Aa history Lovers 2010 moderators Nancy Olson and Glenn F. Chesnut page
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and be well on the way to becoming a national institution. The man who played a key role in this lightning change was Jack Alexander, a 38-year-old writer for The Saturday Evening Post, which, with more than 3 million circulation, was the leading family magazine in the United States. The article he wrote about A.A. for the March 1, 1941 edition of the magazine -- simply titled "Alcoholics Anonymous " -- brought in 7,000 inquiries and became the high point of his illustrious career. The article apparently led other publications to offer similar reports of the Fellowship's work, launching A.A. on a publicity roll that lasted for years.
issued by A.A. World Services, with the title "The Jack Alexander Article about A.A." Though it focuses on the A.A. of 1941, it still provides important information about alcoholism, how the Fellowship started, and what was working so well for those whom we would now call A.A. pioneers. The article has also been praised as an excellent example of good organization and writing that could be a model for journalism students. (The late Maurice Z., an A.A. member and also a highly successful magazine writer and biographer, told an A.A. session at the 1985 International Convention in Montreal that he had been impressed by the article back in 1941, long before he felt his own need to embrace the program it described!) How did this fortunate publicity come about? What inspired it and who was responsible for bringing the idea to the attention of the Post's editors and nursing the story through to acceptance and completion? The account of A.A.'s famous appearance in The Saturday Evening Post is the kind of story that gives some A.A. members goose bumps, because they see it as the sure work of Higher Power. Others would just call it a chain of coincidences that worked out favorably for the Fellowship. Whatever the case, its publication in 1941 was a bombshell breakthrough for A.A. at a critical time.
Jim B., one of the A.A. pioneers in New York City, moved to Philadelphia, the headquarters city of The Saturday Evening Post. Jim started an A.A. group in the city and, through a chance meeting at a bookstore, attracted the interest of Dr. A. Wiese Hammer, who with colleague Dr. C. Dudley Saul, became an enthusiastic A.A. advocate. Dr. Hammer just happened to be a close friend of Curtis Bok, owner of The Saturday Evening Post. After hearing Dr. Hammer's strong endorsement of A.A., Bok passed along to his editors a suggestion that they consider an article about the Fellowship. The suggestion landed on the desk of Jack Alexander, one of the Post's star reporters.
Bill W.) had just covered some rackets in New Jersey. (This gave rise to an untrue belief that he thought A.A. might also be a racket.) Born in St. Louis, he had worked for newspapers and The New Yorker before joining the Post. Alexander deserves much credit for probing deeply into a struggling society that scarcely impressed him as he started his research. Though assigned to do the story by his superiors, he could have made a superficial review of A.A. activity in New York City and then abandoned the project as "not having much merit." Indeed, he would write four years later that he was highly skeptical following his first contact with four members of A.A. who called at his apartment one afternoon. "They spun yarns about their horrendous drinking misadventures," he wrote. "Their stories sounded spurious, and after the visitors had left, I had a strong suspicion that my leg was being pulled. They had behaved like a bunch of actors sent out by some Broadway casting agency."
up based on one unsatisfactory interview session. The next morning, he met Bill W. at A.A.'s tiny Vesey Street general service offices in downtown Manhattan. They hit it off immediately. Alexander described Bill as "a very disarming guy and an expert at indoctrinating the stranger into the psychology, psychiatry, physiology, pharmacology and folklore of alcoholism. He spent the good part of a couple of days telling me what it was all about. It was an interesting experience, but at the end of it my fingers were still crossed. I knew I had the makings of a readable report but, unfortunately, I didn't quite believe in it and told Bill so."
ment for later consideration or dropped it altogether. But Bill W. was determined not to let that happen. He dropped everything and persuaded Alexander to investigate A.A. in other cities, especially Akron and Cleveland. As Bill recalled later, "Working early and late, [Jack] spent a whole month with us. Dr. Bob and I and the elders of the early groups at Akron, New York, Cleveland, Philadelphia, and Chicago spent uncounted hours with him. When he could feel A.A. in the very marrow of his bones, he proceeded to write the piece that rocked drunks and their families all over the nation."
