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).

November 28 in A.A. History

In 1934—sometime around this date, which seems to be the most likely date—Ebby T. came to Bill & Lois W.’s home at 182 Clinton St. in Brooklyn and carried his Oxford Group message to a drunk Bill. Their accounts of what happened were very different. The better known account—from “Bill’s Story” in the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous—had them at Bill’s kitchen table.
    Both accounts had Bill drinking while Ebby was sober. Bill wrote his account in mid-1938, 3½ years after the event. The following is an edited version of Ebby’s account, from a 1958 recording (24 years later):

    I called him up one night. I didn’t get Bill but I got Lois… and told her what had happened to me. Lois said, “Why don’t you come over to dinner some night?”… and she mentioned a date. I said, “Fine.”
    I went over about half past five… The only person home was an old colored man named [Elias] Green, who I’d known for years; he’s been with the family, Lois’s family that is.… And he said, “They’re both out, both Mrs. and Mr. Wilson are out, but come in.” Pretty soon Bill appeared. He’d been drinking, but he wasn’t too bad.… He made the excuse that he to go get some ice cream and something else for supper. Of course, I knew what he was going after… I’d done it a million times myself.
    Then Lois came in. There was another girl invited because she lived upstairs in an apartment. So we all sat down for dinner. We had dinner then we all moved upstairs (in those houses back there in the East most living rooms are on the 2nd floor).
    After a little hemming and hawing, Lois said, “Well, let’s hear about yourself.” So I started in. I guess they got me wound up and I guess I talked to pretty near one o’clock in the morning.
    And I remember Bill said, “I’ll walk to the subway with you.”… On the way over he put his arm around my shoulder, just before I went on the subway, and said, “I don’t know whacha got, kid, but you got something, and I wanna get it.”

In 1943, At the invitation of Warden Clinton T. Duffy, Bill W. was guest speaker at the A.A. meeting at San Quentin State Prison.In 1988, The first A.A. group in Mongolia, called “Бид” [“We”], opened its doors with the participation of Drs. O. Byambasuren and Z. Tuya of the Centre for Psychiatry and Narcology.

November 27 in A.A. History

In 1939, Cleveland, Ohio’s Plain Dealer published an unsigned article, “Watches Religion Save Alcoholics,” reporting on and quoting extensively from the sermon given the previous day by Rev. Dilworth Lupton at the First Unitarian Church. The sermon was based on Lupton’s experience with Clarence S., whom he referred to in the sermon as “Mr X”, and who had started the first A.A. group in Cleveland. Among many other details, it reported that “Lupton noted that there was room in A.A. for all creeds, through the concept of God as ‘a Power greater than ourselves.’ Such an attitude ‘displays nothing short of genius,’ he said.”
    While Clarence was still drinking, his wife Dorothy had often pleaded with Lupton to intervene and talk to Clarence. Lupton did so on several occasions. But Clarence was unable and unwilling to stop drinking. Finally, Lupton gave up and told Dorothy to turn her husband’s problem over to God. She told Lupton that was exactly what she had done when she had come to him for help. But Lupton explained that there was nothing more to be done and that all that was left was prayer. Lots of prayer.
    After Clarence sobered up in Akron, Ohio, Dorothy went back to Rev. Lupton again, but this time to interest him in coming to see the miraculous “new cure” in action. Lupton replied that as far as he was concerned, as long as this “cure” was associated with the Oxford Group, it didn’t stand a chance and he couldn’t be a part of it. “Nothing good could come out of the Oxford Group,” he said.
    After the Cleveland A.A. Group split from the Oxford Group, Dorothy approached Rev. Lupton yet again. This time she brought A.A.’s Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous, and the names of some Roman Catholic members.  In 1954, Dorothy recalled that visit:

    I felt that now we had fallen away from Akron, now there was no Oxford Group, Dr. Lupton should be interested. So I went back to him and said we were no longer an Oxford Group, and asked him to please come to a meeting.
    He read it [the Big Book], and he said that he would definitely come to one of our meetings. He did, and he was so impressed that he said, “Dorothy, you go back to the Plain Dealer and you tell them that I’m going to preach on A.A.”
    That was for publicity. He was one of the really big Protestant ministers in Cleveland, and what he said was good copy.

