January 16 in A.A. History

1919: With Nebraska’s adoption of the 18th Amendment, it became the 36th state (out of 48) to do so, thereby making this amendment part of the United States Constitution [right: front page of the Anti-Saloon League’s The American Issue^*, 25 Jan 1919]. It prohibited “the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof.” Importantly, this language did not prohibit the use, possession, or even manufacture of alcohol for private, personal use.
    As Dr. Bob S. noted in his story “Doctor Bob’s Nightmare” (in all four editions of the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous), he initially did not realize that the government would accommodate his alcoholism by allowing doctors almost unlimited supplies of grain alcohol for “medicinal urposes.” During Prohibition, Dr. Bob would randomly select a name from the phone book and fill out a prescription to obtain a pint of 100-proof medicinal alcohol [left: Prohibition-era prescription—not from Dr. Bob—for alcohol].

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^*The total circulation of The American Issue in 1919 was 837,200,172 copies!

1920: At midnight, Prohibition took effect across the United States, one year after the ratification of the 18th Amendment. 
    This amendment granted “Congress and the several States” the power to enforce Prohibition. However, the enabling legislation—the Volstead Act, named after Minnesota Representative Andrew Volstead [right] but actually written by Wayne Wheeler [left, 1920] of the Anti-Saloon League—left no room for local options or other forms of flexibility.
    Ironically, the law called for a significant increase in federal intervention in society just as “limited government” advocates were coming into office (Prohibition was in effect during the presidencies of Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover). A parsimonious Congress was reluctant to appropriate sufficient funds for effective enforcement.
    The result would be a decade of lawlessness, with citizens flouting the law in speakeasies and bootleggers corrupting public officials. On Capitol Hill, the bootlegger George Cassiday [right, 1930], known as “The Man in the Green Hat,” would operate freely out of the House office building. The Senate would successfully prevent his client list from ever being made public.
    Alcohol consumption and deaths from cirrhosis of the liver would both decline during Prohibition, while Bill W., Dr. Bob S., and other A.A. pioneers would engage in their heaviest drinking during this period. Terms like “rumrunner,” “bootlegger,” “speakeasy” and “bathtub gin” would soon enter the national vocabulary.

1945: A meeting was held at the Hotel Cleveland [left, circa 1940] in Cleveland, Ohio, to elect the first administrative body responsible for establishing and guiding the functions of a Downtown Alcoholics Anonymous District [Central] Office. Jack D., Paul J., Charles D., Dr. F. F., and Cliff B. were elected to the inaugural Operating Committee. Dick S., Elmer L., and Abby G. were elected to the Nominating Committee. The Finance Committee reported that, in response to a December letter soliciting funds, approximately 200 members had contributed $3,600 [~$65,000 in 2026], and many more had pledged to contribute as soon as the office opened. 

January in A.A. History—day unknown

1913: Bill W. failed most of his senior mid-year exams and had to drop out of Burr and Burton. By April, it became evident that he would not graduate and he would move to Boston, Massachusetts, to live with his mother in Franklin Square House [right, December 1914].

1918: Bill W. visited Lois Burnham [left: in her wedding dress, 1918] at her home on 182 Clinton St., Brooklyn. He had planned to arrive by Christmas, but several engagements with his small band^* had delayed him. He remembered the Burnhams as easygoing and natural from their vacations on Lake Emerald, near East Dorset, Vermont. His idea of a house was purely functional, nothing more.
    He had never even imagined homes with deliberately chosen and carefully coordinated furnishings. Around Clinton Street, there was a constant buzz of family chatter and excitement that he felt but didn’t fully recognize—a suggestion of big events, of people coming and going, of young men arriving in expensive cars to visit the Burnham girls. He was overwhelmed and struck by the realization that this was Lois’s world, where she truly belonged.

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^*Bill played fiddle for The Aeolians, who barnstormed Bennington County, Vermont, performing at high school dances and other events.

