New podcast sheds light on Coney Island’s past
BY ROSE ADAMS
A new podcast unveils
Coney Island’s colorful past
through oral histories recorded
by longtime residents,
business owners, and artists.
“Coney Island Stories,” released
on Dec. 21 by the nonprofi
t the Coney Island History
Project, stitches together
excerpts from the organization’s
vast oral history archive
to create thematic episodes
about the neighborhood, said
the podcast’s producer.
“I wrote the scripts trying
to fi nd common themes
to bring together, I would say,
about fi ve different narrators
into each podcast,” said Tricia
Vita, who created the podcast
with the non-profi t’s founder,
Charles Denson, and audio
producer Ali Lemer.
The four episodes that have
been released so far give voice
to artists, business owners
along Mermaid Avenue, and
the families that founded Coney
COURIER L 22 IFE, JANUARY 1-7, 2021
Island’s most famous restaurants
— such as the children
of the restauranteurs
who opened Gargiulo’s Restaurant
and Nathan’s Famous.
The episodes also explore
the experiences of immigrants.
In one episode, an
immigrant from Hong Kong
named Hong Ho Cheung Li describes
how his Mermaid Avenue
pharmacy has become a
community meeting point for
older residents.
“He talks about how in the
daytime, most of the people
who come to the store are very
old people and very young people,”
Vita explained. “Older
people come to him for news
of America, and he gives them
information, so it kind of became
this information hub.”
In another episode, listeners
get to know artist Hector
George Wallace, a painter who
created signs for Ruby’s Bar
and Grill, Pete’s Clam Shop,
and Paul’s Daughter.
Wallace, who recently
passed away, moved to Coney
Island from England and got
his start painting signs for the
wax museum that used to operate
by the amusement park.
The Jamaican-born artist was
classically trained, Vita added.
“It was really interesting to
hear his story. He talks about
how he went to art school.
Sometimes people think that
some of these sign painters
might be outsider artists,” she
said.
The fi rst four episodes of
“Coney Island Stories” come
after nine months of work and
years or anticipation, Vita
said.
“Over the past few years
when podcasts became popular,
I can’t tell you how many
people asked us, ‘Why don’t
you do a podcast?'” she said,
adding that the mandatory
shutdown of the History Project’s
in-person exhibit has
given her time time to produce
the episodes. “When we
started to have to work from
home because of the pandemic,
there was time to actually
create the podcast.”
Vita and her co-producers
plan to continue releasing
episodes that pull from the
History Project’s more than
375 oral histories. Future episodes
may explore a variety
of themes that listeners have
suggested, Vita said.
“Some of the themes would
be Steeplechase Park, Astroland
Park, rollercoasters, the
Coney Island beach, people
who work or worked in the
amusement area, growing up
in coney island … community
activism. Those were some of
the topics,” she said. “We will
be doing a new episode approximately
once a month.”
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
A Brooklyn College professor
wrote a piano piece dedicated
to the late Supreme Court
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
“Refl ection of Justice: An Ode
to Ruth Bader Ginsburg” pays
homage to the legal eagle and
Brooklyn native through music,
according to its composer.
“It’s my way of connecting
with her spiritually through
music and trying to use music
as a way to memorialize her,”
said Jeffrey Biegel, an adjunct
piano professor and composer
who teaches at the college’s
School of Visual, Media, and
Performing Arts.
Following Ginsburg’s
death on Sept. 18 at the age
of 87, Biegel decided to pen a
piece about the famous Brooklynite,
whom he never met but
has a family connection with
via his in-laws.
“My father-in-law knew
her when they were teens in
Brooklyn,” said Biegel, who
lives on Long Island. “When
she passed I felt, ‘I wished I
had the honor and opportunity
to have known you and to
have played for you.'”
Faced with the challenge of
translating Ginsburg’s storied
life into music, Biegel decided
to write the melody using
notes corresponding to the letters
of her initials “RBG,” her
full name, and her nickname
“Kiki,” by which she was
known as a youngster, according
to Biegel’s father-in-law.
While composing the tune
over the course of a couple days
in October, he also included
the opening notes of the “Star-
Spangled Banner,” representing
Ginsburg’s towering legacy
for the country.
“It’s perhaps the most recognizable
patriotic melody that
we have,” he said. “I wanted to
include that as a refl ection of
the title, a refl ection of justice
and that everything she stood
for was the law and the history
of the country.”
The roughly four-minute
piece has a “celestial” and
“fl oating quality” to it, said the
musician, while some audience
members have noted that parts
evoke Ginsburg’s gavel going
down in a courtroom.
“It’s kind of like her soul
fl owing through space between
here and there,” said Biegel.
The pianist has yet to make
a professional recording of the
piece, but he performed it for
the live-streamed show “Stars
in the House” back in November,
which is available on his
YouTube channel.
Next, he plans to help write
a bigger piece about Ginsburg
for vocals and a small orchestra,
together with soprano
opera singer Denyce Graves
and composer Ellen Taaffe
Zwilich.
“The only way I could connect
with Ginsburg spiritually
was through music,” said
Biegel, adding that he wants
to create the larger composition
“in a way that could be
performed way beyond her lifetime.”
You had to be there
Brooklyn College professor pens piano
piece honoring Ruth Bader Ginsburg
BROOKLYN
Note-orious RBG
DOGGED RESEARCH: A new podcast touches on Coney Island’s colorful
history. Charles Denson/Coney Island History Project
SUPREME TUNE: Brooklyn College piano professor Jeffrey Biegel penned
a musical homage to the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Biegel used the letters of Ginsburg’s name, initials, and nickname to compose
the piece. Photos by Mark Lerner, File photo, Naturally Sharp Inc.