1939: Lois W.
[near right] noted in her diary, “Hank [P.]
[far right] drunk, phoned Bill in the afternoon.”
1940:
Earl T. [left] wrote to the Alcoholic
Foundation in New York City to inform them that the A.A. members in Chicago,
Illinois, were organizing a group and would hold regular meetings. He said, in
part,
There are eight of us—with three new prospects who will go to Akron in the near future. Sylvia [K.] back in Evanston [Illinois] and anxious to help with the work here. Whether she has it yet is a question, but we will continue to work with her.
Sylvia [right] had recently left
Akron, Ohio, and arrived in Chicago by train, drunk. In fact, she had
sobered up for the last time on the day of her arrival, September 13, and
would never drink again.
1940: Duke P.—who had gotten
sober after reading newspaper accounts of Rollickin’ Rollie H.’s
[left: in his Cleveland Indians uniform, c. 1940] recovery earlier that year—and other local members started the first A.A.
group in Toledo, Ohio. In 1978, Duke recalled, there were thirteen attendees
at Ruth T.’s big house on the Maumee River, including eight alcoholics.
Among the attendees were Ernie G.
[right] and his wife Ruth, who had just moved there from Akron, Ohio (one year
later, Ernie would marry Dr. Bob S.’s adopted daughter Suzanne).
1940: Someone in Cleveland,
Ohio, reported to Bill W. [left] at
the Alcoholic Foundation in New York City that, in addition to their own six
meetings and 400–500 members, Ohio had meetings in Akron, Toledo,
Youngstown, Dayton, Wooster, and Canton. Dorothy Wright S.
[near right]
inquired about the possibility of a mimeographed directory “showing where
people are,” and also suggested a newsletter to be sent to all groups to
“bring everybody closer together.” Dorothy’s husband Clarence
[far right] wrote to Bill, saying that “several groups do not permit a rummy to attend
unless he has been hospitalized or talked to by ten men.” He noted that they
have a “definite setup” with three hospitals and two sanitariums, and that
they typically have 10–15 drunks hospitalized at any given time.
1940: In Pennsylvania, the
Philadelphia Group of A.A. made its first prison commitment at the House of
Corrections [left, c. 1938]. This
commitment continued until the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns began in 2020.
(Note that this occurred before the first A.A. meetings at San Quentin
Prison, initiated by Warden Duffy
[right, c. 1943] in California, two years later.)
1941: Ernie G. married Sue,
the adopted daughter of Anne and Dr. Bob S.
[left: Ernie and Sue, 1957±3]. He was nearly twice her age. Sue later said,
I think my dad got the bright idea that if he could get Ernie to take me out, and he’d pay the way, he might be able to get me away from Ray [Windows, her then-boyfriend]. We’d go down and get hamburgers, and Dad would buy them. I knew all that, but I didn’t realize it was in connection with Ray at the time. Now I think it was. I think Dad was using Ernie, and it backfired on him.
Both her parents strongly objected to the idea of Sue’s marriage, and she
never informed them of it, assuming they would learn about it from the local
papers. Ernie was drunk at the wedding and remained unable to stay sober
throughout the marriage. The marriage turned out to be a disaster, and Sue
divorced Ernie in 1965 to marry Ray.
1941: Harper’s Magazine
[right: cover, with white arrows indicating the relevant article] published the final installment of a four-part series titled “Laymen and
Alcoholism,” by Genevieve Parkhurst*, which primarily offered guidance for non-professionals, including family
members, in dealing with alcoholics:
The layman’s burden I have indicated is not for the shoulders of the therapist alone. The family of the alcoholic—parents, sisters and brothers, sons and daughters, husbands and wives—may very well be the deciding factor in the success or failure of his cure, just as they are often the chief contributors to the disturbance which causes the illness.… For their benefit I am setting down a list of things to be remembered…
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