March in A.A. History, day unknown

In 1940, Mort J. [right] had bought the book Alcoholics Anonymous in September 1939 and tossed it into his suitcase without even glancing at it. He had then embarked on a multi-week spree, traveling from Denver, Colorado, to California, through Arizona, and into Nogales, Guaymas, and Hermosillo in Mexico, ultimately arriving in Palm Springs.
    There, he had regained consciousness and discovered the book in his luggage. “Shaking violently,” he began to read it. From that day in November 1939, he never drank again.
    In Los Angeles, he contacted the Alcoholic Foundation, and Ruth Hock provided him with the phone number and address of Kaye Miller, a non-alcoholic who had been the driving force behind the first A.A. meeting and group in Los Angeles.
    Mort called on Kaye at her home and asked, “Where's the meeting?”
    “There are no meetings anymore,” Kaye replied. “I’m disgusted. I’m going to Hawaii or Europe.”
    “Where are all the members of A. A?”
    “They are all drunk,” she said bitterly.
    “Do you have any names for me? I want to get in touch with some alcoholics in town.”
    “You’re wasting your time.”
    She had cleaned out her apartment and thrown all the names of prospects and letters of inquiry into a wastebasket. Mort picked them out of the trash, pocketed them, and then left.
    Kaye’s last words to him were, “Don’t waste your time on them. I’ve called on them all. They can’t stay sober.”
    As Mort walked home, he sifted through the contacts and letters he had taken from Kaye. He found the address of Cliff W, whose wife had written to A.A. in New York for help after reading about the organization in the syndicated column of Beatrice Fairfax, the “Dear Abby” of that era.

    He went to Cliff’s house  [left: 4222 Vantage Ave, Studio City, likely his home in 1940] and rang the doorbell. Cliff opened the door.
    “My name is Mort J. I’m a member of Alcoholics Anonymous; may I come in?”

    Cliff let him in. Mort explained his dire need to share his story with somebody, anybody, in order to stay sober. Cliff listened to Mort’s story, despite having no desire to stop drinking or attend A.A.meetings. However, was spellbound as Mort recounted the story of his last roaring drunk. Mort explained that, as he understood it, he could not stay sober unless he carried the message to other alcoholics. Would Cliff come to a meeting? Could he help organize one?
    Cliff liked Mort, and more as a favor to him, to help him stay sober, he agreed to help.

   Years later, after he had joined A.A. himself, Cliff reflected, “I had no desire to join Alcoholics Anonymous. But I had to see Mort again. He attracted me. And years later, when Bill W. came out with the 11th tradition, I realized how true it was when he said A.A. is a program of attraction rather than promotion.”

    Looking for a meeting place, Mort contacted Dr. Ethel Leonard, who worked with alcoholics and happened to be the house physician at the Hotel Cecil [right, c. 1928] on Main St. in Los Angeles, California. Through Dr. Leonard’s assistance, Mort rented a large room on the mezzanine for $5.00 [~$113 in 2025]. This was the first public meeting of A.A. in Los Angeles, held on a Friday at 8 p.m. in March 1940. It was open to anyone who desired to stop drinking. Ted LeBerthon, a columnist for the Los Angeles Daily News, wrote about the meeting in his column, noting that it was held in the heart of Skid Row.
    “I chose this location,” Mort J. later recalled, “because the price was right, and there was a good psychological reason for holding a meeting down there because I knew it would show us where we were headed unless we did something about it—that was our destination, Skid Row, the drunk tank, sleeping in the alleys and under the bridges, winos, dead men…”
    Besides Mort and Cliff, about 10 other men attended—men who had failed to sober up at Johnny Howe’s classes or Kaye Miller’s meetings earlier that year. Mort urged them to give A.A. another chance.
    Mort didn’t know how to run an A.A. meeting. There was no coffee, no doughnuts; all he had was his copy of Alcoholics Anonymous. He opened the meeting by stating that he had not had a drink in five months. He asked if anyone would read a few pages. When no one volunteered, Mort opened the book to Chapter 5 and began reading, “Rarely have we seen a person fail…”
    Thus began the practice of reading a portion of Chapter 5 at the beginning of the meeting, which eventually spread throughout much of A.A.