A Trip Down the Actual Tin Pan Alley

Originally posted on my other blog the Trav-a-log, the contents of which I am in the process of transplanting here, so that it will all live in one place!

Tin Pan Alley isn’t just a style of music; originally it was a real place. A move is on to preserve the historical strip; I covered a special event pit on by the Tin Pan Alley American Popular Music Project for amNY. Read the story here. And here are a few additional snaps I took at the event.

Robert Lamont performed Tin Pan Alley classics.

Most of the great American songs of the early 20th century were published in these buildings.

A former bawdy house. It was said that if you could make the whores cry, you’d have a hit song.

David Freeland, author of Automats, Taxi Dancers, and Vaudeville leads a tour.

Again that amNY that tells the whole story is here.

And go here for my 2021 follow-up.

For more on the Tin Pan Alley American Popular Music Project (including great history on the street itself) go here.

For more on Tin Pan Alley please check out my bookNo Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous.