How a melodic kleptomaniac from Richmond coined the phrase Tin Pan Alley.
by Dale Brumfield
One evenin’ in de month of May, Johnny get your gun, get your gun,I met old Peter on de way,Johnny get your gun, get your gun …—“Johnny Get Your Gun,” words and music by Monroe H. Rosenfeld, written under the pseudonym F. Belasco, 1886 In April 1899, Richmond native, music composer, New York Herald journalist and brazen intellectual property thief Monroe H. Rosenfeld wrote a series of columns on a New York City music craze booming raucously from open windows in an alley at 28th Street.…[ Read more ]