local 100 member

Josephine Gargiulo Cassata

Daughter of Gargiulo's founder was born in an apartment above Coney Island's famous restaurant

Lu Zhao

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

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

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

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