THE ANONYMOUS REVIEW PODCAST

ANONYMOUS REVIEW began with the podcast.

PODCAST 1 - Mother’s Day, 1935 - []

Bill Wilson, Henrietta Seiberling and Dr. Bob Smith recall their fist meetting, on Mother’s Day 1935

BILL WILSON
Sober since December, 1934 through the Oxord Groups, Bill Wilson found himself alone in Akron, Ohio on the Saturday before Mother's Day, 1935. In desperation he called local churches to find a suffering drunk to work with to keep his own sobriety. The Rev. Walter Tunks put him in touch with Henrietta Seiberling.

DR BOB SMITH
A devout man and active with the Oxford Group, Dr. Bob had taken the step of getting honest with his fellow oxford groupers and confessed his complete inability to stop drinking. The group prayed and when Bill Wilson called Henrietta, she knew exactly who would benefit from his appearance in Akron

HENRIETTA SEIBERLING
An active member of the Oxford group, who had divorced because of her husband's alcoholism, was a friend of Bob and Anne Smith. Their group had prayed for someone who could help Dr. Bob with his drinking. When she received Bill's call, he said "I'm a rum-hound from New York and I need to find another drunk to talk to." Her answer was "You are manna from heaven. I'll be right over to pick you up."

The first meeting of the two men who would be known as the founders of Alcholics Anonymous took place on Mother's Day, 1935 in the gatehouse of the Seiberling Estate, which had become Henrietta's home after the divorce to keep the children near their father. (Seiberling recording, courtesy copyright owners.)

Podcast 2 - Bob Smith Jr. and Sister Ignatia - []

Bob and Anne's son, Bob Smith Jr., went with his parents to the gatehouse of the Seiberling Estate on Mothers Day 1935 and was the last surviving attendee of that first meeting. In this talk he discusses the reality of living on the leading edge of the Alcoholics Anonymous movement. He also talks openly about his later discovery that he, too, needed the benefits of the program his father had helped shape.

Also, Sister Ignacia, a nurse at St. Thomas Hospital in Akron, was a key supporter of Dr. Bob and the early medical efforts to help the alcoholics who formed the early membership. Her often humorous memories are stark contrast to the reality of her lifetime of service to those alcoholics placed in her care.

Podcast 3 - Lois Wilson - []

Known to most AAs as the dedicated wife of Bill Wilson, Lois Wilson had her own take on the early days of AA and her role as a co-founder of Al-Anon Family Groups. The New York counterpart to Anne Smith, Lois cooked, cleaned and played housemaid to a stead stream of drunks Bill would bring home. She also was the only one of the group working to provide needed money for bills and food for the parade of Bill's non-paying "guests." This recording is an Al Anon conference in 1962 at Huntington, West Virginia.

Podcast 4 - Jim Burwell - []

Best remembered for his push to shift the tone of the Big Book from a clearly Christian presentation to a more open “God as you understand God” approach, Jim Burwell was a popular speaker for AA throughout his life.

Podcast 5 - Bill Wilson's History of the Big Book - []

Bill WIlson is credited with writing the first 164 pages of the book Alcoholics Anonymous -- the "Big Book." The outline for the book was written by Hank Parkhurst, who also wrote the opening of To Employers.

In January 1939 Hank sent out 400 cheap "Multi-Lith" copies of the manuscript to people active in the program, their wives (and husbands), and anyone else willing to make comments - ministers, doctors, or related professionals. When those copies came back with comments from the fellowship, the edits were gathered onto one copy and comments to change the approach (notably by Bill's psychiatrist, Dr. Theibaut) were applied to become the first edition.

Bill was never short on ego, but he was quick to point out the contributions of the early fellowship and non-alcoholic friends of AA. In this talk he discusses his perception of the evolution of the Big Book.

Podcast 6 - Rev. Sam Shoemaker - []

Rev. Sam Shoemaker was the pastor for Calvary Mission in the Bowery. It was the place Bill took drunks he pulled off bar stools and the street -- who didn't want to go. Bill could not get anyone else sober with his forceful evangelism for sobriety, but he became lifelong friends with Rev. Shoemaker. Bill often referred to Sam as his spiritual advisor.

