A.A. History

The "Original" A.A. Program

Dick B.
Copyright 2004
PO Box 837, Kihei, HI 96753-0837
Email: [log in to unmask]
URL: http://www.dickb.com/index.shtml

Many  Claims. Many  Errors. One Truth

When was A.A. Founded?

You'd think by now that everyone knew. Yet I was active in A.A. and its
meetings for two or three years before I ever heard mention of the founding.
Finally, I learned that the date was June 10, 1935 - the date that Dr. Bob
had his last drink. But that didn't satisfy today's historians. They
tinkered with dates and concluded that Dr. Bob didn't have his last drink on
June 10th,  that the medical convention to which he went in Atlantic City
never occurred when AAs said it did, and that A.A. was founded on some other
date thereabouts.

If you asked someone when George Washington cut down the cherry tree, just
think how many different answers the historians might provide. Does it
matter? Today, we don't even seem to celebrate his birthday and prefer
lumping all our presidents together.

Well, AAs do care. It matters to them. So I set forth all the arguments and
dates long ago in my title, The Akron Genesis of Alcoholics Anonymous
(http://www.dickb.com/Akron.shtml). You can study them there if you like.
Long after A.A. was founded, Lois Wilson wrote that it had been founded in
1934 when drunks were coming to the Wilson home in Brooklyn. Others wanted
to date it when Ebby Thacher first carried the message to Bill Wilson. T.
Henry Williams often said that A.A. started right on the carpet of his
Palisades home in Akron when Dr. Bob, Henrietta Seiberling, and the others
in the Oxford Group knelt and prayed for Dr. Bob's recovery. Still others
like to date it as of the publishing of the Big Book in the Spring of 1939.
Clarence Snyder claimed he was the founder, and that the first meeting of
Alcoholics Anonymous was held in Cleveland on May 11, 1939. One would-be
expert has now asserted that the "original" program occurred some time after
that in the 1940's. And, Bill Wilson made the statement that the first A.A.
group began when A.A. Number Three was cured of alcoholism, was visited by
Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob in the hospital, and walked from there a "free man"
- never to drink again. That happened very shortly after Dr. Bob himself got
sober.

So you'll have to make up your own mind. FDR changed Thanksgiving. We call
Armistice Day Veterans Day. And on and on. Which leads to the conclusion
that "founding" days are perhaps less important than the founding.
Personally, I'm convinced that A.A. began. I am convinced it began at Dr.
Bob's Home in Akron. I am convinced that Bob and Bill agreed that it began
when Dr. Bob took his last drink. I'm convinced that fairly soon after AA
began, Bill and Bob agreed that the founding date was June 10, 1935. And
thereafter, Bill Wilson attended and actually spoke at "Founders Day" each
year in Akron where the "founding of A.A." on June 10, 1935 is celebrated

Do you know when A.A. was founded? I don't. But I'm very sure it was founded
because that's where I took my last drink forever and was cured.

Where did the original program come from?

I  know what it was, where it began, when it began, and how it was
practiced. But you'd have a heck of a time convincing a lot of AAs today.
People who have never met or even read much about Bill Wilson, Dr. Bob, or
the original days in Akron.

In the first place, people have chosen to call this the "flying blind"
period. Yet there never was more light shining on the cure for alcoholism.
Real alcoholics who really tried, who were "medically incurable," who were
willing to go to any lengths, were cured in astonishing percentages. By
1938, some forty of them-called the "pioneers"-were maintaining sobriety,
half or more for two years. Richard K. has produced three books now
detailing who these folks were, when they got sober, and what happened to
them. Their names can be found on a dozen rosters. The pictures of many are
on the walls at Dr. Bob's Home in Akron. Fifty per cent got sober and stayed
sober, despite the fact that many a creative A.A. amateur historian insists
that the original gang all died drunk. Nonsense!

In the second place, the program came from the Bible. Maybe that's why
doubters and unbelievers want to call it the "flying blind" period. The
Bible was read to Bill and Bob at the Smith Home each day in the summer of
1935 by Dr. Bob's wife Anne Smith. Bob had studied the Bible all his life
and began refreshing his memory as a youngster. He read the Bible straight
through three times. Bob and Bill stayed up until the wee hours of the
morning every day that Bill stayed at the Smith home in Akron in the summer
of 1935.
Later, when asked a question about the program, Dr. Bob said: "What does the
Good Book say." He often commented that the old timers felt that the answer
to all their problems could be found in the Good Book. Over and over, Bob
emphasized that the Book of James, the sermon  on the mount (Matthew 5, 6,
7), and 1 Corinthians 13 were absolutely essential. I've written much about
the specifics AAs borrowed from these three books. See The Good Book and The
Big Book (http://www.dickb.com/goodbook.shtml), Why Early A.A. Succeeded
(http://www.dickb.com/aabiblestudy.shtml), The Oxford Group and Alcoholics
Anonymous (http://www.dickb.com/oxford.shtml), Turning Point
(http://www.dickb.com/turning.shtml), When Early AAs Were Cured and Why, and
my new article, "A.A., The James Club, and the Book of James"
(http://www.dickb.com/AAsJamesClub.shtml). And Bob and Bill both said that
the sermon on the mount contained the underlying philosophy of A.A., that 1
Corinthians 13 was favored reading, and the A.A. thought so much of the Book
of James that they wanted to call their Society the "James Club." The Bible
was read at every A.A. meeting in Akron for years-not Oxford Group books,
not Shoemaker books, not popular Christian literature, not even much from
devotionals like The Upper Room. The Bible was stressed, and AAs said so.
You can read it in DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers, the A.A. Conference
Approved  book published in 1980. In fact, in his last major talk to
AAs-which is on tape, which has been edited and reprinted, and which can be
found in A.A.'s own literature-Dr. Bob said A.A. basic ideas came from the
Bible.

