Coney Island Stories
20 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 1 year ago - ★★★★★ - 11 ratingsConey Island Stories is a podcast produced from oral histories in the Coney Island History Project archive. We record interviews in English, Russian, Chinese, Spanish and other languages with people who have lived or worked in Coney Island and adjacent neighborhoods or have a special connection to these places. Founded in 2004, the History Project is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization that aims to increase awareness of Coney Island's legendary and colorful past and to encourage appreciation of the Coney Island neighborhood of today. You can search and listen online to over 375 oral history interviews in our archive: https://www.coneyislandhistory.org/oral-history-archive
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Episodes
Growing Up in the 2000s
October 07, 2022 18:00 - 31 minutes - 21.8 MBSeason Two’s theme is “Growing Up in Coney Island” through the decades, from the 1930s to the 21st century. In Episode Eight, the final episode of this season, we’re sharing the stories of narrators who grew up in Coney Island or came here from nearby neighborhoods, in the first decade of the 2000s. The new millennium began with the opening of a thirty million dollar ballpark for a Mets farm team on the site of Steeplechase Park. A contest was held to name the new team and the Brooklyn Cycl...
Growing Up in the 1990s
September 09, 2022 20:00 - 30 minutes - 21.2 MBSeason Two’s theme is “Growing Up in Coney Island” through the decades, from the 1930s to the 21st century. In Episode Seven, narrators who grew up here in the 1990s share stories of loss and change. They remember living in Gravesend Houses and Sea Rise apartments as well as on West 5th, West 8th and West 19th Streets. The Boardwalk, the Beach, Astroland, the Cyclone Roller Coaster and the Wonder Wheel were their playgrounds. The decade began with the Cyclone winning a spot on the National ...
Growing Up in the 1980s
August 09, 2022 11:00 - 34 minutes - 24.1 MBSeason Two’s theme is “Growing Up in Coney Island” through the decades, from the 1930s to the 21st century. In Episode Six, Narrators who grew up here in the 1980s, or grew up coming to Coney Island from nearby neighborhoods, share their stories. They remember living in Gravesend Houses and O’Dwyer Gardens, high-rises overseen by the New York City Housing Authority, as well as apartments on West 19th Street and in Brightwater Towers. Astroland Park, Fabers Fascination Arcade, and Ruby’s Bar...
Growing Up in the 1970s
July 09, 2022 14:00 - 38 minutes - 26.6 MBSeason Two’s theme is “Growing Up in Coney Island” through the decades, from the 1930s to the 21st century. In Episode Five, Coney Islanders who grew up in the 1970s share memories of being the original tenants of Carey Gardens and O’Dwyer Gardens, newly built high-rise developments overseen by the New York City Housing Authority. They remember the razing of entire blocks in the West End during urban renewal, pervasive crime affecting their lives, and gangs like the Homicides and Seven Immor...
Growing Up in the 1960s
June 09, 2022 23:00 - 34 minutes - 23.5 MBSeason 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 slat...
Growing Up in the 1950s
May 05, 2022 21:00 - 31 minutes - 21.5 MBSeason 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 ...
Growing Up in the 1940s
April 05, 2022 15:00 - 33 minutes - 23.3 MBSeason 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 regulation...
Growing Up in the 1930s
March 08, 2022 17:00 - 34 minutes - 23.5 MBSeason 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...
Season Two Trailer: Growing Up in Coney Island
March 08, 2022 17:00 - 1 minute - 1.38 MBThe 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.
Schools of Their Own
September 30, 2021 15:00 - 29 minutes - 20.5 MBEpisode 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 bal...
Sign Painters and Artists
August 25, 2021 13:00 - 29 minutes - 20.6 MBEpisode 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 chao...
Love and Marriage
June 30, 2021 15:00 - 31 minutes - 21.6 MBEpisode 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 ...
Beach Days
May 25, 2021 01:00 - 27 minutes - 19.2 MBOn 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,...
Staying in the Game
April 15, 2021 23:00 - 25 minutes - 17.3 MBEpisode 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 Bower...
A Century of Bathhouses
March 15, 2021 18:00 - 28 minutes - 19.6 MBEpisode 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...
Legendary Roller Coasters
February 09, 2021 20:00 - 28 minutes - 19.5 MBEpisode 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 Ma...
Mermaid Avenue
December 22, 2020 01:00 - 23 minutes - 16.6 MBEpisode 4 features the oral histories of Mermaid Avenue’s mom and pop businesses founded by immigrants, past and present. Interviews with Steven Feinstein, (Wilensky Hardware), Charles Guariglia (Mermaid Avenue bread route in the 1950's and '60s), Ho Cheung Li (J&R Pharmacy), and Boris Kotlyar (Mermaid Spa) are part of the Coney Island History Project Oral History Archive. Wilensky Hardware, Coney Island’s oldest surviving family-owned business, was founded 100 years ago on Mermaid Avenue ...
Coney Island Restaurants, Part II
December 22, 2020 01:00 - 32 minutes - 22.4 MBEpisode 2 features the oral histories of Coney Island food businesses owned or operated by immigrants from Greece, Mexico, Jamaica and Russia. Interviews with Steve Arniotes (Lido Bar & Grill), Gregory Bitetzakis and Paul Georgoulakos (Gregory & Paul's), Dalia Vazquez and Raymundo Bardominao (Tacos Doña Zita), Basil Jones (Footprints Cafe), and Viktor Vassiliev (New York Bread) are part of the Coney Island History Project Oral History Archive. Stephen Gaffney, an artist and bartender at Paul...
Coney Island Restaurants
December 22, 2020 01:00 - 20 minutes - 14 MBEpisode 1 features the oral histories of Coney Island restaurants and food stands founded by immigrants in the first part of the 20th century as told by their mom-and-pop owners and family members. Interviews with Morris Egert, Josephine Gargiulo Cassata (Gargiulo's Restaurant), Antoinette Balzano (Totonno's), Sol Handwerker (Nathan's Famous) and Peter Agrapides (Williams Candy and Pete's Clam Stop) are part of the Coney Island History Project Oral History Archive and were conducted by Charl...
Artists at Work
December 22, 2020 01:00 - 28 minutes - 19.8 MBEpisode 3 features the oral histories of artists from Jamaica, Japan, Russia, and China who found a place they could call home in Coney Island and neighboring Gravesend and Brighton Beach. Interviews with Hector George Wallace, Takeshi Yamada, Alisa Minyukova, and Yi Xin Tong are part of the Coney Island History Project Oral History Archive. The oral histories were conducted by Charles Denson, Amanda Deutch, Tricia Vita, and Jiangxin Jin between 2015-2020 You can search and listen online t...