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This time of year, people come to Ron Diamond for a knife through the head—or maybe their heart ripped out.
When they ask for blood, he’s got 12 different kinds, from dripping to coagulated.
Step inside Ronjo’s Magic & Costumes in Port Jefferson Station and you’ll find horror masks, wigs, costumes, makeup, severed limbs, skeletons, and more.
And at the center of it all is Diamond, 67, who’s been running the shop since the 1970s with a perfectionist’s touch.
“I know exactly what you need to be nuts,” Diamond said. “You want to be authentic? I’m here. I’m gonna make it happen.”
In the age of Amazon and shuttered Party City stores, Diamond and his small staff stand out for their personal service.
“We’re all costume advisors here,” he said. “This is still the only store where you can actually talk to somebody who knows this stuff.”
Many arrive in a panic after online orders go wrong. Diamond calms them down, sizes them up, and points them toward something that fits their personality.
“After about 50 years, once I help someone, I usually have a lifetime client,” he said.
Brian Greene of Selden is one of those clients. He grew up shopping at Ronjo’s with his dad, marveling at the oddities. “It was always a shop of curiosities,” he said. Now, as an adult running a Halloween haunt on his driveway, he turns to Ronjo’s for props he can’t get anywhere else—including a handmade book that shoots out real flames.
How it started
Diamond grew up shy in South Setauket until he discovered magic at 10. By 13, he was performing shows across Long Island. In 1974, he set up a small counter of magic tricks at a flea market in East Setauket. Soon he was selling wigs and makeup to entertainers—and by the late 1970s, “Halloweeners” began flocking in for nightclub costume contests.
“We birthed Halloween on Long Island, no question about it,” he said.
The store even introduced him to his wife, Lesley, in 1989, when she stopped in before a party. He proposed on their first date.
How it’s going
Since 2000, Ronjo’s has operated at 1651 NY-112 in Port Jefferson Station. Diamond expanded the shop to include CBD products in 2016, but every fall it transforms into a Halloween haven.
Over the decades, the store has shaped countless lives.
Peter Albertson, who first took magic lessons from Diamond as a kid, joined the staff in 1990 and never left. Conrad Hoenig, now in North Carolina, said working there at age 10 gave him the confidence and skills that shaped his career.
For Diamond, there’s no slowing down.
“It always feels like the first day,” he said, standing behind the original glass counter where Ronjo’s began, just days before full-blown Halloween season starts to get underway.
“This is the quiet before the storm.”
Top: Step inside Ronjo’s Magic & Costumes in Port Jefferson Station and you’ll find horror masks, wigs, costumes, makeup, severed limbs, skeletons, and more. And at the center of it all is Ron Diamond. (Credit: Kevin Redding)
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