Oral History Archive

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

Roy Omori

Growing up Japanese American in Coney Island in the 1950s and '60s

Keith Suber

Community activist and reformed gang member

Zohra Saed

Poet and writer from Afghanistan who grew up in Southern Brooklyn

Charles Guariglia

Memories of working a bread route on Coney Island's Mermaid Avenue in the 1950's and '60s

Khonya Epstein

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

Amparo Garcia

Lifelong Brighton Beach resident shares stories of Brighton Beach then and now

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

Ida Rosenblum Gambrell

Memories of Coney Island in the 1920s and '30s

Shavon Meyers

A poet and storyteller on growing up in Coney Island at Gravesend Houses, the beach and Astroland

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

Ralph Avella

Memories of working on the Coney Island Parachute Jump's operation crew at age 16

April Leong

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