December 20 in A.A. History

In 1849, Ella A. Brock, Bill W.’s maternal grandmother, was born to John and Nancy Bowen Brock, in East Dorset, Vermont. Ella and her husband, Gardner F. Griffith, would raise Bill from the age of about 10.

In 1945, Rowland Hazard III, 64, died of a coronary occlusion (heart blockage), while at work in his office at Bristol Manufacturing.
    Rowland had carried the spiritual message of the Oxford Group to Ebby T., who then carried it to Bill W.
    The fact that he was a top executive of a major corporation at the time of his death suggests that Rowland had stopped drinking again, despite several known relapses. Nonetheless, some historians question whether he died sober. He had stayed active in the Oxford Group and remained so after it changed its name to Moral Re-Armament (MRA) in 1938. Some early A.A. members said they knew Rowland from his occasional visits to the old 24th Street Clubhouse, which A.A. members had established during June 1940 in a former stable at 334½ West 24th Street in Manhattan. There is no evidence that Rowland ever joined A.A. or considered himself a member.

December 19 in A.A. History

In 1922, Lt. Junius C. and Marjorie Dickerson were married in Pike County, Mississippi. He would become a founder of Alcoholics Anonymous in Jacksonville, Florida.

In 1939, Kaye M., a nonalcoholic, held the first A.A. meeting in Los Angeles, California, at her home on Benecia Street in Westwood.
    Kaye became involved with A.A. earlier in the year while trying to help her ex-husband, Ty, get sober. She visited Akron and New York City, attending meetings and talking with members, including Bill W. in New York. After divorcing Ty and returning to Los Angeles by freighter via the Panama Canal, she began spreading the word about A.A. to newspapers and public officials. She fell in with two other nonalcoholics who were trying to help parolees get and stay sober: Genevieve Dodge, a social worker, and Johnny Howe, a psychologist. They had persuaded the Superior Court to allow them to treat alcoholics at Los Angeles County General Hospital [below, c. 1931] Kaye taught them A.A. from her experience and from the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous, which she had brought with her. Early successes included Barney H. (or B.) and Hal S.
    Then in December, Chuck and Lee T., members of New York City A.A., visited Los Angeles. Bill W. had given them Kaye's number and they looked her up. Kaye decided it was time to have an A.A. meeting in Los Angeles, which was held on this date. Besides Kaye, Johnny Howe and three other social workers, there were Chuck and Lee T., Barney and Ethel H., Hal S., Chauncey and Edna C., Joy S., Dwight S. and Walter K. Kaye telegraphed news of the meeting—“Los Angeles held its first meeting tonight. Fifteen present.”—to Bill W. in New York.

 

December 18 in A.A. History

In 1917, the U.S. Senate voted 47–8 in favor of a joint resolution to override President Wilson's veto of the Volstead Act; the House had passed the same resolution the day before. The Volstead Act, officially known as the National Prohibition Enforcement Act, would amend the Constitution to prohibit “the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes.”^* It then went to the 48 states for ratification. On 9 January 1919, Nebraska would become the 36th state to ratify it, and one year later, on 9 January 1920, it would become the 18th Amendment.
^* Note that it did not prohibit consumption, possession, or production for personal use.

In 1934, Bill W. was discharged from Charles B. Towns Hospital for the last time. The charge for his one-week stay was $125 [~$2,945 in 2024], paid in advance by his brother-in-law, Dr. Leonard V. Strong.

In 1952, ector C. wrote to the General Service Office (G.S.O.) in New York City from Buenos Aires, Argentina, asking for help. Hector had been in treatment for alcoholism there since September. His letter immediately sparked a lively and ongoing correspondence, primarily with staff member Ann M., whom Hector came to consider his sponsor. (At one point, Ann M.’s first letter was framed and displayed in Buenos Aires to commemorate the birth of A.A. in Argentina.)

December 17 in A.A. History

In 1895, Florence Rankin, author of “A Feminine Victory” in the 1^st edition of Alcoholics Anonymous, was born.

 In 1937, Bill W. wrote to Rev. Willard “Dick” S. Richardson, who handled John D. Rockefeller’s Jr. private charities and was Rockefeller’s spiritual advisor and close friend:

The problem is how best to get our message to the great number… if they only knew. How… to preserve sound spiritual construction, simplicity and spontaneity, at the same time making our experience as widely and quickly available as possible, is the conundrum.

