[Ads-l] Barry Popik's Antedating of "Tin Pan Alley"

[Shapiro, Fred]

Among Barry Popik's many antedatings of really important terms is "Tin Pan Alley."  Here is his discovery, made in 2022:


Tin Pan Alley (OED 1908)

16 January 1903, The Morning Telegraph (New York, NY), pg. 7, col. 5:
FOURTEENTH STREET’S
RIALTO IS PASSING AWAY
Vaudeville Agent Morris Goes to
“Tin Pan Alley,” and That Move
Means Much.
William Morris, the vaudeville agent, has taken a lease of the offices under those of Doty & Brill, in West Twenty-eighth street, more commonly known as “Tin Pan Alley,” from the multiplicity of song publishers’ pianos.

He will move from his present quarters on East Fourteenth street as soon as the necessary arrangements can be made.

His departure will mark the final passing of East Fourteenth street as an active vaudeville Rialto, and marks another step in the uptown trend of the business movement generally. James J. Armstrong will be left the sole representative around Union Square, and he will probably follow the others uptown.


Fred Shapiro



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