    As a result of the Plain Dealer article, the Cleveland Group was inundated with calls and inquiries. In 1954, Dorothy recalled that “within… about two weeks, our meetings grew from about 15 to 100.” In 1940, Dorothy wrote to Ruth Hock and Hank P. about the aftermath:

A few sourpusses pinned Clarence to the cross in no uncertain fashion last night, exploiting “paid publicity, profit for the book, liar,” and whatnot. It hurt, I know, as they were all people he had helped. But how it is making him grow!

    Clarence himself said:

When the [Plain Dealer] article appeared, it stirred up a hornet’s nest It wasn’t great literature, but it had a tremendous effect. Someone said, This guy is a reporter. He’s gonna put our names in the paper!
“No” I said, “he's one of us—a rummy.”
“Yeah, he's a rummy all right, but he's a newspaperman.”
It didn't make any difference. They were against it.

In 1977, Warren C. recalled:

There was hell to pay when those stories broke. I mean, they really lacerated him [Clarence]. Of course, it was the greatest move that was ever made for A.A. [In Cleveland] A.A. started in a riot. It grows in riots, We got upset by the Plain Dealer business, We thought Clarence was going to ‘get money,’ and voted him out of the group. He took others with him and started another group.

 November 26 in A.A. History

In 1895, William G. “Bill” W. was born at 3 a.m. on a wintry day in East Dorset, Vermont, behind the bar of the W—– House, a village hotel run by his father’s mother, to Gilman B. and Emily G. W.
    The night before, Emily’s pain had driven her from the kitchen to the north parlor. She lay on a couch, trying to breathe, writhing as contrac-tions tore through her. In and out of conscious-ness, she screamed and cried out as midnight passed. The midwife and Emily's mother tried to comfort her.
    Outside, Mark Whalon, whom Bill would call his only close local friend, and a crowd of young neighborhood boys gathered on the porch to listen to Emily’s screams, evidence of the strangeness of the adult world. Later, Emily would say that Bill’s birth had nearly killed her.

In 1939, at the First Unitarian Church at Euclid Ave. and E. 82nd St., in Cleve-land, Ohio, Rev. Dilworth Lupton preached a sermon titled “Mr. X and Alcoholics Anonymous” about an alcoholic he had seen recover from alcoholism—Clarence S. The sermon would be reprinted in the Cleveland Plain Dealer and would become one of A.A.’s first pamphlets.

In 1942, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt announced that gasoline rationing would begin four days later, on December 1, to conserve rubber (not gasoline). This would significantly reduce the number of 12th Step calls A.A. members could make. The following day, a headline on page 1 of The New York Times would read 
        Full ‘Gas’ Rationing Dec. 1 Ordered by the President.
According to the article, dated November 26, 1942,

President Roosevelt served notice tonight that… the government… would begin the nation-wide rationing of gasoline to conserve rubber on Dec. 1, as scheduled

In 1965, Nancy M.-O., founder and original moderator of A.A. History Lovers on Yahoo Groups, got sober and joined A.A.

November 25 in A.A. History

In 1940, Dave W., who would become one of the founding members of A.A. in Seattle, Washington, learned that the national secretary at the Alcoholic Foundation with whom he had been corresponding—R. Hock—was a woman! He decided to conceal this information from other men with whom he was working.

In 1947, Mrs. Marty M. spoke to the Economic Club of Detroit—and a radio audience—about the National Committee for Education on Alcoholism (NCEA) and about Alcoholics Anonymous. She began,

    I stand before you here today on behalf of two groups. One group is made of free people, free because they have knowledge. The other group is made up of prisoners, prisoners of their condition, held prisoners by ignorance and fear.
    The first group is that whom I officially represent, the National Committee for Education on Alcoholism, made up of men and women of science and medicine of the clergy and of the arts, of business and of public life who are aware of the nature of this problem and who are determined to do something about it.
    They have done me the honor of appointing me Executive Director of that group and have made me the spokesman for their program.
    The other group has not appointed me. The other group is not organized. It frequently does not know there is a group.
    These prisoners that I spoke of are the alcoholics of America, three million strong.
    Many of them are unaware of their own condition; are unaware of its nature; and are unaware that there is anything whatsoever to do about it.
    They did not need to appoint men; I belong to that group. I myself shared their condition of being a prisoner until the truth made me free.

November 24 in A.A. History

In 1895, John Paul S., usually called Paul, was born to Emma Savercool and Charles S. in Pennsylvania, probably somewhere near Scranton, where he was christened on 29 December. He met Dr. Bob S. in January 1936 and sobered up on 2 July 1936. His story, “Truth Freed Me!” appeared in the first edition of the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous.

