Stephanie Norr and Betty Cohn have been friends since age four when their mothers registered them on the same day for nursery school on the lower east side of Manhattan. The women recall coming to Coney Island as children in the 1950's. They...
Content type: Oral History Item
Michael Onorato is the son of James Onorato, who was the general manager of Steeplechase Park from 1928 to 1964 when it closed. Michael remembers the park in vivid detail and describes growing up there. He gives a start-to-finish account of going...
Content type: Oral History Item
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
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
Sid and Lynn recall moving in 1955 from the Lower East Side of Manhattan down to 33rd St. in Coney Island where their family had always spent their summers. Sid says he felt as a child like he owned Coney Island and as they grew up, the Finkelsteins...
Content type: Oral History Item
Marty Reich spent his teenage years as a locker boy at Oriole Baths on 16th Street and the beach, handing out towels and soap. He went to Oriole Baths with his family, but hung out at Washington Baths with his friends. His uncle, a champion...
Content type: Oral History Item
Louis Ritter, born in Coney Island on the 4th of July, worked a variety of amusement rides including three carousels and the boardwalk train ride in the 1960s. He also ran a cotton candy stand. When he was a child, people mistook him for John...
Content type: Oral History Item
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
Legendary Paul Krassner reads an excerpt from his autobiography, "Confessions of a Raving, Unconfined Nut: Misadventures in the Counter-Culture" about his experience at Steeplechase Park.
Paul Krassner passed away on July 21, 2019 at the...
Content type: Oral History Item
Jim, who currently lives in Massachusetts, grew up in Brooklyn until he was 17. He brought his son to Coney because he heard rumors that the Wonder Wheel was going to be torn down. He recalls the sights and smells of Coney as a child, his fondest...
Content type: Oral History Item