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Season Two’s theme is “Growing Up in Coney Island” through the decades, from the 1930s to the 21st century. In Episode Four, Coney Islanders who grew up in the 1960s share memories of being the original tenants at Luna Park Houses and Trump Village, high rise co-ops that opened in the 1960s. They remember the last years of Steeplechase Park, a rising crime rate and urban renewal. In 1967, Mayor Lindsay declared the entire West End of Coney Island a poverty zone. More than 40 blocks were slated for condemnation.  The one bright spot during the 1960s was the space age-themed Astroland Park. The park became the anchor for Coney Island, the glue that held it together while many businesses gave up and many property owners sold and moved away. The oral histories in Episode Four are with Alison Cintorrino, Alan Kirschenbaum, Jim Lucarelli, the Salvia sisters, Gladys Sandman and Lucille DaCosta, and Tony Williams. The interviews were conducted by Amanda Deutch, Ali Lemer, Shavon Meyers, and Tricia Vita between 2016 and 2022. This episode was produced by Charles Denson, Ali Lemer and Tricia Vita. Music by Blue Dot Sessions. ©2022 The Coney Island History Project. All Rights Reserved. This program is sponsored in part by an Action Grant from Humanities New York with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities.  

Season Two’s theme is “Growing Up in Coney Island” through the decades, from the 1930s to the 21st century. In Episode Three, Coney Islanders who grew up in the ‘50s lived in apartments and over stores on Mermaid Avenue and its side streets. More than a thousand families were able to move into the two brand-new city-owned projects, Gravesend Houses and Coney Island Houses. Others made do with seasonal bungalows and rooming houses as year-round homes. World-famous Steeplechase Park was their neighborhood playground and television was a popular new indoor pastime. The oral histories in Episode Three are with Susan Petersen Avitzour, Barbara Unterman Jones, Sheldon Krimsky, David Louie, Johanna Gargiulo Sherman, and Ronald Stewart. The interviews were conducted by Charles Denson, Leila Goldstein, Samira Tazari, and Tricia Vita between 2007 and 2021.This episode was produced by Charles Denson, Ali Lemer and Tricia Vita. Music by Blue Dot Sessions.  ©2022 The Coney Island History Project. All Rights Reserved. This program is sponsored in part by an Action Grant from Humanities New York with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities. 

Season Two’s theme is “Growing Up in Coney Island” through the decades, from the 1930s to the 21st century. Episode Two, “Growing Up in the 1940s,” features the oral histories of Steve Burke, Sheila Levrant de Bretteville, Phil Einhorn, Deena Metzger, and Gloria Nicholson. The 1940s started out with the Parachute Jump moving to Steeplechase Park from the New York World’s Fair. Aerial photos of packed beaches became emblematic of the era. When the U.S. entered World War 2, dim-out regulations darkened Coney’s skyline to prevent its lights from silhouetting ships offshore and making them a target for German U-boats. In the 1942 and ’43 Mardi Gras parades, servicemen were showered with confetti and lions from Luna Park riding by in their cage were advertised as ready to meet Hitler. In Episode 2, Coney Islanders who grew up during the war years recall seeing gun emplacements on the boardwalk and soldiers camped in Kaiser Park. Their households had blackout curtains, ration coupons and victory gardens. Some had summer jobs in the amusement area despite being underage. After the war, their families took in relatives and boarders who were refugees and survivors of the concentration camps. This episode was produced by Charles Denson, Ali Lemer and Tricia Vita. Music by Blue Dot Sessions. The oral histories were conducted by Charles Denson, Amanda Deutch and Samira Tazari between 2009 and 2018. You can search and listen online to over 400 oral history interviews, including the ones featured in this podcast, at coneyislandhistory.org. ©2022 The Coney Island History Project. All Rights Reserved. This program is sponsored in part by an Action Grant from Humanities New York with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities. 

Season Two’s theme is “Growing Up in Coney Island” through the decades, from the 1930s to the 21st century. In Episode One, Coney Islanders who grew up in the ‘30s recall hardships as well as simple pleasures. During the Depression, families from other New York City neighborhoods flocked to Coney Island. The rent was cheaper and the beach was down the block. The oral histories in Episode One are with George Ancona, Charles Berkman, Aldo Mancusi, Edith Storch, Rose Patton, and Ralph Perfetto. The interviews were conducted by Charles Denson, Mark Markov, Natalie Milbrodt, and Samira Tazari, between 2007 and 2018. You can search and listen online to over 400 oral history interviews, including the ones featured in this podcast, at https://www.coneyislandhistory.org/oral-history-archive. This episode was produced by Charles Denson, Ali Lemer and Tricia Vita. Music by Blue Dot Sessions.   ©2022 The Coney Island History Project. All Rights Reserved. This program is sponsored in part by an Action Grant from Humanities New York with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities. 

