Oral History Archive

Filtering by 2010 - 2019 back to all

Mike Boodley

Award-winning roller coaster designer looks back on riding the Cyclone 1,001 consecutive times in 1975

Jeanette Bigelson

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

Jeff Brooks

Tales of unusual dark rides, riots, the Tornado, and the Bowery

Keith Suber

Community activist and reformed gang member

Zohra Saed

Poet and writer from Afghanistan who grew up in Southern Brooklyn

Khonya Epstein

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

Emmanuel Elpenord

An actor's memories of growing up in Sea Rise apartments and a souvenir of the Wonder Wheel

Frank Gurrera

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

Anthony Wang

Resident of senior housing in Coney Island was born in Shanghai and survived the Cultural Revolution

Josephine Gargiulo Cassata

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

Gabriel Valencia

Twenty-five years at Gregory & Paul's and Paul's Daughter on the Coney Island Boardwalk

Lorraine Ross

Resident of Coney Island for 47 years and retired transit cleaner at Stillwell Terminal

April Leong

Founder and principal of Coney Island's Liberation Diploma Plus High School

Lu Zhao

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

Lolita Divilova

Community Board 13 member and Brightwater Towers homeowner and board member

Tim Law

Bilingual educator and founder of Chinese American Social Services Center in Bensonhurst

John Hunt

Model builder of roller coasters and amusement rides including the Cyclone and Deno's Wonder Wheel

Juanhua Zhao

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