1918: Frank Buchman [near right] and Rev. Samuel M. Shoemaker [far right, 1917] met in Beijing (then romanized as “Peking”), China. Shoemaker experienced a spiritual conversion and became a devoted member of Buchman’s “First Century Christian Fellowship.”
    Sam Shoemaker had arrived in Beijing from the United States in 1917. He had been sent to China at the suggestion of G. Sherwood Eddy^* to help establish a branch of the YMCA and to teach as part of the Princeton-in-China program. However, without much success, Sam had become upset and discouraged. He met Frank Buchman, who introduced him to the Four Absolutes: honesty, purity, unselfishness, and love. During this, their first conversation, Sam was initially angered by a common response from Frank: “If you are not having any success here maybe it’s that you haven’t anything to give them.” Sam later wrote, “I saw this was a matter for my will rather than my intellect. I asked myself if I was willing, and then I thought how ridiculous I was ever to think of opposing my pigmy will to the will of God.” Years later, Sam would trace the beginning of his ministry to that night with Buchman when he decided to let go of self and allow God to guide his life.

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^*Eddy (1871–1963) was a leading American Protestant missionary, administrator, educator, prolific writer, and tireless traveler. He connected and funded networks of intellectuals around the globe and helped missionaries better understand and even think like the people they served.

1927: While on one of his occasional trips to investigate company stock prices, Bill Wilson wrote to his wife, Lois, “There will be no booze during 1927.” She later reported, “Alas, this good resolution was short-lived.”

1929: On a trip to Manchester, Vermont, Bill W. called Edwin “Ebby” T. in Albany, New York, to join him for an all-night drinking spree—the only time they ever drank together, as Ebby was quite clear about in his talks and writings. The next morning, they chartered a flight with Flyers, Inc. in Albany to be the first flight to Manchester Equinox Airport (it wasn’t^*) [left: aerial view, 1992]. They wired their expected time of arrival to Mrs. [Anne Louise Simonds] Orvis [right, 1992], owner of the Equinox House (a hotel) [left, 1929] and mayor of Manchester. She called the band and town officials to gather at the airfield to greet the plane. It was going to be a gala day for Manchester. The plane [right: likely a Curtiss JN-4 biplane, affectionately known as the "Jenny," like this one] flew in; the band played enthusiastically; the welcoming committee prepared; and Bill and Ebby got off the plane and fell flat on their faces, dead drunk. The pilot, Ted Burke, was also drunk. The next day, Bill wrote a letter of apology to Mrs. Orvis’ son, Franklin^†:

Dear Mr. Orvis,
    Until I found that I could not reach you on the phone I had been minded to call upon you and apologize for the disgraceful happenings of yesterday.
    I do not know what I said or did but it is painfully evident that I had done you grievous wrong. I certainly merit nothing but your contempt and feel that a situation has been created which cannot be lived down.
    Though you perhaps prefer I do not call on you I would like you to know how keenly I feel about the matter and if you can bring yourself to doing so I shall appreciate it to no end if you will accept this my most sincere apologies.
    I do not know whether your mother was present at the field or not--in any event I hope that she will also accept this apology-
    Sincerely,…

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^*W. C. Billings landed the first plane at Equinox Airport in June 1928, and the airport officially opened on 4 July 1928.

^†Ironically, Franklin Orvis would die in 1951 at the age of 48 due to 25 years of “chronic alcoholism.”

1933: Rowland Hazard III [left, undated] was drinking to the extent that he could not manage even simple daily tasks. He sought help from Courtenay Baylor [right, undated], a lay therapist associated with the Emmanuel Movement and the Jacoby Club. These were the only groups, aside from Alcoholics Anonymous, in the early 20th century that had notable success in helping alcoholics achieve and maintain sobriety. Like A.A., these groups combined spirituality with psychological support through a straightforward form of lay therapy. Baylor encouraged Rowland to take seriously the advice he had received from Dr. Carl Jung in 1926—to seek a spiritual experience. However, since Rowland was too far from Boston to participate actively in either of Baylor’s groups, he instead became involved with the Oxford Group and eventually got sober, though it remains unclear whether he maintained it.

1936: Hank P. [far left] hired Ruth Hock [near left] as the secretary for his company, Honor Dealers. Shortly thereafter, Bill W. [right, late 1930s] began visiting Hank, whom he sponsored, and the Honor Dealers office became the de facto headquarters for the small but growing group that would come to be known as Alcoholics Anonymous. Ruth would increasingly focus on A.A. matters rather than Honor Dealers matters; in 1938–39, she would type multiple drafts of what would become the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous. When Bill would move the headquarters to 30 Vesey Street [below, far left, 1940±1] in New York City in February 1940, he would take Lois with him, and she would become the first National Secretary of Alcoholics Anonymous.