In 1939, Mrs. J. J. Stewart, of Seattle, Washington, whose husband was an alcoholic, wrote to the Alcoholic Foundation, “[W]e have the book Alcoholics Anonymous and have read it,” then asked if there was any A.A. unit in Seattle. The return letter, almost three months later, would suggest she contact “the growing Fellowships in San Francisco and Los Angeles.” Mrs. Stewart’s letter was Seattle's first contact with A.A. She would eventually be involved in starting Seattle’s first A.A. group, although her role is uncertain.

In 1942, Rev. Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick was the speaker at the 8th anniversary dinner of the Manhattan A.A. group. In 1939, he had written the first favorable review of the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous, for Religious Digest.

In 1976, Elise Valentine Shaw, 85, died. She was Lois W.’s oldest and closest friend (since childhood); the widow of Bill W.’s Wall Street patron, Frank Shaw; and the matron of honor at Bill and Lois W.’s wedding.

November 23 in A.A. History

In 1939, Ray W., who had just held the first Alcoholics Anonymous meeting on the west coast of North America, wrote to Ruth Hock, National Secretary for the Alcoholic Foundation, about that meeting.

Dear Miss Hock -
   You probably think I am an awful piker for not having acknowledged your letters sooner.
   As a matter of fact I have seen quite a number of individuals whose names you sent — some of them several times. I won’t go into detail here except to say that I had three (3) of the best “bets” -— Ted C, Dave L, and Don B for several hours with the result that they are going to start a group here and start in by taking care of all the others who wrote you. Dave had his secretary make carbons of the lists you sent and I started them in by having them make some “dates” with some of our prospects over the phone from my room. I talked to them first then turned the phone over to the boys here. Things look better than I would have hoped for.
   You know, I had the misguided idea that I had been busy at other times in my life, but until I made this trip I didn’t know what it was to be busy. They have been “on my neck” day and night. You will hear from some of them and I will give you all the dope when I get back.
⋮ [Here Ray wrote two paragraphs on other matters]
   Will be back Tuesday and give you a ring.
Best regards to everyone, Ray W

    Gabriel Heatter had said that if just one person was helped by hearing Morgan Ryan's A.A. story, which had aired on Heatter’s “We the People” radio show in April, it would be a real service. Well, very many people were helped by that broadcast and what followed. Today, 85 years after that first meeting, there are over 600 A.A. groups in San Francisco alone, and many thousands more in California and other parts of the West.

In 1941, although there were earlier A.A. meetings, the Seattle Group became the first Alcoholics Anonymous group in Seattle, Washington. It had three members: Dale A. [right], Bob E., and Lindsay M. The group would struggle for most of the next year. Dale and Lindsay were the only regulars. In December, Lindsay would join the Merchant Marine, leaving Dale pretty much alone. He was determined to keep A.A. going in Seattle and he succeeded. As a result, he is considered by many to be the founding father of A.A. in Seattle and the state of Washington.

November 22 in A.A. History

In 1912, in Manchester, Vermont, the Rev. Sidney Warlow of Arlington, Vermont, assisted by the Revs. William F. Weeks, bishop-coadjutor of Shelburne, Vermont, and Philip Schuyler of Bennington, Vermont, conducted the funeral of 18-year-old Miss Bertha Bamford at Zion Episcopal Church, where her father was rector. Five days earlier, Miss Bamford had died of a hemorrhage following surgery to remove a tumor at Flower Hospital in New York City. Newspaper accounts noted the “profusion of beautiful flowers” and “the floral tributes.” The Manchester Village and Manchester Cenchester Center schools were closed so that teachers and students could participate.
   Miss Bamford was the classmate and first love of Bill W. Nearly all the students from Burr & Burton—about 70 altogether, including Bill—attended as a body and marched as such to the vault at Manchester Center in which Miss Bamford’s remains were temporarily placed. Prof. James Brooks, Prof. Walter Shaw, Bill W., Clifford Wilson, Roger Perkins and John Jackson were pallbearers. Miss Bamford’s remains would later be taken to Jeffersonville, Indiana, where they would be buried.

In 1928, Bill W. wrote a second pledge in the family Bible: “Thanksgiving Day 1928. My strength is renewed a thousandfold in my love for you.” There would be four such pledges before Bill stopped making them.

