George Gershwin - Tin Pan Alley

George was a song plugger at Remick's Publishing House on 28th St. in Manhattan at the age of 14. He played on a series of piano rolls that is available on CD today.
An excerpt from GERSHWIN, by GEORGE: The 1936 Radio Show w/ Fred and Adele Astaire:

FRED
Well anyway, one day a newspaper columnist came to Remick’s to interview a song plugger. The musician played a new tune on a worn out piano. The raspy, steely tones sounded more like reverberations from raspy, clanging…

ADELE

…tin pans, Freddie. Tin pans!

FRED

Tin pans! Right! The columnist wrote that this was “tin pan” music and he coined the term where it was played as “Tin Pan Alley”.

ADELE

Tin Pan Alley and the new American music became (thinks real hard)…monogamous.