mightily. "The real clincher came, though, in St. Louis, which is my home town," he remembered. "Here I met a number of my own friends who were A.A.s, and the last remnants of skepticism vanished. Once rollicking rumpots, they were now sober. It didn't seem possible, but there it was."
article and sent it to Bill and Dr. Bob for review. They suggested only minor changes, though the correspondence between Bill and Jack reveals that Bill wanted no mention of the Oxford Group, a fellowship which had given A.A. its fundamental principles but after 1936 had begun falling fast in the public favor. Alexander said his editors felt the story required some mention of the Oxford Group, but he minimized it.
project. The editors wanted photos to illustrate the article and this, Bill thought, would violate the Society's anonymity. But when the editors said the article wouldn't be published without photos, Bill agonized for a moment and then quickly decided the opportunity was too important to pass up. Thus one photo in Alexander's article showed Bill and seven others grouped in the old 24th Street Clubhouse in Manhattan, though the cutline carries no names. The lead photo, also unidentified, depicted a drunk using a towel to study his hand while taking a drink, and a second photo showed a man on a hospital bed being visited by three A.A. members. Another photo showed a person being carried into the hospital on a stretcher. Published on March 1, 1941, the Alexander piece brought a response that almost overwhelmed the resources at the small Vesey Street office. The Post forwarded to A.A. thousands of letters pouring in from across North America. Volunteers had to be called in to answer the letters, while some were sent to A.A. members and groups in their places of origin. And since A.A. still had very little literature of its own, the article served as an information piece for prospective A.A. members. In Toledo, Ohio, for example, the members gave a newcomer named Garth M. several dollars and sent him out to buy up copies around the city (the price was then five cents per copy). These then became part of the group's literature for other newcomers. Nine years later Alexander penned another Post article about A.A. titled "The Drunkard's Best Friend." Though lacking the dramatic impact of the earlier story, it effectively detailed what A.A. had become and promised for the future -- a promise that has been fulfilled many times over. By this time, A.A. had 96,000 members and was rapidly spreading to countries around the world.
his life, and even served as a nonalcoholic (Class A) trustee on the A.A. General Service Board from 1951 until 1956. He was also said to have added "the final editorial touch" to Bill's manuscript for Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, first published in 1952. Alexander became a senior editor at the Post, and in a special tribute to him at his retirement in 1961, the Post cited the 1941 Alcoholics Anonymous piece as his most famous article for the magazine.
retired to Florida, where he died on September 17, 1975. Bill W. had passed away almost five years earlier, so there was no special tribute for Jack of the kind Bill had written for other early friends of A.A. But from the Big Meeting in the Sky, Bill might have praised Jack as a man who gave us a "ten strike" and with his words virtually saved the lives of thousands. Even without Jack's wonderful article, A.A. would have survived and achieved further growth. But Jack was there at the right time with the right message for his times. Without Jack's persistence and strong belief in A.A., many could have gone to their graves without knowing that a new way of recovery had been discovered and was working. Bill W. and the other A.A. pioneers knew that, and they never lost their gratitude for the star reporter who at first thought his leg was being pulled. - - - - From: Charles Knapp (cpknapp at yahoo.com) In the Feb/Mar 2008 Box 459 is an article about Jack Alexander and it touches on this story about the Jersey rackets.
Charles
Original message #6216 from (Baileygc23 at aol.com) Boss Hague: King Hanky-Panky of Jersey By Jack Alexander Originally appeared in The Saturday Evening Post on October 26, 1940 Edited by GET NJ, COPYRIGHT 2002
the most eminent mugg in the United States. Hague was a mugg when he was expelled from the sixth grade at thirteen as a truant and dullard, and be was
a mugg when he started learning politics the bare-knuckles way in the tough Horseshoe district of Jersey City in the 1890's. He was still a mugg when he was elected mayor of that dreary human hive in 1917, in which capacity he has held the center of the stage ever since with the grim determination of a bad violinist. Hague will probably he known to history as a strong character who, despite all temptations to belong to other classifications, loyally remained a mugg to the end. This is a remarkable achievement when you
analyze it, for Hanky-Panky, as his admirers sometimes call him, has walked with the great and good, and their only noticeable effect on him has been to give him a taste for expensive haberdashery. At heart and in practice, he is a strong-arm man today, tricked out by a clever tailor to look like a statesman.