1937: Earl Treat [right], a struggling alcoholic from Chicago, Illinois, traveled to Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, to visit his father. He arrived in poor health, feeling depressed and overwhelmed with fear. His father had heard about a new organization in nearby Akron that was helping alcoholics recover, so he took Earl to meet Dr. Bob S. [left]. Earl joined the Akron group and stayed with them for several weeks before returning to Chicago. Before Earl's departure, Dr. Bob guided him through a moral inventory and asked if he wanted to have his character defects removed. Earl later recalled,

     >Without much thought, I said, “Yes, I would.” And then he asked me to get down on my knees at the desk with him, and we both prayed aloud to have these defects removed.

1939: James “Jimmy” (or “Jim”) B. [right], author of “The Vicious Cycle” in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th editions of Alcoholics Anonymous and a former atheist, claimed—and is believed by many—to have introduced the phrases “God as we understand Him” and “Power greater than ourselves” shortly before the prepublication manuscript was completed. Bill Wilson later wrote, “Those expressions, as we so well know today, proved lifesavers for many an alcoholic.”
    However, others believe that these phrases, found in “Bill’s Story,” the Twelve Steps, and Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, were more likely Bill’s own creation. They suggest that his hints of attribution to Jimmy were a mix of myth-making and an effort to deflect credit and attention to others, rather than being historically accurate.
    It is also possible that the idea originated with Rev. Samuel Shoemaker^* [left, 1940]. In his 1957 book, The Experiment of Faith [below right: cover], he discusses God in this way:

    Religion concerns persons — God and other human beings. A man cannot formulate a definition of his fiancee, still less can he formulate a definition of his relation to her and analyze what makes them care for each other, though the shine in his eyes and the inarticulateness of what he says may be eloquent about what he is feeling. Persons and personal relations do not lend themselves to precise statement. We do not so understand them. A photograph can tell us something about a person. But an enthusiastic friend or an ardent lover gives up in the end and says, “You'll just have to meet her.” And that is what we have to say about God.

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^*Or perhaps Shoemaker got the idea from A.A.

1939: [Late] The story section of the Big Book manuscript, Alcoholics Anonymous, was completed.
    As basic text was being written, it became clear that a story or case history section was necessary. New York members of the nascent A.A. fellowship believed that distant readers could relate to these narratives in a way they could not with the basic text alone.
    Members from Akron, Ohio, produced 18 stories, largely due to the efforts of local member and journalist Jim S. [left] . His story in the first edition is titled “Travel, Editor, Scholar” and was retitled “The News Hawk” in the second and third editions. He interviewed members from Akron and wrote most of their stories, except for Dr. Bob S.’s. Two stories were contributed by members from Cleveland, and one was from non-alcoholic Marie B., whose story, “An Alcoholic’s Wife,” appears only in the first edition. Her husband, Walter B., had a story titled “The Backslider,” which was also included only in the first edition. The New York members contributed 10 stories, which were edited by Bill W. and Hank P., despite the protests of several contributors.

1940: [Early] Alcoholics Anonymous meetings in Akron, Ohio, were relocated from the home of Dr. Bob and Anne S. to King School due to overcrowding. Attendance at the A.A. meetings on Wednesdays at the Smiths’ residence, located at 855 Ardmore Ave., had grown too large, with up to 70 people—plus Christmas decor—crammed into their living room [near right, as it is in late December today] and dining room [far right]. This move likely took place after only two gatherings at Bob and Annes’s home. The King School, situated at 805 Memorial Pkwy., was approximately 1.3 miles [2.1 km] away from the Smiths’ residence, by road.

1946: The AA-1 Group in St. Louis, Missouri, the first Black Alcoholics Anonymous group in the U.S., held its first Annual Dinner Meeting, inviting a number of distinguished guests, including “two Negro doctors, the secretary of the YMCA, and a representative of the Urban League.” The group was founded in January 1945 [left: two city officials examining St. Louis’ African American neighborhood of Mill Creek Valley, which would be demolished in the name of urban renewal in 1956].

