Irving Berlin Composer, lyricist, plugger, performer, and publisher who personifies Tin Pan Alley in all its glory Israel Baline, Temun, Russia, May 11, 1888; New York City, September 22, 1989. Berlin, who began as a boy singer and in a few years became the most famous Alley songwriter, came with his family to the United States when he was four years old. Young Izzy Baline found a job plugging the songs of Harry Von Tilzer , singing them from the balcony at Tony Pastor ’s on Fourteenth Street…