Tin Pan Alley Travels, Part One

This month, I will be doing something a little bit different in this column, as I just took a week long trip to NYC. On this trip I scoped out many historic phonograph and tin pan alley locations, made some real wax disc records, and spent two days with the great-nephew of Fred Hager. This trip is deserving of four articles, and this one will follow my adventures and sightseeing regarding studio accompanist Frank P. Banta. The night that I arrived in New York, I was picked up at the airport by the very kind sister-in-law of Fred Hager’s great nephew. Her name is Cheryl, and she’s just a classic Long Island lady, unphased by all the dissatisfied drivers around her, and perfectly willing to ask me any questions about Jimmy Hager, who she never knew, but heard a lot about. After the fun drive from the airport, I stayed in a hotel that was once the home of the Banta family in 1880. In the 1880 census, the Banta family lived at 414 West 26th St, which was and still is in the middle of Hell’s Kitchen. It is a hotel now, so it seemed obligatory that I stay there for just a little while. Frank’s father John (born in 1824) was a woodcarver for pianos, and he had been doing this job for decades by the time he married Fannie Darrow (Frank’s mother). John was nearly 50 when Frank was bor