One of Alcoholics Anonymous best non-alcoholic friends, Sam has a few things to say about the development and approach of early Alcoholics Anonymous.

Podcast 7 - Fr. John Doe / Ralph Fau - []

The three most-published A.A. authors during the course of A.A.'s first sixty years have been Bill W., Richmond Walker (who wrote the Twenty-Four Hours a Day book), and Ralph Pfau.

Ralph was the first Roman Catholic priest to get sober in Alcoholics Anonymous (November 10, 1943). Under the pen name "Father John Doe", he wrote fourteen GOLDEN BOOKS on specific topics. They are still being read and used by A.A.'s today:

As "Father John Doe," Frau presented a series of workshops on specific themes. Silkworth.Net says they were annual at first,but less frequent as Pfrau grew older. In his later years he was the author of SOBRIETY AND BEYOND (1955), SOBRIETY WITHOUT END(1957), and his autobiography, PRODIGAL SHEPHERD, in 1958 which was expanded from a three-part series in Look magazine. Frau also issued a set of thirty recordings in which he spoke on various issues, including "FATHER JOHN DOE--ALCOHOLIC," "THE LORD'S PRAYER," "ALCOHOLISM--SIN OR DISEASE?," and "THE TWELVE STEPS."

He spoke on these recordings with a flamboyant oldtime preacher's style: his high voice, with its sharp- toned southern Indiana accent, could belt through to the back of a church without a of microphone, and knock any drowsy parishioners on the back pews out of their drift into sleep! His four-recording series on the TWELVE STEPS, in particular, is still as useful today for groups doing step studies as when he first gave them.

Between Ralph and Richmond Walker, early A.A.'s had a marvelous pair of teachers, who taught them how to deal with the two halves of their lives, the inner and the outer.

Podcast 8 - Ebby Thacher - []

In 1934, Ebby Thacher found sobriety through the efforts of Rowland Hazard and the New York meetings of the Oxford Group. With three months of sobriety for the first time in his adult live, Ebby went to visit an old drinking buddy, to share his newfound hope with Bill Wilson.

But carrying the message is no guarantee of sobriety. Ebby was to have a difficult time in sobriety and is the man Bill referred to as "our prize slippee" in the Seventh Tradition section of the book Twelve Steps and Twele Traditions. After leaving New York Ebby was “adopted” by a Texas group of AA, where he passed into and out of sobriety until his final girlfriend moved him to a farm in upstate New York, where he died sober.

This podcast is contains two talks from Ebby T. (1955 and 1958), digitally manipulated to improve the original sound.

Also, Jack McCarthy reads his own work with "DRUNKS" - a powerful statement of hopelessness. Jack can be reach at his website, standupoet.net

Podcast 9 - "The Man Who Founded AA" - []

One man has really not been recognized for his contributions to early A.A. His name is Clarence Snyder and he never made an attempt to be anonymous. Clarence was the man who held the first meeting to be called Alcoholics Anonymous - or more correctly the first meeting to have no affiliation with the Oxford Group.

In March of 1939, in response to grown conflict with the Akron Oxford Groups because of the "alcoholic squad" focus on alcoholism and recovery, and because of conflict with the Catholic church with its members attending Oxford Group meetings, Clarence seized on the publication of the book ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS and named his group after the book.

His first meeting was a book study, replacing the regular Oxford Group readings with reading from the basic textbook of AA, and set the tone for future book studies.

Clarence also revised the idea of sponsorship from the definition of the old "alcoholic squad". Originally the Sponsor as the guarantor of a drunks bill to the Detox hospital, the man who worked with the newcomer through what now would be called the first six steps, and who took the new man to his first meeting. There wer no "meeting lists" and the groups met in individual homes. The Sponsor was the man who guaranteed this man was an alcoholic, and that if he broke or stole something, the Sponsor would set it right.