In 1949, The Herald Saturday Magazine (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia) published John Holden’s article, “Drunkards have found the sober road” [right]. It filled almost half of page 15, and included both a photograph of Lillian R., the Hollywood actress who, with her husband “Jack” McG., helped start Melbourne’s first permanent A.A. group on 13 October 1947. At the bottom of the article there was a cartoon from “‘The Grapevine’ journal of Alcoholics Anonymous.”

 

December 16 in A.A. History

In 1934, [15th? 17th?] “Ebby” T. returned to Towns Hospital to see Bill W., who had had his “white light” spiritual experience two nights earlier. Ebby took Bill through some of what would eventually become Steps—the 3rd through the 8th—and gave Bill a copy of William James’ Varieties of Religious Experience.
    Bill later said that he read it “cover to cover,” admitting that it was very difficult reading, but that he understood the content. He would incorporate some of James' ideas into the A.A. program.

December 15 in A.A. History

In 1945, Dr. James “Jim” S., founder of the Washington Colored Group of Alcoholics Anonymous in Washington, D.C., wrote to Bobbie B., National Secretary of the Alcoholic Foundation in New York City,

I wish to state at this time that several of the White group members have visited our group meetings and have taken an active part, many times addressing the group or acting as group leaders. We have found them very inspiring and enthusiastic.

In 1949, a member of Alcoholics Anonymous, presumably from the local Poughkeepsie Group founded in 1946, addressed members of the Duchess County Social Planning Council at a luncheon meeting. The following day’s article “Social Planners Discuss Alcoholism” in the Poughkeepsie Journal (p. 3) read in part:

    Alcoholism is both a physical and spiritual disease and should be treated as a disease…
    The organization of between 80,000 and 100,000 has no opinions and no programs, dealing only with the alcoholic who signifies the desire to stop being one. The individual with whom Alcoholics Anonymous works must be willing to admit that he is an alcoholic needing help.…
    The speaker spoke of two kinds of skeptics, those who cannot understand the spiritual side of the program because of their own materialistic attitudes, and those evangelical persons who believe faith alone can produce a cure.…
    The speaker does not consider an alcoholic ever cured, he is arrested. Judges, he continued, can be of great help in explaining Alcoholics Anonymous, as can policemen. The latter are impressed, he said, when habitual drunks abandon their former habits and voluntarily stay sober. There are five types of drinkers, he said, the occasional social drinker, the heavy social drinker, the habitual drinker, the compulsive drinker who drinks to deaden the pain, or because he wishes to forget, and the alcoholic.
    There is an open meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous at Christ Church every Friday night at 8:30 o’clock.

December 14 in A.A. History

In 1934, [perhaps the 13th] Ebby T. [right] visited Bill W. at the Charles B. Towns Hospital, where Bill had been admitted three days earlier. Ebby again explained the practices of the Oxford Group and may have tried to get Bill to surrender to the care of Jesus Christ.
    After Ebby left, Bill fell into a very deep, dark depression and finally cried out, “I’ll do anything! Anything at all! If there be a God, let him show himself!” He then experienced a blinding light and felt an ecstatic sense of freedom and peace. This was Bill’s spiritual experience (or “hot flash” or “white light” experience, as he later called it).
    When Bill later told Dr. William D. Silkworth, Towns’ medical director, about the event, the doctor replied, “Something has happened to you I don’t understand. But you had better hang on to it.”

December 13 in A.A. History

In 1913, the president of the Kentucky Distiller’s and Distributing Co. in Kansas City, Missouri, W. Franklin, wrote a letter to the Keeley Institute in Dwight, Illinois, a commercial medical operation that offered alcoholics a treatment known as the Keeley Cure or the Gold Cure from 1879 to 1965. It read:

Gentlemen: Our customers are your prospective patients. We can put on your desk a mailing list of over 50,000 individual consumers of liquor. The list is the result of thousands of dollars [$1,000 in 1913 ~$32,000 in 2024] of advertising.
    Each individual on the list is a regular user of liquor.
    The list of names is new, live and active. We furnish this list in quantities at the prices listed below. Remittances to accompany each order.

40,000 to 50,000	$400 [~$12,700 in 2024]
20,000	$300 [~$9,540 in 2024]
10,000	$200 [~$7,050 in 2024]

    We will not furnish this list in lots of less than 10,000. Discontinuance of business January 1 is the occasion for selling our mailing list.

    The Anti-Saloon League responded by publishing the letter in its official journal, The American Issue, with commentary [right].

