A childhood watching boats in the Coney Island Channel led to the founding of a tugboat company
Gerard Thornton's childhood fascination with the maritime industry began when he and his brother Rick would watch shipping traffic from their window in the O'Dwyer Gardens housing project in Coney Island. The Coney Island Channel with its tugs and...
Content type: Oral History Item
Retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel who emigrated from Ukraine to Brighton Beach as a child
Alexander Vindman was born in 1975 in Soviet Ukraine and emigrated at age four with his family to Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach. He shares memories of growing up and going to school in Brighton, being photographed with his twin brother by the...
Content type: Oral History Item
Chairman of Coney Island Prep on growing up in Coney Island and the charter school's first 15 years
Josh Wolfe shares memories of growing up in Coney Island in the 1980s and early '90s, including passing under the boardwalk to go to the beach, getting fired from his first job as a teen, attending Mark Twain for junior high, and riding the Cyclone...
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
Growing up in Greece and living in Coney Island's Luna Park Houses since the 1970s
Born in 1941 in Greece, Stella Bacolas shares memories of growing up there during World War II. "I tell my grandchild now, I didn't have my own bed until after I was 15, when I got to the United States." After settling in Bensonhurst, she moved to...
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
Embroidery artist and Coney Island resident who emigrated from Moscow in 2010
"I could tell I'm a Coney Islander now because I really love this neighborhood," says Sofya Dudnik, an artist who emigrated from Moscow as a student in 2010. "I think it's one of the rare gems in the city and maybe in the whole United States. It's...
Content type: Oral History Item
Twenty years at Deno's Wonder Wheel Park's Karaoke on the Boardwalk
Ronald Kannatt, who is affectionately known as "The Prince of Coney Island," has been singing and dancing at Deno's Wonder Wheel Park's Karaoke on the Boardwalk for the past 20 years. His signature song is Prince's "Jungle Love." Kannatt shares...
Content type: Oral History Item
Architect who is a Coney Island resident and a community activist
Angela Kravtchenko is an architect, a resident of Coney Island, a community activist, and a new member of Community Board 13. She describes how she and her family chose to live in Coney Island after emigrating from Ukraine in the 1990s and living in...
Content type: Oral History Item