November 21 in A.A. History

In 1939, four men held the first A.A. meeting on the North American West Coast in Ray W.’s room at the Clift Hotel on Geary St. in San Francisco, California. Here’s how it came about.
    In April, Morgan R.—A.A. member, former ad man, asylum patient, and friend of the host—was a guest on Gabriel Heatter’s nationally broadcast radio show “We the People.” Morgan very briefly told his story, and closed by mentioning the newly pub
lished book, Alcoholics Anonymous. One non-alcoholic listener, Mrs. Gordon Oram, ran a boarding house at 51 Potomac St. in San Francisco. She liked one boarder, Ted C., but was concerned about his drinking, which had gotten him into multiple state hospitals and jails. He considered himself one of the “worst alcoholics” in the state. Mrs. Oram wrote to the Alcoholic Foundation office in New York City and obtained a copy of the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous, for Ted.
    Others in the Bay Area had also heard the program, or had read Morris Markey’s article, “Alcoholics and God,” in the Sep 30th issue of Liberty magazine; they too had contacted the Alcoholic Foundation office. So when New York A.A. member Ray W. came to San Francisco for sales training in November, he brought a list of all who had inquired. From his room in the Clift Hotel, Ray called each and arranged a meeting in his room.
   Besides Ray and Ted, Don B. and Dave L. also attended. The meeting lasted two hours. Ray gave his list of local contacts to the three men, and all four begin to contact them. They were from Berkeley, Oakland, and Alameda, as well as San Francisco. Unfortunately, Ted would be unable to stay sober.
   Bill W. vividly described the historic meeting and its immediate aftermath in Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age (p. 88).

Ray had been an atheist and he still stuck to it.... He said, “Now, boys, this A.A. is great stuff. It really saved my life. But there’s one feature of it I don't like. I mean this God business. So when you read this book [the Big Book], you can skip that part of it.” Ten days later, Ray was on his way back East, leaving a shivering and divided group in his wake.
   But they soon found… Dr. Percy Poliak, a psychiatrist who had been impressed with A.A. as he had seen it at work in Bellvue Hospital in New York. No at the San Francisco County Hospital, Dr. Poliak gave the group his full support.… Mrs. Oram… opened her flat for the first [sic] A.A. meeting late in 1939…

In 1942, the Lakewood Group (near Cleveland, Ohio) celebrated its 3rd anniversary at Townsend Hall in Lakewood. The Dec 1942 Central Bulletin reported, “A pot-luck supper was served and cards and games followed. A large crowd enjoyed the festivities.”

In 1952, Rev. Willard S. Richardson, 86, died. He was A.A.'s initial connection to the Rockefeller Foundation in October 1937. Affectionately known as “Uncle Dick,” he was the Alcoholic Foundation treasurer and later, the Chairman of the Board. 

 November 20 in A.A. History

In 1923, Bill W. left Brooklyn Law School for good. He was in the process of repeating a class he had failed earlier in the year, which prevented him from graduating as expected in June. Contrary to what his wife would later write in her memoir, Lois Remembers, he never completed the requirements for a law degree.

In 1939, in Cleveland, Ohio, the Orchard Group split from the newly formed Borton Group. They met at 15909 Detroit Ave, which today is an automobile sales lot. There were eleven original members, and its prime movers were William B., Warren C., William L., and Edward H. The group’s secretary was Elvira B., William B.’s wife. The group would later rename itself the Lakewood Group.

In 1941, The Fresno (California) Bee published a 3-page article titled “Alcoholics Plead for Aid in Correcting Drink Problems.” It reported on reader response to the formation of Fresno’s first A.A. group, which had been reported the previous week. The article noted

… a welcome response from twenty-eight persons seeking aid in solving their excessive drinking problems. Some of the messages were from wives and mothers asking for help for husbands and wives.… Membership in the local chapter has increased from three to fifteen and plans have been outlined for the first meeting.… The meetings will be conducted following rules established in other chapters. Each member takes his turn as chairman and conducts the meeting as he sees fit.… Alcoholics Anonymous is not a reform group. There is no religious affiliation and members are not concerned with prohibition.… One of the letters to the chapter requested women be included in the membership. This is being considered by the members and it is expected arrangements will be made for feminine affiliation in the near future. Plans will be made for dances and card parties.

