1930 - 1939

Grew up a daredevil in New York City
Corinne describes visiting Coney Island in the 1940's as a girl with her family and even taking the train with other children to spend the day. She rode the Steeplechase horses and even the Parachute Jump, which she first tried out at the 1939...
Content type: Oral History Item
Organist and grandson of B&B Carousell organ doctor
Ed Radonic is a professional musician who plays the organ at Our Lady of Grace in Gravesend, just blocks from Coney Island. His grandfather, Dominick Brugnolotti installed and maintained the mechanical organ at the B&B Carousell for decades. Ed...
Content type: Oral History Item
Grew up on Avenue Z in the 1930's and 40's
Jocelyn Cantor remembers walking to the Boardwalk from her home on Avenue Z and spending whole days at Steeplechase Park with her cousin when they were children. When she got older, Jocelyn and a girlfriend recruited some soldiers on leave to...
Content type: Oral History Item
Family owned the Shamrock Irish House and Eldorado Arcade
Sheila and her family owned and operated the largest arcade in Coney Island, the Eldorado. Her father, his two brothers and three sisters opened The Shamrock Irish House, a restaurant/cabaret/open-air bar, in the early 1940's, and her family...
Content type: Oral History Item
Radio broadcaster and Coney Island native
Freda Aron, née Umansky, was born in Brooklyn in 1915 and grew up in Coney Island in the 1920s and '30s as the child of Russian immigrant parents. After attending Bay Ridge Girls High School, she graduated from Lincoln High School's first...
Content type: Oral History Item