The Coney Island History Project launches Season Two of our oral history podcast Coney Island Stories on Tuesday, March 8th! This season’s theme is ‘Growing up in Coney Island’ through the decades, from the 1930s to the 21st century. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts or at https://www.coneyislandhistory.org/podcast. This program is sponsored in part by an Action Grant from Humanities New York with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities. 

Episode 11 shares the stories of four dedicated and innovative teachers who founded schools of their own in Coney Island and adjacent neighborhoods in Southern Brooklyn. April Leong in the award-winning founder and principal of Liberation Diploma Plus High School, a small alternative high school in Coney Island. Dr. Tim Law established a program of free Chinese language classes for children at I.S. 96 Seth Low School in Bensonhurst. Irina Roizin realized her childhood dream of founding a ballet school, Brighton Ballet Theater School of Russian Ballet, located at Kingsborough Community College in Manhattan Beach.  Misha Mokretsov is head coach and owner of Coney Island's New York Fencing Academy, located just down the block from the History Project. This episode was produced by Charles Denson, Ali Lemer and Tricia Vita. Music by Blue Dot Sessions. Chinese translation by Keenan Yutai Chen. Voice overs by River Kanoff and Ali Lemer. The oral histories were conducted by Mark Markov, Samira Tazari, and Yolanda Zhang between 2015 and 2019. You can listen to the full interviews featured in this podcast in our oral history archive at coneyislandhistory.org.  Listen to previous episodes about Coney Island's legendary roller coasters, beach, bathhouses, and restaurants and other businesses on Mermaid Avenue and in the amusement area via your fave podcast app or the podcast page on the Coney Island History Project's website. ©2021 The Coney Island History Project. All Rights Reserved. This program is supported, in part, by funding from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and New York City Councilman Mark Treyger.

Episode 10 shares the stories of Coney Island sign painters as well as artists and designers who’ve been inspired by Coney’s celebrated signage, all taken from the Coney Island History Project’s Oral History Archive. The Coney Island style of hand-painted signs was perfected more than a century ago by Wildman and Sons, a shop in the heart of the amusement manufacturing district just off Surf Avenue. Amusement signs were meant to stand out and be instantly readable from a distance on the chaotic streets of Coney Island. The oral histories in the podcast are with Coney Island sign painter Sam Moses; advertising professional and former sign painter John Rea; artist and School of Visual Arts instructor Stephen Gaffney; and watercolor artist Frederick Brosen. The interviews were conducted by Charles Denson, Samira Tazari, and Tricia Vita between 2010 and 2019. You can search and listen online to nearly 400 oral history interviews, including the ones featured in this podcast, via https://www.coneyislandhistory.org/oral-history-archive. This episode was produced by Charles Denson, Ali Lemer and Tricia Vita. Music by Blue Dot Sessions.   ©2021 The Coney Island History Project. All Rights Reserved. This program is supported, in part, by funding from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and New York City Councilman Mark Treyger.

Episode 9 features the stories of couples who met, got engaged or married in Coney Island, all taken from the History Project’s oral history archive. Visitors to our exhibition center often tell us that they or their parents or grandparents met or had their first date in Coney Island. Over the years, we’ve witnessed marriage proposals on the Wonder Wheel and weddings and wedding party rides on the Cyclone roller coaster.  Many a Coney Island courtship of the 20th century began on the beach and continued with a stroll on the boardwalk and ride on the Steeplechase horses. Steeplechase Park founder George C. Tilyou famously observed of his mechanical horse race ride that “the young men like it because it gives them a chance to hug the girls; the girls like it, because it gives them a chance to get hugged.”  The oral histories in the podcast are with Ellen Abrams, Michael Liff, Max and Stef, Tara Altebrando, Gina Femia, and The Reverend Cliff Herring. The interviews were conducted by Charles Denson, Katya Kumkova, Ali Lemer and Tricia Vita between 2014 and 2021. You can search and listen online to over 390 oral history interviews, including the ones featured in this podcast, via https://www.coneyislandhistory.org/oral-history-archive. This episode was produced by Charles Denson, Ali Lemer and Tricia Vita. Music by Blue Dot Sessions. 