States senators, and judges of high and low degree. He has been backslapped cordially by the President and by men who wanted to be President. He has bossed the state of New Jersey almost as long as he has ruled Jersey City. He has mingled intimately with leaders of medicine and the clergy and, in a famous civil-liberties case, was firmly kneaded and processed by the august Supreme Court of the United States. He is listed in Who's Who in America and, as vice-chairman of the Democratic National Committee, he is a leader in the Party of Humanity. From time to time, in his twenty-three years as mayor, he has enjoyed the investigative attentions of committees sent by the United States Senate and the New Jersey legislature and of agents of the Justice and Treasury departments. He has been a frequent guest at the baronial Duke Farms in Somerville, New Jersey, and he has dandled a teacup in the parlor of Mrs E. T. Stotesbury, the widow of a famous Morgan partner. Yet, in spite of all these softening influences, he persists in saying, "I have went," and in using singular subjects with plural verbs, and vice versa. In conversation he bellows oracularly and jabs a long finger into his listener's clavicle to emphasize his points, most of which boil down to his favorite argumentative phrase, "You know I'm right about that!" His language, when he is aroused, is that of the gin mill. He rules his city by the nightstick and the state by crass political barter. He is loud and vulgar and given to public displays of phony piety during which his enemies are dismissed as "Red," or worse. At sixty-four, he is still erect and muscular, and he is not above physically assaulting a quailing civil employee whom he has called on the carpet. None dares to hit back, for fear of being harassed by Hague's police or being held up to public disgrace in some devious way. A legislative committee once determined that during a seven-year period when Hague's salary, admittedly his only source of income, totaled $56,000, he purchased real estate and other property for a total outlay of nearly $400,000. This was done through dummies, and payment was made in cash. Hague has always shied from bank accounts. Although his salary as mayor is only $8000, has never exceeded $8500 and has been as low as $6520, Hague lives like a millionaire. He keeps a fourteen-room duplex apartment in Jersey City and a suite in a plushy Manhattan hotel. He owns a palatial summer home in Deal, New Jersey, for which he paid $125,120 - in cash - and he gambles regularly on the horse races. Before the present war began he went to Europe every year, traveling in the royal suites of the best liners. Now he spends more time in Florida and at Saratoga Springs, where he flashes a bank roll, held together by a wide rubber hand, which always contains a few $1000 notes, a denomination of which Hague is childishly fond. Hague's public squanderings have brought Jersey City's municipal finances to a dangerous pass.
corruption in the forty-eight states. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 6219. . . . . . . . . . . . EURYPAA 2010 seeks speaker and participants From: Stockholm Fellowship . . . . . . . . . . . . 1/12/2010 6:03:00 AM
Convention will be hosted by Stockholm, Sweden, July 23-25, 2010.
AND SOME PANELISTS. - - - - The All-Europe Young People in AA Conference Committee is looking for a main speaker for Saturday night - someone with an obvious connection to Europe, came to AA age 30 or younger and now has 10+ years continuous sobriety, and a woman is preferred for diversity (Friday night’s main speaker, Craig F., is male). Anyone interested, or with a referral, please send an mp3 recording or online link to info@eurypaa.org Panel speakers on a variety of topics will also be needed during the conference. AAs from all over the world, and all lengths of sobriety, if you are interested, email info@eurypaa.org and tell us a bit about yourself.
