Spencer's pilgrimage to "Tin Can Alley" is a play on Tin Pan Alley, which was the nickname given to New York City's 28th Street between Broadway and Fifth Avenue. Between 1885 and the mid-20th Century this street served as the center of popular music publishing and from it sprang many of the standards still being performed. A reporter coined the term "Tin Pan Alley," saying the sound of so many pianos playing simultaneously out of open windows created a cacophony on the street like that of tin pans banging.