November 19 in A.A. History

In 1840, the Washingtonians held their first public meeting. The movement would grow rapidly. Widespread and enthusiastic support came from thousands of existing temperance societies, as the Washingtonians would have great success in mobilizing public attention for temperance through their “experience sharing” of alcoholic debauchery followed by glorious accounts of personal reformation. One of the movement’s leaders remarked,

There is a prevalent impression, that none but reformed drunkards are admitted as members of the Washingtonian Society. This is a mistake. Any man may become a member by signing the pledge, and continue so by adhering to it.

In 1912, Bill W. hurried into chapel and took his seat with the other students. Nothing could have prepared him for what was to come. He later recalled,

The principal of the school came in and announced with a very grave face that Bertha, the minister’s daughter and my beloved, had died suddenly and unexpectedly the night before. It was simply a cataclysm of such anguish as I’ve since had but two or three times. It eventuated in what was called an old-fashioned nervous breakdown, which meant, I now realize, a tremendous depression.

In 1935, Ebby T. came to live with Bill and Lois W. at 182 Clinton St. in Brooklyn.

In 1939, Cleveland’s first Spanish-speaking meeting, Serenidad, is founded (three days after the Borton Group, the longest continually meeting group in Cleveland and the first group anywhere with no Oxford Group affiliation).

In 1941, The Daily Oklahoman (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma) published “New Way Out for Hopeless Drinkers” by Edith Johnson. It began,

Because they known just how it feels to be befogged and sick and thoroughly miserable through days or weeks or months of intoxication Alcoholics Anonymous are having success in helping others to discard the drink habit that is no less than startling.

November 18 in A.A. History

In 1912, Bill W.’s schoolmate and first love, Bertha Bamford, 18, daughter of Julia Howard Read and Rev. Walter H. Bamford, the rector of Zion Episcopal Church in Manchester, Vermont, died of a hemorrhage following surgery to remove a tumor at Flower Hospital in New York City.

In 1946, the first ever meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous in Ireland, and indeed in Europe, was held in the home of one of the S. brothers in Rathmines, a suburb of Dublin. Seven members likely attended this meeting: Conor F., Richard P., Jimmy R., Jimmy the Teacher, brothers Matt S. and Leo S., and another man.
    Conor F. had immigrated to the U.S. from County Roscommon, Ireland, and had gotten sober in 1943 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He and his wife were on vacation in Ireland. She read an Evening Mail interview with Father Tom Dunlea also vacationing, from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. In addition to reporting on his “Boys Town Home” project, he spoke at length about about the success of the Sydney A.A. group with which he was involved. This interview introduced A.A. to the general public in Ireland. Conor’s wife suggested that he try to get A.A. started in Ireland.
    While they were in Derry, he tried to get people interested, but was told that there were no alcoholics in the north and that he should try the south. In the south he was told that problem drinkers there should join the Pioneers (Pioneer Total Abstinence Association of the Sacred Heart, an international association of Catholic teetotalers). He also gave an interview to the Evening Mail, along with a box number for the paper to give to anyone interested in contacting him. He received a letter from a man asking that his brother be contacted. The brother was contacted but said “He’s the one you should talk to.”
    Conor was about to accept defeat when he met Eva Jennings, who was staying at his hotel, the Abbotsford Hotel on Harcourt Street in Dublin. They met for breakfast and he confided in her the difficulties he was having in getting A.A. started in Dublin. She was sympathetic and advised him to meet with Dr. Norman Moore, head of St. Patrick’s [psychiatric] Hospital, where a close relative of hers was under his care. Conor met with Dr. Moore, 0who had read about A.A. in Readers Digest, and gave him a copy of Alcoholics Anonymous (the Big Book). Dr. Moore said of one of his 0patients, Richard P., “whom he feared he might be saddled with for life,” that “if you [Conor] can help this man, I’ll believe in A.A. 100 0percent!” 0Dr. Moore introduced Conor to Richard, who showed interest and was then escorted to Conor’s hotel. The two men ‘clicked’, and Richard was discharged from the hospital.
    Together the two men arranged the first closed meeting in Dublin. Brothers Matt and Leo S., who had considered each other alcoholics but not themselves, both joined, and ironically, the first public meeting of A.A. was held in one of their homes.

November 17 in A.A. History

In 1943, the first meeting of the Board of Trustees of The Alcoholic Foundation, Inc. was held. Originally incorporated as a trust, it was reorganized as a membership corporation and the number of trustees was increased from seven to nine.