1948: Harry C. registered Japan’s first A.A. group with the Alcoholic Foundation office in New York City.
    He had started this English-speaking group among the U.S. occupation forces after World War II, meeting at the Franciscan Chapel Center in the Roppongi district [below] of Tokyo. In December 1947, Harry wrote to the Alcoholic Foundation office in New York City, expressing his hope to start a group. In January, the Armed Forces newspaper, Pacific Stars & Stripes, published an article about A.A., which generated numerous inquiries directed to Harry. When he returned home in July, he handed the secretary position over to Collins M., who reported a membership of seven at that time.

1951: The A.A. Grapevine, edited by Howard Alfred “Al” S. [right], published a memorial issue [left] for Dr. Bob S. This issue included a tribute [below left] by Bill W., an unattributed biography exceeding 10,000 words, a eulogy by Rev. Walter Tunks, a prayer of thanks to Jesus Christ for Dr. Bob, and an unattributed article titled “Hail and Farewell.” It was described as “a historical gem.” Al had driven Dr. Bob back and forth between Akron and Cleveland for A.A.’s first International Convention in 1950. In an assessment of the founders in later years, Al remarked, “Without Bill’s drive, there wouldn’t be any A.A.—without Dr. Bob’s balance, who knows what it would be like?”
    Al was the son of Emmett Fox’s secretary, who occasionally arranged for Al, Bill, Edwin “Ebby” T., and other A.A. members to obtain mezzanine seats at Fox’s talks in New York City.

1955: The A.A. Grapevine [left: cover] first published Bill W.’s articletitled “Why Alcoholics Anonymous Is Anonymous.” In this article < span style="font-size: small;"> [right], he wrote,

    Presently an AA member began to publish a crusading magazine [The Empty Jug] devoted to the cause of Prohibition. He thought Alcoholics Anonymous ought to help make the world bone dry. He disclosed himself as an AA member and freely used the AA name to attack the evils of whiskey and those who made it and drank it. He pointed out that he too was an "educator," and that his brand of education was the “right kind.” As for putting AA into public controversy, he thought that was exactly where we should be. So he busily used AA's name to do just that. Of course, he broke his anonymity to help his cherished cause along.

    The Empty Jug [left: March 1946, p. 1] had been published by Carl K. of Chattanooga, Tennessee. He had also been its editor-in-chief. Rev. Sam D., a founder of A.A. in Atlanta, Georgia, had been a contributor.
    Bill W. had urged Carl to stop misrepresenting A.A. and to refrain from causing controversy. However, Carl was determined to remain visible and refused to be anonymous. By March 1946, Carl’s magazine had seemed to officially represent A.A. on a variety of issues. Margaret “Bobbie” B. [right] had tried to stem the tide with a detailed letter to Carl, and Sam supported her efforts, stating that unless Carl changed his approach, he would no longer write for The Empty Jug.
    By mid-April 1946, Bobbie, at the end of her patience, had written Sam that she considered Carl to be “the stubbornist, most close-minded AA I’ve ever met.” Carl had informed Sam that he was contemplating leaving A.A., while simultaneously claiming he was receiving ten compliments for every criticism. By early July 1946, Sam had resigned from The Empty Jug.
    On 13 July 1946, Carl had suddenly died, possibly from a cerebral hemorrhage. His death marked the end of this very unpleasant experiment in breaking anonymity. Significant conflict and discomfort had arisen when this single A.A. member publicly advertised his membership, believing his opinion superior to that of any group conscience. Bobbie later reflected in July, “I am happy that Carl did not have to see some [of these letters responding to his magazine] for they might have broken his heart.”

