4. Cyndi Lauper and Jack Kerouac Lived in Ozone Park
Cyndi Lauper, the woman who revealed the hard-hitting truth with her girls’ night anthem, “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun,” was once an Ozone Park resident. The illustrious ’80s pop singer grew up at 95-11 104th Street with her mother and two siblings after her parents divorced. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal the singer reminisced on the beautiful moments of her time living in the neighborhood, from caring for her grandmother’s garden to painting the walls of her room constantly-changing colors. Ozone Park is also where Lauper established her unique colorful style. Perhaps stemming from her rocky relationship with her step-father, Lauper rebelled and experimented with new hairstyles and clothes until eventually running away from her Ozone Park home to pursue her performing career. She would come to be known for songs like “Time After Time” and “True Colors.” Cyndi Lauper even returned to Ozone Park in 1993 to film a music video in her old neighborhood.
Other famous people who share a past of growing up in Ozone Park include Jack Kerouac and Joe Lo Truglio. Kerouac was a well-known poet and author known most famously for his 1959 novel On the Road. He lived at 133-01 Crossbay Boulevard with his parents in an apartment where he wrote and published his first work “The Town and the City.” Actor Joe Lo Truglio was born in Ozone Park, though he did not live most of his childhood there. Truglio is known for many popular movies and TV shows including Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Wet Hot American Summer, and Pineapple Express.