When was the original program developed and completed?

There's a very simple set of facts. Yet many don't want to acknowledge them
because they are busy saying that Dr. Bob could never get sober studying the
Bible or being a member of the Oxford Group, that there were "six" Oxford
Group Steps (which there weren't), that there were "six" word-of-mouth A.A.
steps (which Wilson characterized in half a dozen ways), and that the
"twelve" steps somehow represented the "steps" that early AAs took (even
though there were no steps at all, not six, not twelve, not any) and even
though there was no basic text containing any steps until the Spring of 1939
(shortly after Bill had asked Rev. Sam Shoemaker to write the Steps), and
even though the actual vote authorizing Bill to write a textbook was
controversial, was taken in Akron, and occurred in 1937 or 1938 before Bill
ever began writing the Big Book. Dr. Bob also pointed out that, in the
development years, "there were no steps" and that "our stories didn't amount
to anything." So, by 1938, when Bill and Bob had counted noses, found that
some 40 men were maintaining continuous sobriety-some for as long as two
years, and concluded that God had shown them how to pass along their
program, the program could certainly be said to have been completed.

What Was The Original A.A. Program?

The program in Akron had, under the leadership of Dr. Bob, worked so well
that Bill managed to persuade John D. Rockefeller, Jr. to take a careful
look at it.

Rockefeller dispatched his representative, Frank Amos, to Akron to
investigate. And Amos did just that. He interviewed doctors, judges, AAs,
family members, and Dr. Bob himself. He concluded the program bore close
resemblance to First Century Christianity as described in the Book of Acts.
He was astonished at its success and at the simple elements that comprised
"the" program. He submitted two reports to Rockefeller, and Amos was later
to become an A.A. trustee-presumably in recognition of  his vital role in
the founding of the real, original, A.A. program.

Some of the Amos Reports can be found in DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers: New
York: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 1980). But I wanted to see
the originals. So I went to A.A. General Services in New York and to the
archives at the Bill Wilson home called "Stepping Stones" at Bedford Hills
in New York. I saw the reports and verified the basic accuracy of the A.A.
excerpts.

Amos did not discuss the hospitalizations at Akron City Hospital which were
"musts" in the early program. Possibly because a newcomer's program did not
really begin until he had detoxed, been relieved of some of his fuzzy
thinking, and become a real candidate. Nor did Amos discuss the surrender
with Dr. Bob at the conclusion of the brief hospitalization. For it was then
that the newcomer dealt with three issues: (1) Did he believe in God. (2)
Would he get down on his knees with Dr. Bob and pray. (3) Would he
"surrender" his life by accepting Jesus Christ as his Lord and Saviour. And
if he "passed" that surrender test, out of the hospital he went-to begin all
the activities I have described at such length in my published titles.

You can find an excellent and concise description of the whole process in my
title "God and Alcoholism: Our Growing Opportunity in the 21st Century
(http://www.dickb.com/Godandalcoholism.shtml), pp. 2 -12.

A short description of the original program as Frank Amos described it,
would be:

1.      Abstinence-the alcoholic shall realize he must never again drink.

2.      Absolute surrender of himself to God.

3.      He must remove from his life the sins which frequently accompany
alcoholism.

4.      He must have devotions every morning-a Quiet Time of prayer and
Bible reading.

5.      He must be willing to help other alcoholics get straightened out.

6.      Important, but not vital, he must frequently meet with other
"reformed" alcoholics and form both a social and religious comradeship.

7.      Important, but not vital, he must attend some religious service at
least once weekly.

There is much more in terms of activity-Morning quiet time with Anne Smith
at the Smith home, individual quiet time, the Wednesday Oxford Group
meeting, regular informal meetings at the Smith Home, Bible study and prayer
and the reading of Christian literature being circulated, talks with Dr. Bob
and Anne and Henrietta Seiberling, and visits to newcomers at the hospital.
But the "cure"-the permanent solution to their problems--was described as
above in the Frank Amos report.

No drunkalogs. No steps. No Big Book. No service structure. No offices. And
no money! Just the Creator, Jesus Christ, obedience to God's will, the
Bible, prayer, fellowship, and witness.

It worked! Seventy-five percent documented success rate in those days; and,
shortly thereafter, at the beginning of the 1940's, a ninety-three percent
documented success rate. Documented by carefully kept rosters, names, dates,
addresses, and phone numbers.

END