With Clarence’s new fellowship the Sponsor became a member of the program who, after a few months of sobriety, would carry the message to their old drinking buddies. Like Bill Wilson, Clarence made mistakes in trying to save unwilling drunks by dragging them off bar stools and off the street to be preached at - and he met the same poor result. Clarence saw that someone a little bit ahead of the new man in Recovery carried the right message and needed to work with the new man to strengthen his own Sobriety. As a result, the Cleveland groups grew with a speed that alarmed the AAs in Akron and New York.

At the close of 1939, the year of the Big Book's publication, saw one AA group in Akron, one in New York and three AA groups in Cleveland. In the first half of 1940, the Cleveland fellowship added another two groups. The growth of the fellowship by the personal message from drunk to drunk continued to be a model for AA growth and the Book study is still a staple in AA meetings today.

Clarence would introduce himself by last name, which made some more Tradition based AAs uneasy. He would introduce himself as "the man who founded AA," which was not well received by the other groups. He held a life-long animosity for Bill WIlson and when Hank Parkhurst, man who got the Big Book into print b,egan drinking again, he found a supporter in Clarence, who spread Hank's allegations that Bill and Bob had stolen tens of thousands of dollars from the fellowship. When those allegations were refuted by the open books from AA World Service in New York, Clarence retracted his comments and resigned from the steering committee for the Cleveland fellowship.<

Throughout his life, Clarence continued to carry AAs message to eager listeners around the country and, until his death, claimed Florida as his home. Clarence Snyder, who sometimes introduced himself as “The Man Who Founded AA.”

Podcast 10 - Dr. Bob's Final Talk - []

When he was diagnosed with cancer, Dr. Robert Holbrook Smith (known as Dr. Bob) had no illusions of the prognosis. He lived with pain and did not complain about it to those around him. Instead he continued his dedicated work, helping one alcoholic at a time through is Akron meeting.

In 1950, he and Bob called for an international conference, for by then the meetings had spread to Canada, Mexico, Europe and Australia.

But there was a problem.

The Akron AA's felt the New York AA's were too worldly and interested in the growth of the program as a business, rather than the spiritual direction they preferred. The New York AA's felt the Akron group was too self-important and didn't quite have their feet on the ground when it came to spreading the AA message of recovery.

Cleveland was neutral ground and they were pleased to be the host of the First International Conference. Both Bill and Bob addressed the gathering, but no one knew that it would be Bob's last public appearance.

The talk has been quoted many times, but this is the complete talk and his message to us today is as important as it was 57 years ago.

Dr. Bob spoke on July 3rd, 1950. He died on November 16th, 1950 - after a long period of confinement from his cancer.

Podcast 11 - "The Day Dr. Bob Died" - A One Man Play - []

For years there has been a tape/CD circulating that says it was Bill Wilson on "The Day Dr. Bob Died." Unfortunately, that is not true.

The work is a one-man show written by fellowship member Bill M. called "Moments." He wrote it as an alternative to telling his story over and over to the men in some prisons he visited in Canada. It had been performed in Canada, the United States and Mexico before this recording was made in 1995.

It was never his intent to deceive anyone - he does not impersonate Bill W. ("Bill spoke with a New England accent and delivery, I am more like the Dead End Kids," he wrote). It is a performance in the same sense many people have seen motion pictures with Jesus, Henry VII, Abraham Lincoln, or Pharoh Ramses II.

Bill M. sought a device that would hold the interest of a newcomer audience with a narrative composed of details of Bill's Story in the Big Book, Pass It On, AA Comes of Age and comments found in the recordings of Bill that have survived.

I was ready to air "Bill W speaking on the day Dr. Bob died," when a good friend pointed out the documentation that that was NOT what I thought it was. I felt betrayed and was not going to air the talk.

But when I thought it was Bill W, I really loved this talk. It was not Bill M's fault that someone decided to represent it as something it was not.

If the guideline is "Principles over Personality" then the value of the talk trumps the personality who recorded the talk.

This episode is Bill M. performing as Bill W in "Moments," a one-man show.

