March 9 in A.A. History

1953: Works Publishing, Inc. was renamed Alcoholics Anonymous Publishing, Inc. [below: paperwork].  

Other significant events in March
                 (no specific date known)                

1919: [Early] Four months after the end of World War I, Bill W. sailed from Bordeaux, France, to New York City aboard the SS Powhatan [right: docked in New York City, 6 Sep 1918]. 

1934: After Bill W. relapsed following his first admission to Charles B. Towns Hospital, his wife, Lois, quit her job at Macy’s [left, early 1930s]. Hoping to keep him away from alcohol, she took him to his sister Dorothy and Leonard Strong’s farm in Green River, Vermont [right: aerial view with close-up inset of the farm]. However, on his first day of fishing, Bill encountered a generous man with a bottle and relapsed. They would stay until summer.

1937: [1938? 13 Sep 1937?] Florence R. of Westfield, New Jersey, became the first woman to get sober in A.A.’s New York City Group and the second woman to do so anywhere. Previously married to a Wall Street acquaintance of Bill Wilson’s, Florence had believed that divorce would eliminate the cause of her drinking. Ironically, her ex-husband had been the one who brought Lois Wilson to visit her at Bellevue Hospital. Bill and Lois had gotten her out, and Florence stayed with them briefly before moving in with other A.A. members. Although she began attending meetings in March 1937, staying sober proved challenging. Florence’s presence in the group influenced the decision to drop the name “One Hundred Men” for the Big Book (and its publishing company). Her story, “A Feminine Victory,” would later appear in the first edition of the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous.

1939: Reviewers were returning multilith copies of the draft of Alcoholics Anonymous that had been sent out in February. Certain readers noted that the text frequently used directives and the words “you” and “your.” While “greatly impressed and enthusiastic,” Dr. James Wainwright Howard [left], Assistant Attending Psychiatrist at Mountainside Hospital in Montclair, New Jersey, felt the tone was too dogmatic and directive. He suggested toning down the use of direct instructions to the reader in favor of relating personal experiences. Drs. William D. Silkworth [near right] and Harry M. Tiebout [far right] offered similar advice.

1940: Mort J. [left] 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 and rang the doorbell. Cliff opened the door.
“My name is Mort J. I’m a member of Alcoholics Anonymous; may I come in?”
    When Mort showed up at Cliff Walker’s door [right: 4222 Vantage Ave, Studio City in April 2024, likely his home in 1940], Cliff listened to Mort’s story, despite having no desire to stop drinking or attend A.A. meetings. However, he was spellbound as Mort recounted the story 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. 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 [left, 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, which eventually spread throughout A.A.