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.