January 26 in A.A. History

In 1941, The Detroit (MI) Evening Times published a syndicated column [right] by Walter Winchell^* that included a strange mix of truth and misinformation about A.A. [ellipses in original]: 

THERE IS A GROUP called “Alcoholics Anonymous” in New York, the moving spirit being a well-known transatlantic flier… The group’s aim is to “straighten out any fellow who will even admit he drinks too much”… They meet at an illustrators 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 knows how to talk to a drunk.

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^* Winchell (born Winchel, 1897–1972) was a U.S. “journalist” [gossip columnist] and broadcaster whose newspaper columns and radio broadcasts containing news and gossip gave him a massive audience and much influence in the United States in the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s. His reports, always very opinionated, brought him both admirers and detractors.

In 1971, The New York Times—on page 1—and The Evening Star (Washington, DC) both carried obituaries for Bill W., who had died two days earlier.