January 16 in A.A. History

Headline:
"U.S. IS VOTED DRY"

In 1919, with Nebraska’s adoption of the 18th Amendment, the 36th state (of 48) to do so, the 18th Amendment became part of the United States Constitution [right: front page of the Anti-Saloon League’s The American Issue^*, 25 Jan 1919]. This amendment prohibited “the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof.” Note that this language did not prohibit the use, possession, or even manufacture of alcohol for private, personal use.
    As Dr. Bob pointed out in his story “Doctor Bob’s Nightmare” in all four editions of the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous, he did not realize at first that the government would accommodate his alcoholism by allowing doctors almost unlimited supplies of grain alcohol for “medicinal purposes.” During Prohibition, Dr. Bob would go to the phone book, pick out a name at random, and fill out a prescription to get himself a pint of 100-proof medicinal alcohol.

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

In 1920, At midnight, Prohibition went into effect throughout the United States, one year after the ratification of the 18th Amendment. It had provided that the “Congress and the several States” would have the power to enforce Prohibition, but the enabling legislation—the Volstead Act, named for Minnesota’s Rep. Andrew Volstead but written by The Anti-Saloon League’s Wayne Wheeler—left no room for local options or other flexibility. Ironically, the law called for a vast 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 enough money 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 successfully prevented 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 do their heaviest drinking during this period. Terms like “rumrunner,” “bootlegger,” “speakeasy” and “bathtub gin” would soon enter the national vocabulary.

In 1945, A meeting was held at the Hotel Cleveland in Cleveland, Ohio to elect the first administrative body to open and guide the functions of a Downtown A. A. District [Central] Office. Jack D., Paul J., Charles D., Dr. F. F. and Cliff B. were elected to the first 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, about 200 members had contributed $3,600, and many pledges had been made to contribute as soon as the office was open.

January 15 in A.A. History

"Fitz" M.

In 1937, John Henry Fitzhugh “Fitz” M. [left] began trying to start an A.A. meeting in Washington, DC. He would do so for much of the next 2½ years. His sister lived in Washington, and he stayed with her for at least part of that time. He had minimal success at first, but by the fall of 1939 he had established the nucleus of a small group.

In 1941, Bill W. asked Ruth Hock to get him a copy of what he called a “spook book”: The Unobstructed Universe, by Stewart Edward White.

In 1942, Jeanne C. held the first A.A. meeting in Springfield, Missouri.
    While living temporarily 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. She had written to the P.O. Box, then 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 got a post office box. When she had a dozen names, she set the place and date for the first meeting in Springfield: at her house on 15 January.
    Later, Jeanne would help A.A. get started in Joplin, Missouri, after receiving a call from Jim S. asking how to start a group. Jeanne would respond by gathering several carloads of members from Springfield and Kansas City and descending on Joplin.

In 1945, Newsweek magazine published  “It’s Fun to be Sober” in its MEDICINE section, about Joe, a seaman, who formed his own “club”—the A.A. Seamen’s Group in the clubhouse on W. 24th St. in New York City, the site of the original A.A. clubhouse.

In 1946, the Times-Herald of Washington, DC 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 p.m. in the Y.M.C.A. at 1816 Twelfth 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.

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

In 2005, Esther C., 95, died in Kissimmee, Florida, with her family by her side. She got sober on 23 Jul 1943, when she was 12th-stepped by Clarence S. and four other A.A. members in Cleveland, Ohio. She used to ride from Cleveland to meetings in Akron on a “Little Indian Scout” motorcycle.

January 14 in A.A. History

Ruth Hock

In 1941, Ruth Hock [right] 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.”

