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I. The Detroit
Prayer - 1945
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The Detroit Prayer...
Our Heavenly
Father
We ask Thy Blessings on
this meeting,
Please Bless the Spirit
and
Purpose of this
group.
Give us strength to
follow this program
According to Thy will and
in all humility.
Forgive us for yesterday
and grant us
Courage for today
and
Hope for
tomorrow.
Amen
Opening AA Meeting
Prayer, Detroit, Michigan,
1945 |
II. Archie T. and
Early Detroit History
Archie T.'s story is in the Big Book as
"The Man Who Mastered Fear" in the Second and Third
Edition, and as "The Fearful One" in the First
Edition.
Detroit founder Archie T.'s sobriety date
is September 3, 1938.
Archie T. went to Akron and spent ten and
0ne-half months living with Dr. Bob Smith and his wife. He says he
got his AA direct from one of the founders. Archie read Emmet Fox's
Sermon on the Mount,and he said it changed
his life.
In December, 1939, the first meeting of
AA in Michigan was held in Arch T.'s room on Merrick Avenue in the
Art Center in Detroit. Present, besides Archie, were Mike E., who
became member #2 in Michigan, another alcoholic, and Sara Klein, a
non-alcoholic.
By February, 1940, the group had 7
members and began meeting in the basement room of a home of a
non-alcoholic couple named Benson on Taylor Avenue. This was
affectionately known as the "Benson's Basement".
They then moved to 4242 Cass, which
became known as the Downtown Group. In the Fall of 1941 the Detroit
Group was split into 3 groups: the Downtown Group, the Eastside
Group, and the North-West Group, meeting on Plymouth Rd.
III. Sarah Klein,
the "Angel of AA"
Sarah Klein was called "The Angel of AA"
because she helped Archie start AA meetings in Detroit and because
of her dedicated service to carrying the "AA Message" to other
alcoholics, especially those in hospitals and prisons.
Sarah had a phone so she was the first
central office. "Central Office" had it's inception in the home of
Sarah Kline (Klein) in 1941, where the first 12 Step calls were sent
out at the beginning of AA in the Detroit area.
IV. Closed Meetings
Begin in Detroit
In the early 1940's so many newcomers
were coming into AA that the people with some sobriety were
concerned about "how best to carry the message to the
newcomer".
In June, 1943, a group of members
proposed the idea of a seperate Discussion Meeting
to more advantageously present the Twelve Steps of the Recovery
Program to the new affiliate and a decision was made to hold a
Closed Meeting of alcoholics only for this
purpose.
The first Discussion
Meeting of the North-West Group was held at 10216 Plymouth
Road on Monday night, June 14th, 1943, and had been held every
Monday night without exception thereafter. A plan for presentation
of the Twelve Steps of the Recovery Program was developed at this
meeting. This plan consisted of dividing the Twelve Steps into four
categories, or phases, for easier study and the divisions were (1)
Admission, (2) Spiritual, (3) Restitution and Inventory, (4) Working
and Message. Each division came to be discussed on each succeeding
Monday night in rotation and this method was so successful that it
was adopted, first by other groups in Detroit and then throughout
the United States, and finally was published in it's entirety by the
Washington, D.C. groups in a pamphlet entitled " An
Interpretation of the Twelve Steps". In Detroit, the
pamphlet was also called the "Table Leaders
Guide".
V. First Radio
Broadcast on WWJ
On March 5, 1945, Time Magazine reported
Detroit's WWJ Radio station's pioneer broadcasts by AA members,
first such radio program in the U.S. The program was called "The
Glass Crutch".
ALCOHOLICS ON THE
AIR
reprinted from TIME
MAGAZINE, MARCH 5, 1945 |
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One of Detroit's citizens stepped
up to the microphone one night last week and told how he had
"hit bottom" as an alcoholic. To underline his confession,
some of the more melodramatic and sordid aspects of his past
were dramatized. Then he told of his regeneration. Summed up
the Announcer: "Alcoholism is a disease...an obsession...an
allergy..."
The man who "hit bottom" was the
first in a parade of anonymous Detroiters who will describe
their alcoholic pasts over WWJ every Saturday (11:15-11:30
p.m. E.W.T.). The series is the first sustained air flight of
the famed organization called "Alcoholics Anonymous" (Time,
Oct.23, 1944).
Detroit AA's give credit for the
broadcast project to a 62-year-old William Edmund Scripps, big
boss of the Detroit News and WWJ. He was so impressed by AA's
reformation of a drunkard friend that he decided to do what he
could to boost the organization's Detroit membership (now
nearly 400). |
VI. Mr. Hope TV
Show
In the 1950's WWJ telecast a TV program
called "MR. HOPE" in which AA members appeared wearing Lone Ranger
masks who told their stories. The masks were worn to protect their
identities. The program aired at noon on Sundays.
One of our current members (1998), Bill
B., was on the show a couple of times along with the Police
Commissioner and some Judges.
VII. More
Historical Information
The first AA Club in Detroit was started
in the early 1940's on Milwaukee Avenue, one block from the GM
Building. A lot of guys would come in for lunch or after work and
hang around and talk AA.
The club was started by Miles W. and Bill
B., a current member.
On Friday , 1942, the Daily Star of
Windsor, Ontario reported that over 400 AA members attended
testimonial dinner in Detroit for Dr. Bob, co-founder of
AA.
Dr. Bob's last major talk was in
Detroit.
Before Ontario, Canada had AA meetings,
recovering alcoholics from Windsor could come to the Detroit
meetings. The following is a quote from an early member on going to
the Detroit meeting on Plymouth Ave.
"We used to have to drive our car to the
tunnel (gasoline was rationed), park the car, drop a nickel in the
fare box for the tunnel bus, ride thru the tunnel, walk several
blocks to the Grand River Street Car, ride the street car for an
hour out to Plymouth Road, then walk about half a mile to Plymouth
and Ilene."
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