Tin Pan Valley : The ragtime-era music is making a comeback at local clubs, attracting old and young listeners alike.

Richard Halpern, 30, is making them sob at Cafe Giuseppe’s in Northridge as he walks through the audience in a trench coat and cap belting out “Brother Can You Spare a Dime?”

Rosy McHargue, 91, has whole families clapping in time as he blows the saxophone to a toe-tapping tune at Red Vest Pizza in Sylmar.

“If you like Tin Pan Alley music, you’ll be able to find it every week somewhere in the San Fernando Valley--if you look for it,” says Paulina Filby, a singer and instructor who gets standing ovations for her renditions of “Sweet Man” and “You’re Getting to Be a Habit With Me.” “The people in the Valley, especially families, love this music.”

Tin Pan Alley might be defined as ragtime music with words. It’s a type of Dixieland with pizazz, and it’s part of the early roots of jazz. The music grew out of the turn of the century and lasted through the Depression. Today, as the century draws to an end and the economy is slowing, people of every age are discovering and enjoying this music.

“It’s the kind of music you can either bring a date or your mother to and still feel comfortable,” says Tony Gower, who is booking more and more Tin Pan acts at the Derby in Los Feliz. “We get the kids from the Valley who are into the underground scene coming out here and digging the music, and we get senior citizen couples from Burbank coming for a night of fun tunes.”

Usually, youths with multicolored hair and berets wouldn’t be caught in the same clubs as people their grandmother’s age, but they flock to the Derby to be among such celebrities as Mel Gibson, Don Rickles, Robert Duvall, silent film star Anita Paige and “Beverly Hills 90210” star Jason Priestley.

“The Valley is very important in Tin Pan history,” says Halpern, who is one of the youngest professionals making a name for himself singing this music. Halpern’s style is often compared to Eddie Cantor or Al Jolson, and he helped organize a national Al Jolson convention this summer in Los Angeles.

When Halpern gives friends a tour of Tin Pan history, he includes two homes in the Valley where Jolson lived with his wife, Ruby Keeler. His house in Encino is now inhabited by actors Kirstie Alley and Parker Stevenson, and the Toluca Lake residence formerly was owned by radio personality Rick Dees.

“It’s heartening that young people like Richard are re-creating the music so well and are able to pass it on,” says McHargue, who has been playing Tin Pan music for almost 80 years. “There’s a resurgence of this music among the younger crowd.”

McHargue theorizes, “The young ones are dissatisfied with the times by hearing about wars and rumors of war, and these old songs are slow and meaningful.” McHargue just released his first CD of this music called “Oh How He Can Sing.”

Filby first heard about Tin Pan Alley music almost a decade ago in her native England, and she loved it. She studied African-American history and this early vaudeville music and is now a music consultant for the Compton Unified School District.

“I’m white, and I have a British accent, but I’m often told by the teachers and students that I know more about their culture than they do,” says Filby, who is also a creative music teacher working with runaway teen-agers at Angel’s Flight in Van Nuys.

“Children love this music. It gets your feet tapping, and it stirs up real excitement and is good clean fun,” says Filby. “And the kids can understand the lyrics.”

Some of the lyrics are subtly sexual, “Take Your Girlie to the Movies if You Can’t Make Love at Home”; some are more bawdy, “Masculine Women, Feminine Men”; some are totally nonsensical, “Yes, We Have No Bananas”; and some are very romantic, “Let Me Call You Sweetheart.”

Filby is influenced by the female singers of the day--Ethel Waters, Fanny Brice, Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith.

“The music is forward, it has real body and rhythm and even though the older crowds do follow us around pretty loyally, it’s great to see how the young people come in and don’t realize it’s older music,” Filby says.

Brad Kay, director of the Majestic Dance Orchestra, an 11-piece jazz ensemble, plays many places in the Valley and is proud of his Tin Pan repertoire.

“People think it’s a bunch of corny pop songs, and for the most part they are, but it’s not Dixieland and it’s not ragtime. It represents a period of songwriting where they were cranking them out like sausages and the songs are about anything.”

The reigning expert of Tin Pan music is Altadena resident Ian Whitcomb. He was a pop-rock singer in the 1960s, best known for his hit “You Turn Me On,” but he eventually turned to performing ragtime and has written some definitive books about the music.

His books include “After the Ball, from Rag to Rock” (Limelight Editions, 1993) and “Irving Berlin and Ragtime America” (Limelight Editions, 1986). Two other books, “Treasures of Tin Pan Alley” and “Beckoning Fairgrounds,” the latter a reprint of his articles about Tin Pan Alley music, are being released in 1994.