In 1947, with the help of A.A. members Harry B. knew in Salt Lake City and Ogden, Utah, the Idaho Falls (Idaho) group helped organize the first meeting in Pocatello, Idaho. Founded by Harry six months earlier, Idaho Falls Group #1 had grown to 38 members.

In 1948, Bill and Lois W. made a return visit to Milwaukee, Wisconsin [left], primarily to see Dr. Gilbert “Gib” K., who was near death from cancer. Gib urged Bill to accept his violin as a gift, which Bill did; he cherished it for the rest of his life. With only a few hours’ notice, local A.A. members organized an evening open meeting. Over 500 people showed up. Bill also visited Group 7, where no one recognized him. 
    Lois was taken to the alcoholism ward at St. Michael’s Hospital to visit a female patient. Lois talked with the girl for a while and then started to leave. As she was leaving, Lois turned and took a small corsage from her suit jacket and pinned it to the girl’s nightgown. She said, “You know my dear, it’s as easy to kick yourself up as it is to keep kicking yourself down.” 
    They stayed with George S., who had started a second A.A. meeting in Milwaukee. He wanted Bill W.’s advice on whether or not to go into the alcoholism field full time, since he was already very involved as a volunteer. Bill waited until the morning of his departure to answer. Over breakfast Bill said

George, I don’t think there is much of a choice. Someone must begin to spearhead the dreams we have of working with the public to make the lot of the alcoholic a better one.

George made his choice and became a towering figure in the field. He would continue his A.A. activities, including serving as Area 75’s first Delegate on Panel 1 of the General Service Conference (1951–52).

November 16 in A.A. History

In 1939, The first meeting of the Borton Group—the longest continuously meeting group in Cleveland, Ohio and the first group ever to be unaffiliated with the Oxford Group—was held at 2427 Roxboro Rd. [right, Sep 2009] in Cleveland Heights, the home of a well-known non-alcoholic financier, Thomas E. Borton. A.A. had sobered up one of his alcoholic employees, and he was so grateful that he offered his home for meetings. Clarence S. started the Borton Group after being kicked out of the original Cleveland Group—which he also started—after only six months for secretly inviting Elrick B. Davis, a reporter for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, to meetings and for the explosion of local interest in A.A. that followed the publication of Davis’ articles about A.A in the Plain Dealer. Warren C. [A.A. #12] later recalled that the original Cleveland Group, which met at the home of Albert “Abby” G.,

   … was a mixture of Oxford Group plus those who came in new like myself. That was the first group where the Oxford Group people and the A.A.’s [sic] weren't mixed.
   … there were probably half a dozen Akron people who came up to Cleveland—Doc S—– [Dr. Bob], the S—– boys [Paul and Dick], Bill D. [A.A. #3], and so forth. Not every week, but once in a while. We sort of supported each other in the beginning.

Also in 1939, Lois W. wrote in her diary:

Drove to Cleveland [Ohio] for meeting. Tremendous gathering. Clarence [S.], Jack [perhaps Jack D. of New York, one of Bill’s pigeons], and Bill [W.] spoke. Then, Bill and I dashed to a second meeting. Met Mr. Lupton, Unitarian minister who is to give sermon on Nov. 26, and Elrick Davis, who wrote [the Cleveland] Plain Dealer articles.

Whatever Bill W.’s feelings about the Cleveland split, he played no favorites; he went to both meetings.

In 1949, Father Ed Dowling [left] came to the 24th St. Clubhouse in New York City to meet Bill W. for the first time.

 In 1950, Serenely remarking to his attendant, “I think this is it,” Dr. Robert H. S., 70, co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, died at noon in City Hospital in Akron, Ohio. He was cremated in Cleveland, Ohio and his remains were interred in Akron’s MountPeace Cemetery next to those of his wife Anne. Rev. Walter Tunks officiated. During his 15 years of sobriety, Dr. Bob treated more than 5,000 alcoholics, never accepting a fee for his professional services. Several hundred of them ended up in A.A. In his eulogy, Bill W. described Dr. Bob as “the prince of the Twelfth Steppers.”

