Oral History Archive

Filtering by 2020 - 2029 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

Gerard Thornton

A childhood watching boats in the Coney Island Channel led to the founding of a tugboat company

Alexander Vindman

Retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel who emigrated from Ukraine to Brighton Beach as a child

Angbeen Saleem

A poet and roller coaster lover describes her weekly ritual of riding the Coney Island Cyclone

Josh Wolfe

Chairman of Coney Island Prep on growing up in Coney Island and the charter school's first 15 years

Betya Shenker

Memories of World War II in Ukraine and immigrating to Southern Brooklyn

Mary Engel

Filmmaker and archivist whose parents collaborated on the film Little Fugitive in Coney Island

Stella Bacolas

Growing up in Greece and living in Coney Island's Luna Park Houses since the 1970s

Sofya Dudnik

Embroidery artist and Coney Island resident who emigrated from Moscow in 2010

Tina Mednicoff Smokler

Growing up in Coney Island and being elected to Leon Friend's Art Squad at Lincoln High School

Ronald Kannatt (The Prince of Coney Island)

Twenty years at Deno's Wonder Wheel Park's Karaoke on the Boardwalk

Angela Kravtchenko

Architect who is a Coney Island resident and a community activist

JR Lopez

Memories of growing up on West 35th Street in Coney Island in the 1990s

Sofya Lobova

A longtime resident of Haber Houses and leader of the Russian-speaking community