November 29 in A.A. History

In 1945, Universal Pictures released The Lost Weekend. Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett had adapted Charles R. Jackson’s novel of the same name into a hard-hitting film about alcoholism.
    Wilder was drawn to the material after working on an earlier film with a recovering alcoholic who relapsed during their collaboration. The Lost Weekend starred Ray Milland and Jane Wyman, and became a sensation, winning four Oscars (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Actor). It was the first film to win both the Academy Award for Best Picture and the Palme d’Or [French for “Golden Palm”], the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival.^* Its realistic portrayal of alcoholism generated favorable publicity for Alcoholics Anonymous, leading three Hollywood studios to offer A.A. as much as $100,000 [~$1.75 million in 2024] for the rights to its own story. The Alcoholic Foundation declined to sell those rights.
^*Only two others have done so since: Marty (1955) and Parasite (2019).