Also in 1941, the Waterbury (CT) Democrat published an item about Alcoholics Anonymous in the eponymous syndicated column “Walter Winchell On Broadway”:

    There is a group called “Alcoholics Anonymous” in New York, the moving spirit being a well known transatlantic flyer [sic] … 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

In 1941, just three months after the founding of A.A. in Toledo, Ohio, the nine original members who had gone to Akron to “learn” A.A. (and become what were then called “Trainers”), rented space on the 3rd floor of the J. George Kapp Building at 413 Summit St., and decided on a name: The Downtown Group. There were thirteen members at the time.
    A few months later, Jack Alexander’s article about A.A. appeared in The Saturday Evening Post. Soon, membership and recognition of A.A. increased substantially throughout the country, including Toledo. In just over a year, the Downtown Group grew to over 100 members. Weekly meetings averaged more than 40 attendees. It soon became apparent that the group had outgrown its meeting space, and it was decided to break up into smaller groups. Thus, A.A. in Toledo was born and began to grow.

In 1943, the first A.A. meeting in Toronto, Ontario was held without fanfare at the Little Denmark Restaurant 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 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.

In 1988, Dr. John L. “Jack” Norris, 85, died of complications from pneumonia at New London Hospital in New London, New Hampshire.
    Dr. Jack was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts, and graduated from Dartmouth College and McGill University Medical School. From 1943 to 1969, he was medical director of the Eastman Kodak Company in Rochester, N.Y. During this time, he developed expertise in the treatment of alcoholism, which he considered one of the nation’s most pressing medical problems. After retiring from Eastman Kodak in 1969, he founded Lake Sunapee Home Health Care Inc. of New London, a visiting nurse service, and the Hospice of the Kearsarge Valley, for terminally ill patients. He was chairman of Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller's Advisory Council on Alcoholism from 1961 to 1971, 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.

Dr. Earle M.

In 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.

January 12 in A.A. History

Bill's 3rd pledge
written in the family Bible

In 1929, Bill W. wrote a third pledge [right] in the family Bible: “To tell you once more that I am finished with it. I love you.”

In 1966, Horace C., 75, died in Readington, New Jersey. He joined A.A. (#81?) in December 1938, shortly after Bill W. had written the Twelve Steps for what would become the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous.
    Bill and Lois W., who were homeless from April 1939 to April 1941, lived in his bungalow in Green Pond, New Jersey, in the spring of 1939.
    In 1940, Horace and Bert T. found the site and guaranteed the rent for the first A.A. clubhouse on 24th Street in Manhattan.
    That same year he became a Class B (alcoholic) Trustee of the Alcoholic Foundation. He was Vice-President of Works Publishing, Inc. when its financial report was published in June 1940.
    His picture appeared in Jack Alexander’s March 1941 article in The Saturday Evening Post, “Alcoholics Anonymous: Freed Slaves of Drink, Now They Free Others.”
    After Jack C. gave Ruth Hock a newspaper clipping of the Serenity Prayer, Horace suggested that they print it on wallet cards and then paid for the printing.       In the early 1940s, the Alcoholic Foundation sent him to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Baltimore, Maryland and Washington, D.C. to sound out groups and gain support for the Alcoholic Foundation’s headquarters in New York City.

January 11 in A.A. History

In 2008, a memorial service honoring Robert “Bob” P. was held in Sun Valley, Idaho following his death on January 1. Bob made significant contributions to Alcoholics Anonymous, serving on the General Service Board from 1968 to 1974 and as General Service Office (G.S.O.) General Manager from 1974 to 1984. His personal story, “A.A. Taught Him to Handle Sobriety,” is in the 3rd and 4th editions of the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous [see January 1 for more about Bob P.].

 

January 10 in A.A. History

In 1944, a letter, presumably sent to the Alcoholic Foundation in New York City, announced the first meeting of a group in Burlington, Iowa, with five members and a contingent from Des Moines, Iowa, to start them off. Also present was a Catholic priest, Father T. J. Lew, who was so taken with what he saw that he preached his Sunday sermon on A.A. By the end of the month, Des Moines membership would be up to 50, and a group would have started in Marshalltown, Iowa.