On Memorial Day Weekend, lifeguards will once again be perched in their towers and New York City will celebrate the reopening of Coney Island's beach for swimming. Episode 8 shares the stories of days at the beach from the 1920s through the 1990s taken from the Coney Island History Project's Oral History Archive. The stories include childhood memories of family outings, a hidden playground under the boardwalk, a lava hot spot on the sand, the knish man, teenage memories of daring swimsuits, summer jobs renting beach chairs and umbrellas, and working as a lifeguard. Memories span the 1920s, when beach goers were fined as much $5 each - the equivalent of $75 today - for walking on the boardwalk in bathing suits, to the 1990s, when “under the boardwalk” was filled in with sand and a way of life changed forever. The oral histories in the podcast are with Joseph Albanese, Connie Scacciaferro, Richard Termini, Ron Vernon, Steve Larkin, and Crystal Isley. The interviews were conducted from 2009 to 2019 by Charles Denson, Amanda Deutch, Samira Tazari, and Tricia Vita. You can search and listen online to over 390 oral history interviews in our archive via https://www.coneyislandhistory.org/oral-history-archive. This episode was produced by Charles Denson, Ali Lemer and Tricia Vita. Music by Blue Dot Sessions.  ©2021 The Coney Island History Project. All Rights Reserved. This program is supported, in part, by funding from Humanities New York provided by the CARES Act and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and New York City Councilman Mark Treyger.

Episode 7 features the stories of independent game operators, past and present, from the Coney Island History Project Oral History Archive. Among the games that Peter Agrapides, Monica Ghee, Candi Rafael, and Eliot Wofse have operated over the years are Fascination, Balloon Dart, Glass and Dime Pitches, Milk Toss, Basketball, Fish Bowl, High Striker and Water Races. The last of the independents who have stayed in the game are now concentrated on a small strip of Coney Island’s eclectic Bowery, once the boisterous home of hundreds of unusual games and attractions. The interviews were conducted by Kaara Baptiste, Charles Denson, Amanda Deutch, and Mark Markov between 2009 and 2019. You can search and listen online to over 375 oral history interviews, including the ones featured in this podcast, via https://www.coneyislandhistory.org/oral-history-archive. This episode was produced by Charles Denson, Ali Lemer and Tricia Vita. Music by Blue Dot Sessions.  ©2021 The Coney Island History Project. All Rights Reserved. This program is supported, in part, by funding from Humanities New York provided by the CARES Act and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and New York City Councilman Mark Treyger.  

Episode 6 features the stories of bathhouse owners, workers and patrons from the Coney Island History Project’s oral history archive. Bathhouses were the first businesses in Coney Island. Even before Coney’s first hotel was built in 1829, crude bathhouse shacks were set among the dunes. Before the city built the boardwalk in the 1920s, most of the Coney Island beach was private and bathhouses provided the only access to the beach and provided patrons a summer home away from home.   Many had overnight accommodations, restaurants, and swimming pools, and some offered massages and the ever popular nude sunbathing.  They were very sociable places and generations of family and friends from the same neighborhoods patronized the same bath houses for years until the last one, Brighton Beach Baths, was demolished in the early 1990s. Now hardly anyone knows what a bathhouse is.  Interviews with Jose Beth Smolensky, Cindy Jacobs, Richard Termini, Arthur Nintzel, Harold Blumenthal and John Bonsignore were conducted by Charles Denson, Amanda Deutch, and Tricia Vita between 2000 and 2020. You can search and listen online to over 375 oral history interviews, including the ones featured in this podcast, via https://www.coneyislandhistory.org/oral-history-archive. This episode was produced by Charles Denson, Ali Lemer and Tricia Vita. Music by Blue Dot Sessions.  This program is supported, in part, by funding from Humanities New York provided by the CARES Act and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and New York City Councilman Mark Treyger. 

Episode 5 features the stories of a trio of roller coasters built in the Roaring 20’s and named after violent storms: the Thunderbolt, the Tornado and the Cyclone. While the Cyclone is the only survivor from Coney's golden age, the Coney Island History Project has recorded and preserved memories of people who rode, owned, or worked at these legendary coasters. A few narrators had the unusual fortune to live beneath one of these thrill rides. Interviews with Meg Feeley, Harold Kramer, and Mae Timpano (Thunderbolt); Don Ferris, Michael Liff and Andy Badalamenti (Tornado); and Joseph Albanese,  Mindy Gress, John Hunt, and Marion Kantrowitz (Cyclone) are part of the Coney Island History Project Oral History Archive. The oral histories were conducted by Charles Denson, Amanda Deutch, Katya Kumkova, Valerie Lapinski, Ali Lemer, and Shavon Meyers between 2000 and 2020.  You can search and listen online to over 375 oral history interviews, including the ones featured in this podcast, via https://www.coneyislandhistory.org/oral-history-archive. Episode 5 was produced by Charles Denson, Ali Lemer and Tricia Vita. Music by Blue Dot Sessions.  This program is supported, in part, by funding from Humanities New York provided by the CARES Act and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and New York City Councilman Mark Treyger.