Louise Milano's mother, Carolina, operated Carolina Restaurant on Mermaid Avenue for 60 years
Founded in 1928, Carolina Restaurant on Mermaid Avenue was a fixture for over 60 years. Carolina, known as Carrie, prepared traditional home style cooking that remains memorable to generations of Coney Island residents. Carrie's daughter Louise and...
Content type: Oral History Item
Mother and son remember the Laughing Lady at Coney's Magic Carpet Fun House
Taty Alicea and her son Ralph Alicea share fond memories of Coney Island's famous Laughing Lady, a popular mechanical attraction that was part of the Magic Carpet Fun House and is greatly missed. "Wherever Matilda is, she's not home," says Ralph....
Content type: Oral History Item
A look behind the scenes at Steeplechase Park
Frank Newlands worked at Steeplechase Park in its final years, maintaining the electrical infrastructure for attractions that included the Pavilion, Parachute Jump, Ferris Wheel, and roller coaster. His stories give a rare and humorous glimpse into...
Content type: Oral History Item
"The Elvis of the East" and founder of Brooklyn Chinese-American Assn. Chorus
Cornel Chan (陳均能) immigrated to the US in 1972 from Hong Kong, where he enjoyed a successful career as “The Elvis of the East” singing American songs on radio, TV and in clubs. With younger singers from abroad gaining popularity and his young sons’...
Content type: Oral History Item
Outside talker at the World in Wax Musee and lifeguard in the 1950's and 60's
Mark Breyer grew up in Coney Island in the 1950's and 60's. He worked in a variety of jobs, from dry cleaning boy to outside talker at the World in Wax Musee to lifeguard on the beach. In this interview he recalls fetching fish for the...
Content type: Oral History Item
Began his career as a sign painter in Coney Island
John Rea is currently an advertising professional and adjunct professor at the School of Visual Arts in New York, but he began his career as a young teenager working for his father, also John Rea, in the Peluso Machine and Iron Works shop in Coney...
Content type: Oral History Item
Proprietor of Major Markets, Coney Island's oldest butcher shop
Born in 1932, Jimmy Prince, long-time proprietor of Major Markets, Coney Island's oldest butcher shop, shares his memories of the neighborhood through good times and bad. After closing his Mermaid Avenue market in 2009, Jimmy Prince remained...
Content type: Oral History Item
Juilliard trained musician whose family owned Washington Baths
José Beth Smolensky, born in 1927, describes growing up working for the Washington Baths, her family's Coney Island business. Her father, Harry Smolensky had high standards for cleanliness and kept the baths open for a longer season than most....
Content type: Oral History Item
Recollections of summers spent at the Ocean Tide beach club near Sea Gate
Moire Cuite and Elizabeth O'Boyle, two sisters, fondly recount their summers spent at the Ocean Tide bathing club as teenagers in the early 1960's.
Content type: Oral History Item
Fond memories of Coney Island
Joseph Svehlak recalls two generations of stories from Coney Island. His mother grew up in lower Manhattan as a first generation American born to European parents in the early 1910’s. On Sundays after church, her father would take her and her sister...
Content type: Oral History Item