Coney Island during the Great Depression and World War II
95-year-old Rita Kaminsky describes growing up in Coney Island during the 1930s and 1940s. Rita was born at home in the family's apartment above her grandmother's store at 2717 Surf Avenue. In this interview she shares memories of life during the...
Content type: Oral History Item
Jimmy and Tina's Famous Sausage Restaurant
The Smaldone family's Famous Sausage Restaurant began as a hole-in-the-wall food stand below the Atlantis Bar on Stillwell Avenue in the mid-1950s. Italian immigrant Vincenzo (Jimmy) Smaldone and his wife Tina later moved it to a larger space...
Content type: Oral History Item
Boyhood memories of visiting Coney Island in the 1930s and getting lost on the beach
Norman Finkel, 94, grew up on 48th Street and 8th Avenue in Brooklyn, where the candy store was the social center of the neighborhood and he played stickball on the street. He shares memories of visiting Coney Island with his family during the 1930s...
Content type: Oral History Item
Memories of World War II in Ukraine and immigrating to Southern Brooklyn
This interview was conducted and recorded in Russian. Read Julia Kanin's Russian transcript and English translation below. Интервью проведено и записано на русском языке. Вы можете ознакомиться с траснскриптом и переводом Юлии Ханиной ниже.
Betya...
Content type: Oral History Item
Filmmaker and archivist whose parents collaborated on the film Little Fugitive in Coney Island
Mary Engel is an award winning filmmaker and runs the Orkin/Engel Film and Photo Archive. She is the daughter of Morris Engel and Ruth Orkin, who co-wrote and directed Little Fugitive, which was filmed in Coney Island and released in 1953. The...
Content type: Oral History Item
Memories of growing up in Coney Island and Sea Gate in the late 1940s and 1950s
Judith Densky's family moved to Coney Island in 1947, just after World War 2, when apartments were hard to come by. Luckily, her Uncle Bill happened to own property on West 31st Street. After living in the house on West 31st Street until she was 7-...
Content type: Oral History Item
Growing up in Sea Gate and Coney Island in the 1930s and '40s
Born in 1938, Larry Marquit grew up on Laurel Avenue in Sea Gate when some of the streets and sidewalks were cobblestone. He shares memories of World War II, day camp, movie theaters, and his first jobs as a boy shining shoes in a barbershop and...
Content type: Oral History Item
At age 103, Coney Island resident shares her memories and secrets to a long and happy life
Born in 1920, Jeanette Bigelson grew up at 62 Cannon Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan when it was a neighborhood of working-class immigrants. She shares memories of her mother's homemade challah and noodles; friendly neighbors who kept...
Content type: Oral History Item
Memories of growing up in Coney Island and the family business, Shatzkin's Famous Knishes
Mort Shatzkin’s family owned one of Coney Island’s most beloved eateries, Shatzkin’s Famous Knishes. They operated stores at various locations in Coney Island from the 1940s through the 1970s, and Shatzkin's Coney Island Knishes at Kings Plaza ...
Content type: Oral History Item
Memories of growing up at Villanova Court, a bungalow resort in Coney Island, in the 1950s and '60s
Born in 1952, Ben Roubin shares memories of growing up at Villanova Court, a summer bungalow colony between the Boardwalk and Surf Avenue in Coney Island next to Sea Gate. From the mid-1950s through 1968, his family co-owned and operated the resort...
Content type: Oral History Item