Podcast 12 - Bill Dotson, AA #3 - []

When Bill and Bob met, they kept each other sober. To maintain their sobriety they knew they needed to carry the message to another suffering alcoholic. And they tried. Bob would move alcoholics into his home, a practice he would continue for many years. In the early ays it did not work - one man threatened Bob's wife Anne, and Bill, with a butcher knife. Another moved in with his wife and children and became abusive with them. Several never made it to Bob's home to begin the process, but our founders had no success.

Until they received a call from Sister Theresa that a new prospect had turned up in detox at St. Thomas' Hospital.

It was a big, red-haired Irishman who had just blackened the eye of one of Sister Ignacia's nurses. Bob had the man moved to a private room and when he had a few days in the detox, he and Bill went to visit the man.

Bill Dotson was "the man on the bed" in the popular painting. He was a lawyer who had given up all hope of ever ending his drinking problem. From Bill and Bob's first visit he remained free of alcohol for the rest of his life, continued his law practice and successfully ran for office in Cleveland. He earned his place in history as the third member of our fellowship, and a good example to others of the possibilities in Recovery.

This recording was made in 1950 and is nowhere near the quality we would like, but if you listen closely, and rewind to re-listen as needed, you will find Bill Dotson's talk is worth the effort.

Podcast 13 - Archie Trowbridge, AA in Detroit - []

One of the oldest recordings in our collection, Archie Trowbridge was credited with the creation of AA in Metro Detroit. This recording has been credited as both Christmas Eve and Christmas, but it sounds like the announcer is saying "December 25th" in the opening moments.

After Archie's comment, we share the signature piece for a Las Vegas comedy singer, Fay McKay. Maybe "The Daze of Christmas" will let you start off the new year with a smile.

Podcast 14, 15 & 16 - How AA Really Started - []

How AA Really Started is an almost four hour presentation, so we are releasing it as three separate podcasts - Volume 2 Number 14, 15 and 16. This will allow the program to get through most gateways and also allow listeners who are used to shorter shows to stay in their comfort zone.

The producer is available for more information. Jay S.

Podcast 17 - Nell Wing - []

Nell Wing was a regular companion of Bills, and toward the end of Bills life travelled with Bill and Lois. For this episode, Nell gives her accounts of what it was like to be around early AA.

Afterwards, some snippy remarks about alcoholism by comedian Dom Irrera.

Podcast 18 - Ethel Macy and Rolle Hemsley - []

Ethel Macy, Big Book author of “From Farm to City” and the first woman to find permanent sobriety in AA. Recorded in 1955.

Rolle Hemsley - Best known as a professional ball player for St. Louis, Rolle found sobriety with Dr. Bob in 1941, and the newspapers carried the story of his miraculous year without alcohol. His relapse brought the first major negative publicity and figures into the creation of the Tradition of Anonymity in the Program.

Podcast 19 - Father Martin’s Chalk Talk - []

Father Joe Martin was a well known figure around Recovery circles and his Chalk Talk provided a model for many of the approaches to AA to follow. We lost Father Martin in March, 2009

Podcast 20 & 21 - The Three Legacies of AA - []

Bill Wilson always concerned himself with how Alcoholics Anonymous would function without the two founders as a backup to mediate disputes or provide guidance. Dr. Bob died in 1950 and for the rest of his life Bill did a balancing act between he love of the affection shown to him and Lois by the fellowship, and weaning them from an unhealthy dependence on his continued availability. From that concern he developed the Traditions based on the experience of AA’s first ten years, and looked beyond for a support structure that would function within the principles behind the Steps and Traditions.

The Three Legacies is a talk to address his observations for AA’s future. In two parts.

Podcasts 22-27 Service and Sponsorship - []

Tom I. and the late Don P. conducted a weekend workshop in Richmond, VA in 2002. With over 70 years of sobriety between them, and dozens of years as sponsors and heavily involved in service. It is a unique presentation with a very personal and individualized to both topics, with special attention on the links between them as sponsors take sponcees with them to do Service.

They are prime examples of “leading by example” and this presentation is definitely worth the time to listen.

Podcasts 28 - Bill Wilson - []

We closed out the first series of podcasts with another talk by Bill Wilson, speaking in Ft. Worth, Texas in 1954.