November 15 in A.A. History

In 1952, a memorial service for Dr. Bob S. was held at the 24th Street Clubhouse in New York City. A recording of his last talk was played and a portrait of him was unveiled. Bill W. then addressed the gathering, beginning by saying

    Dr. Bob’s recorded voice has come down to us across the air since he died in 1950. Some may say that his actual voice is still forever, but you and I know that is not so and that his spirit will be with us so long as this well loved society of ours endures. Now, I happen to be one who believes that people never die, that on beyond death there is another life and it could be that Dr. Bob is looking down upon us now, seeing us, hearing what we say and feel and think and have done in this meeting. I know his heart will be glad.

    Dr. Bob was a chap who was modestly and singularly against taking any personal acclaim or honor but surely now that he is no longer with us he can’t mind, I don’t believe and for him I wish to thank everyone here who has made this occasion possible and the unveiling possible, with all the work and love that that has entailed. Again, I wish to thank each and everyone.

In 1960, Bill W. wrote Howard C. about A.A. rejecting the Oxford Group because of the emphasis on Absolutes

    … As you so well understand, we drunks are all-or-nothing people.

    In the old days of the Oxford Groups [sic], they were forever talking about the Four Absolutes—Honesty, Purity, Unselfishness, and Love. There we saw people going broke on this sort of perfection—trying to get too good by Thursday.

    … There is another factor, too, which perhaps you have overlooked.

    Absolutes in themselves are not necessarily destructive. Every sound theological system contains them. When we say that our destiny is to grow in the likeness and image of God, we are stating a healthy relation between a relative and an absolute state of affairs. Therefore when writing the Twelve Steps, it was necessary to include some sort of absolute value or else they wouldn’t have been theologically sound.…The could have been unfortunate. However, we couldn’t make them as promising and as misleading as we found them in the Oxford Group emphasis. So in Step Six and Seven, and in the use of the word God, we did include them.

In 1967, with the approval of the General Service Board, Bill W. sent a letter proposing a “World Service Meeting” to representatives of 13 countries/zones:

    Australia        Belgium              Central America    Finland   France     
    Germany        Holland               Mexico                  Norway   New Zealand
    South Africa   South America   United Kingdom
This letter said, in part

    … I am proposing that A.A. take first steps toward forming a world service conference. The time will come when our overseas population may well exceed that of the United States and Canada.…

    There are many problems of growth and relations that call for an international exchange of experiences. The problems of public relations, of anonymity, of self-support, of relations with medicine and religion—these are all keenly felt in many A.A. countries. The problem of printing and distributing literature is another one that can best be solved by exchange of experiences and policies.

    … I propose a World Service Meeting—not a conference, since it would not be fully representative of world A.A. This meeting could be held in New York so that delegates would have access to the experience of staff members and board members, and delegates would have the opportunity of seeing a 30-year-old service office at work.…

November 14 in A.A. History

In 1939, New York City A.A. members, their spouses—more than 50 in all, including Jimmy B., Bert T., Morgan R., and Tom B.—and at least one non-alcoholic Trustee, Leonard Harrison, sign a letter to Bill W. The letter said, in part

We all know that, like the rest of us, you are confronted with the necessity of making a living… We feel that we owe a debt to you which can be measured only in terms of life itself and therefore, perhaps, it is hardly appropriate that we should ask that you to continue to make the sacrifices which you have in the past for the benefit of ourselves and others yet unknown. Yet we ask you, if you find it possible to do so, to continue for a time with the work of Alcoholics Anonymous. We feel that the loss of your guidance at this most critical period in the development of the movement would be nothing less than a major catastrophe. On our own part, we pledge ourselves to do whatever we can in every way to help you carry the load.

In 1940, the Alcoholic Foundation office in New York City mailed the first issue
the A.A. Bulletin to groups. Its purpose was to inform groups of important events. It evolved over the years and underwent several name changes. Today it is known as Box 4-5-9.

In 1943, in Los Angeles, California, at an open meeting at a Veterans Administration theater, Bill W. told 600 attendees how A.A. had enabled 10,000 alcoholics to recover. To the left is the Los Angeles Times article about this event.

In 1945, Bill W. wrote to Rev. Sam D., co-founder of A.A. in Atlanta, to enlist his help in stopping Carl K. from misrepresenting A.A. and causing controversy. Carl was the editor of his own magazine, The Empty Jug, for which Sam wrote a column, “Sam Talks Sense.” Bill complimented Sam’s column, but said that it was “completely surrounded by a whole page of hate,” and that Carl had had a “50 round bout with the demons of the liquor industry.” Bill stressed the need to avoid the subjects of “politics, religion and reform.”