Oct 9, 2008 1:12 pm US/Eastern
Original Tin Pan Alley Put Up For Sale In N.Y.C.
Chelsea Buildings Were Home To Some Of America's Great Songwriters And Their Work
Real Estate Listing Proposes High Rise For Place Where 'God Bless America' Was Written
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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Although a Russian by birth, composer Irving Berlin wrote a number of America's more enduring songs. Much of his early work was done in a series of buildings in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood known as Tin Pan Alley, which have now been put up for sale.
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George Gershwin, 1898-1937, was one of the 20th Century's greatest composers. He collaborated on many songs with his brother Ira.
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Ira Gershwin, 1896-1983, and his brother George were songwriters who made some of the most important 20th Century contributions to the American Songbook.
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Composer Cole Porter's works included the Broadway musicals "Kiss Me, Kate" and "Anything Goes," as well as songs like "Night and Day", "I Get a Kick Out of You" and "I've Got You Under My Skin".
AP
Tin Pan Alley, once the home of Irving Berlin, George and Ira Gershwin and dozens of other great American songwriters, is up for sale.
Five buildings in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood are being offered as a group for $44 million. A listing on a real estate Web site,
Loopnet, recommends that the buildings at 47, 49, 51, 53 and 55 W. 28th Street be torn down and that a high-rise be built in their place.
Preservationists and tenants are not happy.
"These buildings are incredibly significant to the development of New York City. They helped launch the careers of songwriters and musicians who are still popular today," said Simeon Bankoff, executive director of the Historic Districts Council.
Although there is no indication of it today, Tin Pan Alley housed a concentration of music publishers and songwriters from the 1890s to the 1950s. It is the place where Berlin wrote "God Bless America" and where George M. Cohan wrote "Give My Regards to Broadway." "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" was another tune written there, helping establish the area as a significant contributor to the great American songbook.
Among the other more recognizable songwriters and lyricists who spent time in Tin Pan Alley were Hoagy Carmichael, Scott Joplin, Cole Porter and Fats Waller.
The real estate listing has been active since September, but was first reported this week on a blog,
Lost City, which describes itself as "a running Jeremiad on the vestiges of Old New York as they are
steamrolled under or threatened by the currently ruthless real estate
market and the City Fathers' disregard for Gotham's historical and
cultural fabric." The blog reports that in addition to songwriters, 55 W. 28th Street was also the home of "Mother Earth," the magazine started in 1906 by anarchist Emma Goldman.
Here is a partial list of standards that were written in Tin Pan Alley:
- "The Band Played On," 1895
- "A Hot Time In The Old Town Tonight," 1896
- "Hello! Ma Baby (Hello Ma Ragtime Gal)," 1899
- "Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home," 1902
- "In The Good Old Summertime," 1902
- "Give My Regards To Broadway," 1904
- "Shine Little Glow Worm," 1907
- "Shine On Harvest Moon," 1908
- "Take Me Out To The Ballgame," 1908
- "By The Light Of The Silvery Moon," 1909
- "Down By The Old Mill Stream," 1910
- "Let Me Call You Sweetheart," 1910
- "Alexander's Ragtime Band," 1911
- "God Bless America," 1918
- "Swanee," 1919
- "Way Down Yonder In New Orleans," 1922
- "Sweet Georgia Brown," 1925
- "Ain't She Sweet," 1927
- "Happy Days Are Here Again," 1930
The name Tin Pan Alley appears to have been originated by a newspaper writer who visited the area circa 1900, according to music historian Rick Reublin on the Web site
parlorsongs.com.
"Monroe Rosenfeld
... coined the term to symbolize the cacophony
of the many pianos being pounded in publishers' demo rooms which he
characterized as sounding as though hundreds of people were pounding
on tin pans," Reublin wrote. "According to the story, he used the term in a series of
articles ... around the turn of the century (20th) and it caught
on."
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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