1963: The A.A. Grapevine [left: cover] published Bill W.’s 1961 correspondence with Dr. Carl Gustav Jung [right] . In his first letter, Bill informed Dr. Jung that his earlier treatment of an alcoholic patient was “the first in the chain of events that led to the founding of AA.” He mentioned that the patient, Rowland Hazard, found sobriety through the Oxford Group. This connection ultimately led to Rowland helping another alcoholic, Edwin “Ebby" T., who brought a message of recovery to Bill in late 1934. [Note: Rowland himself never joined A.A., and some of the dates Bill gave in this letter are incorrect.]
    In his reply, Jung expressed that he “often wondered what has been his [Rowland’s] fate.” He went on to explain that the reason he “could not tell him everything” was due to his fear of being misunderstood. He asserted that Rowland’s…

    craving for alcohol was the equivalent, on a low level of the spiritual thirst of our being for wholeness… the union with God.
    … the evil principle prevailing in this world leads the unrecognized spiritual need into perdition… An ordinary man, not protected by an action from above and isolated in society, cannot resist the power of evil, which is called very aptly the Devil.
    You see, alcohol in Latin is “spiritus” and you use the same word for the highest religious experience as well as the most depraving poison. The helpful formula therefore is: spiritus contra spiritum. 

January 15 in A.A. History

1937: John Henry Fitzhugh “Fitz” M. [left] began his efforts to start an A.A. meeting in Washington, D.C., a pursuit that would occupy him for much of the next two and a half years. He stayed with his sister, Agnes, who lived in Washington, for at least part of that time. 
    Initially, he had minimal success, but by the fall of 1939, he had established the nucleus of a small group.

1941: Bill W. asked Ruth Hock to get him a copy of what he referred to as a “spook book”: The Unobstructed Universe [right: 1st edition with dust jacket], by Stewart Edward White.

1942: Jeanne C. held the first Alcoholics Anonymous meeting in Springfield, Missouri.     While temporarily living in Kansas City, Missouri, during World War II, she had seen an advertisement for Alcoholics Anonymous in the classified section of The Kansas City Star [left: likely this one, which was running every Sunday]. She had written to the P.O. box, joined the Kansas City Number One Group, and got sober. After returning to Springfield, she stayed sober for two years by making frequent trips to Kansas City, despite gas rationing, and by corresponding with Bobbie B. at the Alcoholic Foundation office in New York City.
    Eventually, she wrote an article about A.A. for the local Springfield paper and obtained a post office box. Once she had a dozen names, she set the time and place for the first meeting in Springfield: her house on 15 January.
    Later, Jeanne would help establish A.A. in Joplin, Missouri, after receiving a call from Jim S. asking how to start a group. In response, Jeanne would gather several carloads of members from Springfield and Kansas City and travel to Joplin.

1945: Newsweek magazine [near right: cover] published an article [far right] in its Medicine section titled “It’s Fun to be Sober.” The article tells the story of Joe, a seaman who founded his own “club”—the Alcoholics Anonymous Seamen’s Group—at the original A.A. clubhouse on W. 24th St. in New York City.

1946: The Times-Herald of Washington, D.C., reported,

    Eight new patients and six who were formerly treated at the Force School presented themselves as willing subjects for an alcoholic cure when the Polk Health Center Alcoholic Clinic for Negroes went into operation January 15.
    Co-operating with the new clinic is the Washington Negro Group of Alcoholics Anonymous, which meets Fridays and Sundays at 8:30 pm. in the Y.M.C.A. at 1816 12th St. NW. The group supplies volunteer clerical help for the clinic, and alcoholics who require group therapy are referred to the organization by the doctors.

1958: Ernest Jacoby [left, 1913] died in Boston, Massachusetts. He had been the founder of the Jacoby Club, which helped alcoholic men and indigent older men in the area. His wife, Alice G. Hovey Jacoby, died about a day later.

2005: Esther C., 95, died in Kissimmee, Florida, with her family by her side. She got sober on 23 July 1943, when she was 12th-stepped by Clarence S. and four other Alcoholics Anonymous members in Cleveland, Ohio. She would often ride from Cleveland to meetings in Akron on her “Little Indian Scout” motorcycle [right: a young Esther on her motorcycle].

January 14 in A.A. History

1923: The U.S. Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce published “The Swiss dyestuffs industry: production, export, and import statistics” [near right] authored by Dr. Frederick B. [far right], the American trade commissioner to Germany.
    In December 1934, he would become Bill W.’s first real alcoholic prospect.

