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When I was born my father said I was so tiny at only in his hand. I think I was only about two
pounds and I couldn't live on my own. I was two weeks of survive. So the hospital didn't have
anything to do. No, they didn't have any hope for me at all. It was just your die because you didn't
belong in the world. In 1920 a father made a split second decision during a moment of desperation.
My father was looking for a blanket or a towel to wrap me up and somebody said where are you going?
He said I'm taking it to the incubator in Coney Island.
In this episode how a side show attraction saved thousands of lives and changed the course of
American medicine. It's the Storycore podcast from NPR. I'm Camilla Cushani.
Even if you've never lived in New York City you've probably heard of Coney Island.
It has a boardwalk, a theme park, Nathan's hot dogs, and this really rich, colorful and
kind of bizarre history of freak shows. You know, like tattooed ladies and sword swallowers.
Well in the summer of 1903 a brand new side show opened. An article in a local Brooklyn
newspaper at the time quoted the barkers from the boardwalk who were trying to get people to come
see the exhibit. Here's what it said. Come this way ladies and gentlemen see the tiniest little
bits of humanity in the world. Warm, lurst and fed. Maybe the future presidents inside.
All done by the baby incubator. Step right in and watch the babies grow well and strong before your
eyes. Baby incubators can be found in most hospitals or niggas today. But it wasn't always that way.
In the early 1900s a man named Martin Coney helped pioneer this technology. But when he brought
incubators to the US from Europe he was rejected from the medical community.
So each summer for 40 years he funded his work by displaying the tiny babies at Coney Islands Luna Park
and charging admission. It cost 25 cents to enter. They thought he was crazy but his daughter was a
preemie and he saved her. You know he treated her and she was alive. So then he decided to do
something and that ended up saving you. Thank God for Coney Island.
Lucille Horne was born premature in 1920 and at the age of 95 she sat down with her daughter Barbara
to talk about how she ended up in one of Martin Coney's incubators. The doctor said there's not a
chance in how much she'll live and my father said but she's alive now. He held a taxi cab and took
me to Dr. Coney's exhibit and that's where I stayed for about six months. Do you know how your
parents knew about the incubators? They saw the exhibit and the honeymoon. You had a pay to go in
and then the babies would be all lined up in special units. Micah crib it was an enclosed crib.
How do you feel knowing that people paid to see you? It's strange but as long as they saw me and I
was alive it was alright. I think it was definitely more of a freak show. Something that they
ordinarily did not see. Thank God my parents wouldn't because if they hadn't looked at them I wouldn't
be hitch-looking but I remember going down there when I was older to see the babies. I was walking
on the boardwalk and I walked past it and I realized my parents would tell me I was one in the incubator.
You met Dr. Coney right? Yes he happened to be there at the time I went in and I went over and
I introduced myself to him and there was a man standing in front of one of the incubators looking
at his baby and Dr. Coney went over to him and he topped him on the shoulders and he said look
at this young lady she's one of our babies and that's how your baby is going to grow up.
It made me feel strange as if I was something that wasn't normal you know it was funny. He was very
nice he said we're very proud of you and we're very glad you came here. I remember he gave me a hug
before I left and you must have told him you went to nursing school. I did when I received my
cap in nursing school he sent you a corsage you know you know there weren't many doctors and
would have done anything for me. Here I am 94 years later warm one piece I'm thankful to be here.
That was Lucille Horn who was one of the incubator babies of Coney Island speaking with her
daughter Barbara and Long Beach New York. There's a lot of mystery around Martin Coney. He may or may not
have been a real doctor. There's no record of his medical license or degree in the US or Europe
but even so with the help of several nurses he's credited with saving at least 6,500 babies
and he did this for 40 years with his exhibition. He died in 1950 shortly after incubators have
been introduced to most US hospitals. Something else that Lucille talked about a lot in her interview
is the fact that she was born a twin. They told me that I had a sister she was never named
and she died of birth. Why was she out of love but she's up in heaven and I'm down here.
