Oral History Archive

Jim Lucarelli
Memories of operating Steeplechase Park's Sports Car ride in 1963-1964 and fighting the Ravenhall fire
Pamela Pettyjohn
Longtime Coney Island resident and president of Coney Island Beautification Project
Leonid Alaverdov
Tapestry artist and Coney Island resident whose work is inspired by his native Baku and New York City
Marie Navarro
A lifelong resident's memories of growing up in Coney Island's Gravesend Houses and Kaiser Park
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
Steve Campanella
Collector of 1950's and '60s memorabilia whose Bensonhurst home is known as the Statue House
Father Maxim Pliskov
Russian Orthodox priest at Coney Island's St. John of Kronstadt Chapel for the Homeless
Robert Serrano Jr.
Ride operator at Deno's Wonder Wheel Park for 11 years and Michael Jackson impressionist
Dennis Thomas
President of the Coney Island Polar Bear Club for the past 12 years and a member since the 1980s
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"
Boan Lin (Master Lin)
Tai chi master who was born in China shares memories of practicing and teaching his art in Brooklyn
Yeva Novik
A 90-year-old Coney Island resident recounts her journey from Moscow to Southern Brooklyn
Patrick Phillips
Memories of working at Astroland's Neptune Diving Bells in the summer of 1964
Natasha Lvovich
Moscow-born Coney Island resident, writer of creative nonfiction and fiction, and professor of English
Connie Scacciaferro
Memories of going to Coney Island Beach as a child in the 1930's and a teenager in the '40s