Oral History Archive

Carmen Arcendiaga

Memories of family picnics under the Boardwalk and making new memories at Spook-A-Rama

Ho Cheung Li

Mermaid Avenue pharmacist dispenses news and advice to new immigrants

Jodie Bell

Jodie Bell visits the Coney Island History Project and discovers a 1950s photograph of her Aunt, Rachel Bell, as Miss Coney Island

Levent Demirgil

Turkish store owner returns to Coney Island as restaurateur three years after Hurricane Sandy

Frank Newlands

A look behind the scenes at Steeplechase Park

Leon Borzykowski

Leon Borzykowski and his daughter Barbara Brown describe the family's escape from Poland to Coney Island after the Holocaust

Galina Mogurova

Surviving Hurricane Sandy in Coney Island's West End

Cornel Chan

"The Elvis of the East" and founder of Brooklyn Chinese-American Assn. Chorus

Tatyana Panteleyeva

From Tbilisi, Georgia to Bensonhurst, Brooklyn

Junaid Anwar

Pakistani immigrant and Lincoln High School graduate recounts living on West 15th St

Takeshi Yamada

Osaka-born artist creates sideshow curiosities in his Coney Island home

Beth Allen

Beth Allen recounts her origins as an "incubator baby" in Dr. Martin Couney's sideshow

Marie Roberts

A painter with a Coney Island legacy

Walter "Shorty" Arsenault

Long-time manager of Astroland's Kiddieland

Jose Beth Smolensky

Juilliard trained musician whose family owned Washington Baths

Sal Corona

Coney Island businessman

Sue, Susan and Larry Fox

Descendants of Max "Kid Twist" Zweifach

Louis Beard

Arcade game repairman