This video features the Kodachrome Photographs by the late Murray Cooper, loaned to Edgemere Archive through the Library of Barbara Cooper. The beginning montage of black and white photographs are by an unknown photographer. The iconic black & white aerial photo is of the boardwalk at Edgemere on July 4, 1957 by Margaret Bourke-White.
The subject of the photos are of life at the Bungalow Colony at Beach 38th Street and a wonderful portrait of life on the Boardwalk and on the beach between 1957 and 1961. Through his photographs, he weaves us a world of families leaving the hot city, mostly from the Bronx, to have a wonderful life during the summer at the bungalow colony, from their evening gatherings, to all the families sitting on the porches talking, to the utterly amazing boardwalk photographs. He captures his beloved Pearl, his family and extended family and other returning families who came to the same Bungalow Colony every summer.
As I mentioned before on my blog, Beach 38th Street holds a very special place to me personally, and one of the things that was lost to me were photographs of the street and the house. Through an unbelievable chain of events all of us will get to enjoy these amazing photographs of a time and place and a way of life that has slipped away. With my world being all on Beach 38th Street with my grandparents owning and running one of the big summer homes, in many of his photographs he captures the home. It is the large brown house right off the Boardwalk. These are the first pictures I’ve seen of the house since I was a boy.
Murray Cooper considered himself an amateur photographer, using a professional quality 35 mm camera and Kodachrome film. But the quality of the pictures speak otherwise. His photographs in the end will be compared with the great photographs of New York. Murray never got to see where his photographs will get to travel in today’s world. The internet will take these pictures everywhere.
I wish to Thank Barbara Cooper for sharing her father’s photographs with us.
I dedicate this video to Murray and Pearl Cooper.
A remarkable intriguing look at a time and place that only live in our hearts. Of the many photo displays I’ve viewed, it just doesn’t get any better than this.
Thank you Bruce for featuring these wonderful gems!
thank you Tony, You are always so nice. Its true these photos can take us all back there is so much life.
THE GOOD OLD DAY’S SO SAD WHAT THE CITY DID TO OUR ROCKAWAY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I was a year-round Edgemere and Arverne resident for 19 yrs (1950-1969) I have lived in Coney Island for 38 years. Coney doesn’t and has never held a candle to the Rockaways.
Thank you for that wonderful memory of Edgemere. That family could have been my family, the Nusgartens–who hada bungalow on Beach 36th street.( 137A-Beach 36th street…which identified us as being on the”beach side” rather than the “bay side” There was a synagogue on our corner and a so called “schlock store on the other. Our family lived in The Bronx too, and would pack up each June and head for our bungalow. I remember so much…..the beach and jetties,the knish lady,the miniature golf place between 36th and 37th……the boardwalk especially at night…the first slice of pizza i ever had( Sally’s) the poker roll games and penny arcade, the theater with the open ceiling and we could see the stars while watching a film.. There was no better place to spend a summer than Rockaway. Thank you for this lovely tribute to your family and to my favorite place in the world.
Our grandparents lived with us both in the ‘city and at the beach and they would cook up a storm for all the visitors. We’d all go to the beach as frequently as possible, and take lunch with us and a thermos of lemonade. Sigh——in my mind I can still taste it. One summer –1948 .
When my brother was born, my sister and i were sent to Camp Lawrence to give our mom a break. Gosh we hated that place and could not wait for that summer to end.
Years later, after I married and had our first daughter, my mom and aunt were the only ones left.
Hi…Not sure if my comment was saved or not but my family also had a strong connection to Beach 38th Street! My Aunt and cousins lived there.I love these photos and in a photo at :57 on the red line in the video…Is a photo of our family behind the featured beach goers (we had the red and white vertical striped umbrella)! Very much fun! I am in the picture myself!
Thanks for this collection…I’m linking to it from own blog!
Your old beach neighbor, Loretta
Wonderful photos of a time and place in the past. Murray Cooper captured the spirit of the bungalow community and the people who lived there. He had an ability to gain the trust of his subjects and to take candid shots that tell the story of middle and working class families escaping the citys heat.
My dad is in the pic (the guy on the beach chair), also I know the other people in the pic (Ann/Jodie and Marsha Biren
baum), would love to get in contact with Jodie- any way to do this?
Hi Les,
I found the main number that Barbara Copper gave me. Hope you do talk with her. 561-654-6066
bruce