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
Retired bus driver
Ronald, a retired New York City bus driver who lives in the Bronx, came to Coney Island on this day with his daughters via the Nostalgia Train, a set of six fully restored 30's and 40's era IND subway trains that the New York Transit...
Content type: Oral History Item
Artistic Director of Thieves Theatre
Nick is the former artistic director of Thieves Theatre, a theater company that worked with Coney Island USA in the late 80's to mid-90's. One of Thieves Theatre's early projects after moving to New York was to stage an Anti-Mermaid...
Content type: Oral History Item
Former West End resident in the 1940's and 50's
In this interview Sylvia Perlmutter Kaye, a former resident of the West End, recalls her days in Coney Island sledding down Boardwalk ramps in winter, smoking with the Vargas Girls, scrounging for free tickets at Steeplechase and watching her uncle...
Content type: Oral History Item
Parachute Jump lighting designer
Leni Schwendinger discusses her inspiration and process in creating a lighting design for the Parachute Jump including color selection and finding a way to express the feeling and movement of the Parachute Jump when it was a working ride. She...
Content type: Oral History Item
Visited Coney Island from Massachusetts as a boy
Joe Rysz remembers visiting Coney Island as he grew up in the 1950's when his family would come to visit their relatives who lived in Brooklyn. Being from a small town in Massachusetts, he was very impressed by New York City and remembers Coney...
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
Bringing the 1960's back to Coney Island
Ron recalls going with both friends and family to Coney Island back in the 1960's. His family always took the same spot on the beach in front of the Wonder Wheel. He remembers amusement rides from that time in great detail, but waited until his...
Content type: Oral History Item
First visit in half a century.
The day Ron brought his wife for her first visit to Coney Island was the first time he had been since his years there in the late 40's and early 50's. He recalls being unafraid riding the Parachute Jump when he was 10 years old.
Content type: Oral History Item
Got stuck on the Parachute Jump
David was born in Sea Gate in 1935 and, except for his time at Brooklyn College and in the army, has lived in Coney Island or Sea Gate all his life. One of his strongest memories is getting stuck on top of the Parachute Jump for 15 minutes and using...
Content type: Oral History Item