In 1937, Bill W. and nine other men—Dr. Silkworth of Towns Hospital; Dr. Leonard Strong, Bill’s brother-in-law; and seven other alcoholics—Dr. Bob S., Paul S., Hank P., Ned P., Bill R., Joe T., and Fitz M.—attended a 6 p.m. dinner given by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. in the executive dining room at 30 Rockefeller Plaza. Although Mr. Rockefeller did not attend, the Rev. Willard “Dick” Richardson did. He brought select Rockefeller associates: Albert Scott, A. LeRoy Chipman, and Frank Amos. After dinner they adjourned to the boardroom next to John D.’s office. Bill was told that he was sitting in the seat just vacated by Mr. Rockefeller himself. The dinner and meeting lasted five hours, until 11 p.m.
    On his way out, Amos caught up with Bill and asked him to take on an alcoholic known to both Amos and Richardson: Jack D. This must have felt like a test to Bill. Nevertheless, Bill agreed to "start work with him, providing [Jack D.] was willing.”

In 1939, [or Dec 20, possibly Nov 29] The Akron “alcoholic squad” withdrew from association with the Oxford Group. Meetings were moved from the home of T. Henry & Clarace Williams to the homes of Dr. Bob and other members. 

In 1941, the first A.A. meeting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania was held in Room 152 of the Henry Hotel. It had been arranged by two non-alcoholics, Tim O’Leary and attorney David Janavitz, both of whom had alcoholic employees. Attendees were Si H., Howell J., Jake H., Arch K. and Jim K. In early 1941, the group would move to the downtown YMCA on Wood St. They would soon have to vacate the “Y” as space was needed for servicemen preparing for war. The group would move half a dozen more times in its first few years.

In 1949, in a letter to Jack Alexander, Bill W. first wrote down a description of how he had written the Twelve Steps 11 years earlier. Almost two years earlier, he had described this verbally to Paul H., who almost immediately dictated his recollection.

December 12 in A.A. History

In 1865, Ella A. Brock and Gardner F. Griffith were married in Dorset, Vermont, by Rev. W. W. Whitney. They would have three children: Clarence H. (’67), Emily E. (’70?), and Amelia B. (’76). Emily would give birth to Bill W.

In 1890, William “Bill” D. was born in Bardwell, Kentucky. He would sober up in June 1935 at Akron Ohio’s City Hospital with the help of Bill W., Dr. Bob S., and possibly Edgar R. His story, “Alcoholic Anonymous Number Three” appears in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th editions of the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous.

In 1937, Bill W. held a “set up meeting” the night before a group of alcoholics—chosen by Bill—were to attend a Monday dinner given by John D. Rockefeller, Jr.. The attendees were Lois W.^*, Dr. Bob S., Paul S., Hank & Kathleen^* P., Ned P.^†, Bill R., Joe T.^‡, and Fitz M. There is no known record of what transpired.
^* Nonalcoholic
^† Ned had recently joined the New York Group. Hank had given him a job at Honor Dealers, but he wouldn’t stay sober long, and would turn out to be a con man, relieving the Parkhursts of “a car, a new suit, and some of Hank’s papers” within a couple of months.
^‡ Joe had been associated with the New York Group since 1936, but had vacillated between drinking and sobriety; he was apparently deemed sober enough at this time to be invited to the dinner.

In 1940, an A.A. meeting was held in St. Louis, Missouri, the first in the city. After returning from his meeting with Bill W. at the 24th St. Clubhouse in New York City, Father Ed Dowling was contacted by F., who said his son-in-law had a drinking problem. Of course, it was F. himself who had the problem and needed help. With Father Ed’s help and encouragement, F. gathered four other prospective members and held the first A.A. meeting in St. Louis—and in the state of Missouri—at the Gibson Hotel, 5883 Enright Ave.

December 11 in A.A. History

Towns Hospital

In 1934, it was a typical winter day in New York City: temperature around 20℉ [-6.7℃], windy and cloudy. After a disastrous day of drinking following an angry fight with his wife, Lois, and all-night subway rides begging for money to buy booze, Bill W. came home to 182 Clinton St., Brooklyn, in the morning. Lois was at work.
    When he saw the damage he had caused by throwing Lois’s sewing machine against the wall during the argument, he became deeply remorseful. Remembering Ebby T.’s success in the Oxford Group, he left a note for Lois explaining that he was on his way to Charles B. Towns Hospital [right] for another round of alcoholism treatment, his fourth. He had 6¢ in his pocket; the trip would cost a nickel. On his way to the subway entrance, he saw a grocery store where his credit was still good and bought four bottles of beer. He arrived at Towns Hospital with a beer in one hand and two philosophy books in the other. He announced to Dr. William Silkworth that he had found the answer. Those beers would be Bill’s last, as he was admitted for the last time to undergo the Towns-Lambert treatment.^*
    For the rest of his life, Bill would give this date as that of his last drink.
^* The treatment that Bill received on each of his four visits to Towns Hospital is, in brief:

