Frank Palescandolo

Interview Description

Oral History Interview with Frank Palescandolo

Frank Palescandolo was born on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in 1917, and moved to the Coney Island neighborhood of Brooklyn in 1919. He grew up there and lived above the restaurant (Villa Joe's) owned and run by his parents, both immigrants from Italy. Villa Joe's seated 500 people and was one of the biggest in Brooklyn. As a boy, he and his family had some local celebrity and were good friends with prominent citizens of the area, such as the Tilyou family, who ran and owned Steeplechase Park. Palescandolo was a trained social worker, and spent the majority of his time working with youths and longshoremen in the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn. He took over the family business when his father died and ran the restaurant in Coney Island until 1975, when it was sold to Urban Renewal. Under the pseudonym Frank Paley, he completed "Rumble on the Docks," his first book, in 1953, and spent his life writing twenty-six books that range from novels to histories to translations. Palescandolo classifies himself as one of the few authentic Brooklyn writers.

In the interview, Frank Palescandolo talks of the Coney Island neighborhood of Brooklyn's past; restaurants that used to be there, the different ethnicities of the people that visited the beach, and the amusement parks that the area is famous for: Luna Park, Steeplechase Park, and Dreamland. He reflects on the restaurant his family had at Coney Island while he was growing up, Villa Joe's, and remembers his early days in the area; talking about his parents' lives as younger people, the house and restaurant they built, and the small farms that neighbors kept on vacant neighborhood lots. He laments the closing of the restaurant in 1975 and the way in which Coney Island has suffered in recent years. He discusses the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn in the 1950s; the teenage gangs there, the crime that was rampant in the area, and how he came to know many of the men involved in that underworld through his social work. He discusses his novel "Rumble on the Docks," which takes place in Red Hook and deals with gangs and the gang violence endemic to the neighborhood in the late twentieth century. He recounts how he started writing because he was stuck in bed with the flu, and how he spent roughly thirty years prior to this 2009 interview as a writer. Interview conducted by Sady Sullivan.

The Voices of Brooklyn oral histories: Arts and entertainment series features a dynamic range of narrators. Some are well-known public figures and others are well-known in their communities or field. This ongoing series focuses on the arts and the experiences of these Brooklyn narrators, as well as documents local, national, and international cultures. The narrators often discuss their production of works of art or entertainment media. The oldest narrator in this series was born in 1917.

Citation

Palescandolo, Frank, Oral history interview conducted by Sady Sullivan, February 10, 2009, Voices of Brooklyn oral histories: Arts and entertainment, 2008.031.1.008; Brooklyn Historical Society.