Whitcomb credits the origins of the music to an area of 28th and Broadway in New York where many music publishing houses were located and each office had an upright piano. When the windows were opened and someone walked past from the alley, it sounded like a bunch of tin pans being clashed, and that’s how a New York Herald writer described it.

“Tin Pan’s demise came when movies became the most popular form of entertainment and songs like ‘For Me and My Gal’ and a few others were used in some of the early talkies,” Whitcomb says. “I find the interest spreading slowly,” but the music is hard to find.

Whitcomb has a radio show out of Pasadena on National Public Radio from 10 p.m. to midnight Mondays through Thursdays and has had such fans as Mel Brooks, Billy Wilder, Buck Henry and “Star Trek: The Next Generation” commander Patrick Stewart call in.

“A 13-year-old boy called in once in a while and said he had to sneak his radio on to listen to me because it was past his bedtime,” says Whitcomb. “He was fed up with synthesizers.”

Synthesizers have been absent at Bob Burns in Woodland Hills on Wednesday nights for the past year and a half. That’s the night Jerry Hart and Friends are jamming Tin Pan Alley tunes and people from all over the Valley come to sing along.

“We have a lot of local professionals come in and sing. It’s Tin Pan karaoke, you could say,” says Hart, 56, of Sherman Oaks. “This is what Tin Pan Alley meant, it was just a group of musicians getting together and trying stuff out with each other and having a lot of fun doing it.”

Hart met his drummer, Jim Kerwin of Van Nuys, and bass player Jim Bates of North Hollywood two years ago at the Valley Jazz Club, and they’ve been a trio since. Hart is also the pianist for Danny Davis’ Roaring ‘20s Orchestra, which played at the L.A. Classic Jazz Festival this year.

“Everybody’s tired of the noise of these times, and that’s why they come in,” Hart says. And they may get a chuckle out of Hart’s rendition of one of Whitcomb’s recorded songs, “Where Does Robinson Crusoe Go With Friday on a Saturday Night?”

Another local treasure is Northridge resident Dave Smith, who bills himself as “The World’s Second Greatest Entertainer” for his impressions of Jolson.

“I speak to the young people today who are playing and singing this old music, and you know what, I have to tell them that it was old music in my day, too,” Smith says. “I’m glad to see Tin Pan Alley will survive.”

WHERE TO GO

Places to catch live Tin Pan Alley tunes:

Bob Burns Restaurant, 21821 Oxnard St., Woodland Hills. 8 to 11 p.m. Wednesdays. (818) 892-7271.

Cafe Giuseppe, 18515 Roscoe Blvd., Northridge. Schedule varies. (818) 349-9090.

Casey’s, 22029 Sherman Way, Canoga Park, 6 p.m. Thursdays and Sundays. (818) 992-9362.

The Cinegrill, 7000 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood. Richard Halpern and band 8 p.m. Wednesdays beginning Dec. 22. (213) 466-7000.

Cinnamon’s Cinder, 4311 W. Magnolia Blvd., Burbank. Noon to 1 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays, 3 to 5 p.m. Sundays, except during football season. (818) 845-1121.

The Derby, 4500 Los Feliz Blvd., Los Feliz. Schedule varies. (213) 663-8979.

Las Hadas Mexican Restaurant, 9048 Balboa Blvd., Northridge. 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Sundays. (818) 892-7271.

Moonlight Tango Cafe, 13730 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks. Schedule varies. (818) 788-2000.

Red Vest Pizza, 12639 Glenoaks Blvd., Sylmar. Featuring Dick Miller’s Jazzin’ Babies 7:30 to 10 p.m. Wednesdays. (818) 362-1536.

“The Ian Whitcomb Show,” KPCC radio (89.3 FM), 10 p.m. to midnight Mondays through Thursdays.

“Joe Monte’s Midnight Frolics,” KPCC radio (89.3 FM), midnight Sunday till 2 a.m.

“The Bob Ringwald Show,” KCSN radio (88.5 FM), 1 to 3 p.m. Saturdays.

“Bob Epstein’s Show,” KLOM radio (88.1 FM), 7 to 11 a.m. Sundays.

Valley Jazz Club, Knights of Columbus Hall, 21433 Strathern St., Canoga Park. 1 to 5 p.m. first Sunday of the month. Visitors $7, members $5.

High Desert Dixieland and Jazz Club, 2728 E. Palmdale Blvd., Palmdale. 1:30 p.m. third Sunday of the month.

Santa Clarita Dixie Club, 7338 Canby Ave., Reseda. 1 p.m. fourth Sunday of the month.