• Every hour, day and night, for two days, give a mixture of three herbal extracts: Belladonna (deadly nightshade, 7.4 ml), Hyoscyamus (prickly ash, a trace?) and Xanthoxylum (henbane, 3.7 ml).
• Note that omitting any of these ingredients will interfere with the “cessation of desire” effect (i.e., stopping cravings).
• The dosage depends on how the body reacts to the belladonna. If the face flushes, the throat dries up, and the pupils dilate, stop or reduce the dosage until these symptoms disappear.
  
• BUT it must be continued until these signs appear or the cravings will not disappear completely.
  
• Also, every twelve hours, give a strong laxative of C.C. (Compound Catharic) pills (80 gr. extracti colocynthidis compositi, 60 gr. hydrargyri chloridi mitis, 16 gr. cambogiae and 20 gr. resinae jalapae) and blue mass (typically 34% rose honey, 33% mercury, 25% althea (or hollyhock or marshmallow), 5% licorice and 3% glycerin).
• Once lots of green stools appear, give castor oil to clean out the gut completely.

In 1937, Dr. Bob S. and Paul S. drove from Akron, Ohio to Brooklyn, arriving late in the day. They would be among the alcoholics attending a dinner given by associates of John D. Rockefeller, Jr. the following Monday, two days later.

In 1941, The Dallas Morning News reported that A.A. had formed a chapter in Dallas, Texas.

December 10 in A.A. History

In 1934, having gone—drunk—with Ebby T. to Calvary Church Rescue Mission just three days earlier, and then spending two days at home detoxing, Bill W. came home roaring drunk. This provoked an argument with Lois, who angrily shouted, “You don’t even have the decency to die! You’re crazy! You’re! Crazy!” Bill then picked up her sewing machine and threw it against the wall, terrifying Lois. Bill left, and rode the subways all night, panhandling for money to buy booze. Lois was plagued for a long time with deep regret for her outburst.

In 1975, the first Birds of a Feather (BOAF) Nest (i.e., group) was formed in Seattle, Washington.

Birds of a Feather International is a worldwide network of meetings based on the program of Alcoholics Anonymous. It was established for pilots and cockpit crew members active or inactive in private, commercial or military aviation. BOAF provides AA meetings worldwide (including ZOOM [oops! not what you might think] meetings), a yearly convention, a newsletter and a website for pilots and cockpit crew members in recovery.

December 9 in A.A. History

In 1985, David “Dave” B., 76, died with 40 years of sobriety. In April 1944, he founded the Montreal Group, the first A.A. group in Quebec, and served as a Class B (alcoholic) Trustee from 1962–64. His story, “Gratitude In Action,” appeared in the 4th edition of the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous.
    In 1959, Quebec had formed its own literature committee—Les Editions Francaises A.A.—where Dave had played a major role in translating the Big Book and other A.A. materials into French, advising the General Service Office of the difficulties encountered. One result was a French version of the Big Book, le Gros Livre, Les Alcooliques anonymes, which became the basic text for all French-speaking groups around the world.

December 8 in A.A. History

An earlier, probably unmanned, flight

In 1903, test pilot Charles Manly made a second attempt at manned flight in Professor Langley’s heavier-than-air craft. His first attempt in October had resulted in a crash into the Potomac River after a wing apparently clipped the launcher. The plane was still catapulted; still had no landing gear; still had controls only for pitch and yaw; and still had none for roll. On this second attempt, the plane broke apart as it was launched toward the Potomac. Miraculously, Manly again survived.
    Newspapers made great sport of the failures, and some Congressmen harshly criticized the project.
    The Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous, refers to these events in the chapter “We Agnostics” on page 51.

December 7 in A.A. History

In 1934, Ebby took a drunken Bill W. to the Oxford Group meeting at Calvary Church Rescue Mission after Bill had expressed interest the day before. Bill ended up “testifying” from the podium, perhaps even accepting Jesus Christ as his Savior. Amazingly, on the way home, Bill lost all desire to drink and spent the next two days in his bedroom, tapering himself off alcohol.

In 1949, Sister Ignatia accepted the College of Steubenville’s 1st annual Poverel-lo Medal of St. Francis of Assisi on behalf of “the entire fellowship” of Alcoholics Anonymous, in recognition of its “tremendous contribution… to Humanity.”

