October 24 in A.A. History

1939: The Cleveland Plain Dealer (Ohio) published the third [right] in Elrick Boyle Davis’s series of five articles, “Alcoholics Anonymous Makes Its Stand Here.” It read, in part,

The ex-drunks cured of their medically incurable alcoholism by membership in Alcoholics Anonymous, know that the way to keep themselves from backsliding is to find another pathological alcoholic to help. Or to start a new man toward cure. That is the way that the Akron chapter of the society, and from that, the Cleveland fellowship was begun.

One of the earliest of the cured rummies had talked a New York securities house into taking a chance that he was really through with liquor. He was commissioned to do a stock promotion chore in Akron. If he should succeed, his economic troubles also would be cured. Years of alcoholism had left him bankrupt as well as a physical and social wreck before Alcoholics Anonymous had saved him.

His Akron project failed. Here he was on a Saturday afternoon in a strange hotel in a town where he did not know a soul, business hopes blasted, and with scarcely money enough to get him back to New York with a report that would leave him without the last job he knew of for him in the world. If ever disappointment deserved drowning, that seemed the time.

1943: Bill and Lois W. [far left] left home for their first major A.A. tour. Bill called it their “trip to the coast,” and they stopped in at least three places: Los Angeles, California; Portland, Oregon, where they “looked in on Doc H., an Oregon chiropractor who was struggling with the alkies in Portland”; and Seattle, Washington, where they “first met businessman Dale A. [near left], who with real valor was trying hard to hold a small band together.” Bill and Lois returned home 87 days later, on January 19.

1973: The newly created Trustees’ Archives Committee held its first meeting. The committee consisted of alcoholic general service trustee Dr. George G. as chair, two non-alcoholic trustees—Rev. Lee Archer Belford and Dr. Milton A. Maxwell—and Archivist Nell Wing, who had been appointed A.A.’s first Archivist in 1972 [right: all four respectively].

October in A.A. History—day unknown

1951: Hospital Progress, the journal of the Catholic Hospital Association, published an article [left: p. 1] by Sister Ignatia titled “The Care of Alcoholics.”

1951: The A.A. Grapevine [right: cover] reported in a note titled “Headquarters Highlights” about a number of recordings available from the General Service Office, including:

• The Third Legacy of AA (new, a condensation of Bill [W.]’s remarks opening the historic first meeting of the General Service Conference), 
• Milestones of AA (by Bill W――), 
• AA Traditions (Bill and other AAs discussed the importance of the Twelve Traditions to the future of our society at the International Conference at Cleveland in 1950), 
• The Big Meeting (the final session of the Cleveland Conference, unique as the only recording on which both Bill and Dr. Bob may be heard), and 
• Dr. Bob’s Last Major Talk (recorded in 1947, four years before his death, outlines the early days of AA, with special reference to the growth of the first ‘group’ in Akron, Ohio). 

Finally, the Grapevine adds that “An earlier recording known simply as ‘A Talk by Bill’ has become a ‘collector’s item.’ It is no longer possible to make copies from the master record and the existing supply has been exhausted.” This was Bill's first recording, made in Los Angeles, California, in April 1947.