1941: Ruth Hock [left] sent out A.A. Bulletin #2 noting that A.A. was starting in five more cities—St. Louis, Missouri already had ten members—and that there was some activity in Vancouver, British Columbia. The bulletin included a “Flash!!!” lead item that The Saturday Evening Post would be publishing an article on Alcoholics Anonymous by Jack Alexander and that there would likely be many inquiries in response to the article. Members and groups were warned to “stand by for active duty.”

1941: The Waterbury (Connecticut) Democrat published an item [right] about Alcoholics Anonymous in the eponymous syndicated gossip column “Walter Winchell On Broadway” [left: Winchell, c. 1939]:

    There is a group called “Alcoholics Anonymous” in New York, the moving spirit being a well known transatlantic flyer … The group’s aim is to “straighten out any fellow who will even admit he drinks too much” … They meet at an illustrator’s place and have big “rallies”. These “rallies” are attended sometimes by hundreds of lushes many of whom have been in institutions for alcoholics etc. …They’ve succeeded where doctors and psychiatrists have failed, working on the theory that only a drunk know [sic] hohw [sic] to talk to a drunk.

January 13 in A.A. History

1941: Just three months after the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous in Toledo, Ohio, the nine original members who had traveled to Akron to “learn” A.A. (and become what were then referred to as “Trainers”), rented space on the third floor of the J. George Kapp Building at 413 Summit St. [right, c. 1912]. They chose the name “The Downtown Group,” which at that time had thirteen members.
    A few months later, Jack Alexander’s article about A.A. was published in The Saturday Evening Post. This exposure led to a substantial increase in both membership and recognition of A.A. across the country, including Toledo. Within just over a year, the Downtown Group grew to over 100 members, with weekly meetings averaging more than 40 attendees. It soon became clear that the group had outgrown its meeting space, prompting the decision to break into smaller groups. Thus, A.A. in Toledo was born and began to expand.

1943: The first A.A. meeting in Toronto, Ontario, was held without fanfare at the Little Denmark Restaurant [left, 1930] at 720 Bay St., between Gerrard and College Streets. The non-alcoholic Revs. George Little and Percy Price met with six alcoholics. There was enough interest that a second meeting was scheduled for a week later. This was the birth of Alcoholics Anonymous in Ontario. Harry Emerson Fosdick's very positive review of the newly published Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous, in January 1940…

    … stirred an interest in Dr. George A. Little, D.D., then a fifty-six year old Minister of the United Church of Toronto. Dr. Little had been a caring man who had had unsuccessfully attempted to help alcoholics gain sobriety. Fosdick’s review led him first to make copies of the book, then to order a personal copy of the Big Book for himself. Having read the book, he began in earnest mimeographing portions of it which he distributed to anyone he felt could further the cause or more importantly, to those he felt might be helped themselves. With his good intentions and tireless effort, people started to want more, and as a result, he ordered five copies of the Big Book in June, 1941. As an enthusiastic supporter of A.A., Dr. Little continued to be the alcoholics’ friend—so much so that he enrolled at the Yale University School of Alcoholic Studies from which he graduated in 1941.

1988: Dr. John L. “Jack” Norris [right], 85, died of complications from pneumonia at New London Hospital in New London, New Hampshire.
    Born in Dorchester, Massachusetts, Dr. Jack graduated from Dartmouth College and McGill University Medical School. From 1943 to 1969, he served as the medical director of the Eastman Kodak Company in Rochester, New York. During this time, he developed expertise in the treatment of alcoholism, which he regarded as one of the nation’s most pressing medical problems. After retiring from Eastman Kodak in 1969, he founded Lake Sunapee Home Health Care Inc. in New London, a visiting nurse service, and the Hospice of the Kearsarge Valley, which serves terminally ill patients. He was a Class A (non-alcoholic) Trustee of the General Service Board of Alcoholics Anonymous from 1951 to 1961, its chairman from 1961 to 1978, and a Trustee Emeritus until his death. He served as chairman of Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller’s Advisory Council on Alcoholism from 1961 to 1971.

2003: Dr. Earle M. [left], 91, died in Walnut Creek, California.
    He sobered up on 15 June 1953; Bill W. was his sponsor and close friend. Earle’s story, “Physician Heal Thyself,” appeared in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th editions of Alcoholics Anonymous. He was buried at sea.