In 2022, The United Kingdom’s BBC Two premiered the documentary I’m An Alcoholic: Inside Recovery, in which Alcoholics Anonymous (UK) allowed cameras into meetings for the first time, protecting members’ anonymity with deep-fake image, a troubling visual manipulation technique that might actually have demonstrated a positive use here. (The altered faces were unrecognizable to close friends.) The one-off documentary also looked at the organisation’s roots in the pre-World War II United States and discussed its role in modern society. It also recognized A.A.’s 75th anniversary in the UK. The Guardian called it “a sensitive and impeccably balanced documentary.”

December 6 in A.A. History

In 1934, Ebby T. visited Bill W. for a second time, this time with Sheppard “Shep” Cornell, to talk to Bill about the Oxford Group. Bill was unimpressed by Shep, but his curiosity led him to ask Ebby to take him to Calvary Rescue Mission, the site of regular Oxford Group meetings, where Ebby was staying. Lois later wrote that Ebby visited several times.

In 1939, Herbert “Bert” T., who had a fashionable clothing store on 5th Ave. in New York City, loaned Works Publishing $1,000 [~$22,700 in 2024]. Bill W. had asked for this loan to tide the company over until Morris Markey’s article “Alcoholics and God” appeared in the September Liberty magazine. Bill expected the article to generate interest and sales of the book, Alcoholics Anonymous. Bert’s store was fully mortgaged and he didn’t have the money. So he asked a wealthy Baltimore customer, Mr. Cochran, to loan Works Publishing $1,000 in exchange for the right to buy “a couple thousand” of the books at a “considerable” discount to place in libraries. After hearing what Works Publishing’s balance sheet looked like, he declined. Bert then asked if he would lend the money on the credit of his tailor shop, to which Mr. Cochran readily agreed.

In 1940, Dr. Gilbert “Gib” K. of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, wrote again to the Alcoholic Foundation in New York City requesting contact information for the nearest A.A. groups (Madison, Wisconsin and Chicago, Illinois) and a copy of the book Alcoholics Anonymous, for which he enclosed $3.50 [~$79 in 2024]. More than 6 weeks earlier, on October 23, he had written to the Foundation asking for help. The reply, dated December 3, informed him that the book cost $3.50 and offered to send him contact information for the two nearest A.A. groups if he requested them.

In 1979, Henrietta Buckler Seiberling, 91, a key figure in the founding and development of Alcoholics Anonymous, died at her home in New York City. In 1935 she had opened her home, Stan Hywet’s Gate Lodge in Akron, Ohio, to two alcoholics, Bill W. and Dr. Bob S. From that meeting grew the worldwide movement of A.A., in which she had remained involved until the end of her life.

December 4 in A.A. History

In 1950, Bill W. wrote to Scott B. that one of the compelling motives for wanting to write Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions was the realization that the original text of the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous, had become “frozen”—too “sacred” even for the taste of its principal author: Bill himself.

 December 3 in A.A. History

In 1940, the Alcoholic Foundation in New York City responded to an October 23 request for help from Dr. Gilbert “Gil” K. of Milwaukee, Wisconsin:

As you already know, our work extends far beyond the book itself and is carried on mainly through the efforts of one alcoholic who has recovered in behalf of others. This mutual effort in various localities gradually leads to weekly meetings which are held without dues, fees, or obligations of any sort whatever, merely a desire on the part of AA members, now numbering some 1,500, to aid others similarly troubled. Since you already acknowledge the fact that alcohol is a problem to you, you have already taken the most important step toward a solution. And too, since you are obviously seeking an answer to the problem you are naturally another step closer to reaching an answer. Therefore, if you are at all open minded to the principles and methods of AA you should have little difficulty in solving the problem as we have. We are sorry indeed to advise you that we have no A.A. Fellowship in Milwaukee or its immediate vicinity; the closest to you being located at Madison, Wisconsin or Chicago Illinois. If you are interested in contacting our members at either locality, and it is possible for you to do so, please let us hear from you again and complete information will be forwarded.

December 1 in A.A. History

In 1940, the Sunday Times and Daily Times of Chicago, Illinois, began a four-part series by Nall Hamilton on Alcoholics Anonymous that would generate hundreds of inquiries and bring in many new members.

In 1941, the Columbus Group of Columbus, Ohio moved from the basement of the Columbus Y.M.C.A. to the Southern Hotel. It had grown to 21 members, having been started by six alcoholics just 28 days earlier.