Lucille died two years after recording her story core interview. She was 96 years old. Her
daughter Barbara wrote to us. Mom always wondered what would it be like to have my twin sister around?
She never knew what happened to her twins' remains. When making arrangements for mom's burial
every green cemetery informed us that the family plot had three available graves. One grave appeared
to contain the remains of an infant also born May 1920. We buried mom in the grave with her sister.
At birth they had been separated. In death they were reunited. When we come back we'll hear from
someone else who made Kony Island their home. Stay with us.
This message comes from NPR sponsor Subaru. In June as part of the Subaru Loves to Care initiative
Subaru and its retailers partner with the leukemia and lymphoma society in their local hospital
or cancer treatment center to give warm blankets and messages of hope to cancer patients. Subaru
and its retailers will have supported nearly 300,000 patients by the end of this year.
Subaru is proud to be the leukemia and lymphoma society's largest automotive donor. Learn more at
Subaru.com-sla-scare.
We wanted to leave you with one more story from Kony Island. It comes from Sound Portraits
Productions. That was Dave I say's radio documentary nonprofit before he founded Storycore. Today
Kony Island has one very famous very old wooden roller coaster called the Cyclone. But for decades
there were two iconic coasters. The other one was called the Thunderbolt. Back in 2000 the city of
New York decided to tear it down. This was a hard moment for May 10th. In 1946 May was working as a
waitress on Kony Island when she met Fred Moran who owned and operated the Thunderbolt roller coaster.
They fell in love and for 40 years they lived together in a house that stood under the roller coaster.
I talked to say how you get to know a person when you're waiting on them seven days a week.
I knew Freddie. I got to know Freddie because he came in every morning and every afternoon and
we got friendly. He was in putting the every three four hours. He was big and heavy. I didn't care.
I liked him. I liked his personality. He was funny. He was good to me. Whenever he would
put his arms around me I feel a little world and nobody could hurt me.
I went out in a few times and then one night he came and said when you finish you want to come
my house I swear to you. He says under the roller coaster and I said you're kidding. He's no
no. This is I'll pick you up and go to my house. It's okay. So we're now over to the house.
I was hungry so he went over to Nathan's to get breakfast and french fries and he had a
bottle of Remy Martin's brandy and we were sipping that, listening to records. That's how it started.
Then for 40 years we had a lot of fun together. The cyclone has a bigger dip, a bigger fall.
The Thunderbolt was rougher in the turns. When you went down you bounced out of the car almost.
The car would be practically sideways. If you were a stranger and you come in the house and
you would hear it grow over you'd say what's that thunder? You know it sounded like thunder.
Few things you know broke my perfume tray fell off one time. Pitches would be a little slanty.
Not much. I had walkable mirrors, three bedrooms, three bedrooms, a large living room,
dining room, kitchen. But it was like living in a country. I was in the country in the middle of the city.
I got a call from California, a man out in California called me and he says,
maybe you know what they're doing today? And I said no. This is cadana Coney Elmer tearing the
house down. I should get in. He says no. I didn't own it anymore. I got dressed. I went down
and sure enough they were carrying the house down. I'm sad staying there looking at it. It seemed like
every all my memories just wiped out. But everything changed. I don't know if it was for the better.
I won't see when they parked the car. It looks like it's going to be a parking lot.
Lots of times you know I think of this and you know what I mean tears and I say no I want to get
away from that you know. But it's very sad thinking back you know on it. I don't want to be member anymore.
That was Maitsempano talking about living underneath the Thunderbolt roller coaster
at Coney Island.
That's all for this episode. It was produced by Jasmine Morris and Michael Garoflo,
who's our executive producer. Our senior producer is Eleanor Vasilie. Max Young Rice is our
associate producer. Our technical director is Jared Floyd. Special thanks to Myra Sierra,
Chris Dyckman and to David Miller, who produced the Sound Portrait Story. Find out a music
we use on our website, storycore.org. While you're there you can also check out Original Artwork by Lin Lucia.
For the Storycore podcast, I'm Camille Gashani. Catch you next week.
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