keep
conference costs low. We ask everyone to think of it as an international 12-step
call on Young People in AA. The EURYPAA meetings will be recorded. The recordings are for our EURYPAA archives and people would be able to listen to them online for free; we are not going into the business of selling speaker tapes. It is our hope that young people throughout Europe will be able to hear the experience, strength and hope
of the EURYPAA speakers and seek out AA in their area, or contact us via our website to be connected to AA near them. Hope to see you at EURYPAA 2010! http://www.EURYPAA.org/2010 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 6220. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: life of Jack Alexander From: tomper87 . . . . . . . . . . . . 1/14/2010 6:38:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Excerpts from article by Jack Alexander in the May 1945 Grapevine: The History of How The Article Came To Be Jack Alexander of SatEvePost Fame Thought A.A.s Were Pulling His Leg AA Grapevine, May, 1945 by Jack Alexander Philadelphia, Pennsylvania "It began when the Post asked me to look into A.A. as a possible article subject. All I knew of alcoholism at the time was that, like most other non-alcoholics, I had had my hand bitten (and my nose punched) on numerous occasions by alcoholic pals to whom I had extended a hand--unwisely, it always seemed afterward. Anyway, I had an understandable skepticism about the whole business." "My first contact with actual A.A.s came when a group of four of them called at my apartment one afternoon. This session was pleasant, but it didn't help my skepticism any. Each one introduced himself as an alcoholic who had gone "dry," as the official expression has it. They were good-looking and well-dressed and, as we sat around drinking Coca-Cola (which was all they would take), they spun yarns about their horrendous drinking misadventures. The stories sounded spurious, and after the visitors had left, I had a strong suspicion that my leg was being pulled. They had behaved like a bunch of actors sent out by some Broadway casting agency." IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 6221. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Recovery rates: prescreening was common in early AA From: jenny andrews . . . . . . . . . . . . 1/11/2010 12:17:00 PM
a well-known hospital for the treatment of alcoholic and drug addiction. ... We are greatly indebted to the doctor in attendance there (presumably Towns hospital and Dr. Silkworth) ... Every few days this doctor suggests our (AA) approach to one of his patients. Understanding our work, he can do this with an eye to selecting those who are willing and able to recover on a spiritual basis."
whom he believed would not so benefit. So, as at Akron with Dr Bob's and Sr Ignatia's screening of patients, success rates were distorted by already discounting those they rejected -- even though these other candidates might have had a desire to stop drinking.
From: bbthumpthump . . . . . . . . . . . . 1/10/2010 4:14:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Immanuel Kant and the Eighteenth Century Enlightenment formed the basis for the nineteenth-century intellectual movement which we call New England Transcendentalism: Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), etc. William James (1842-1910), although not considered a Transcendentalist, was nevertheless part of that same New England intellectual world. He was a student at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, from 1861-1869, and taught there from 1873-1907. Ralph Waldo Emerson was his godfather.
he read and was influenced by William James. I can't help but speculate that he was also influenced by Emerson, Thoreau and other Transcendentalists in and around New England.
From: Glenn Chesnut . . . . . . . . . . . . 1/16/2010 7:18:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII The Transcendentalists were in part rebels against the doctrines of the Unitarian Church which dominated Harvard Divinity School at that time.
author ("Twenty-Four Hours a Day") was also brought up within that same New England world. Students began reading Transcendentalist- influenced poetry and so on as early as high school.
in Williamstown, Massachusetts, one of the more distinguished New England universities, where the faculty were strongly influenced by Transcendentalist ideas, and by the kind of nineteenth-century German idealist philosophy that was produced under the influence of Immanuel Kant. The students at Williams College were strongly encouraged to learn German, and many of the faculty there had studied at German universities.
extreme atheistic wing of the Unitarian Church, wrote a book defending secular humanism, and was one of the signatories of the original Humanist Manifesto.
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/AAHistoryLovers/message/4715 It is probably not unfair to see Twenty-Four Hours a Day as Rich's rebellion against his father, a rejection of his father's atheism in which Rich turned to a kind of belief in God that was much more like Ralph Waldo Emerson's Over-Soul: Emerson referred to his Higher Power as "that great nature in which we rest, as the earth lies in the soft arms of the atmosphere; that Yüklə 25,47 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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