Pioneers for the Millions of Social Drinkers Who Haven’t Fallen Yet – Ed A.

About This Speaker Tape

Ed Andy delivers a pioneer's lead about miracles before and after AA, opening with tribute to Clarence Snyder and the early Borden Group in Akron. He traces his drinking from age six in 1912 — a pail of beer his uncle sent him to fetch — through guarding the manger as an altar boy, sipping holy wine in the church basement, parading in soldier's uniform for President Wilson in 1917, and watching Mr. Kirch, the wealthiest, most respected man in Lorain, lecture drunks about moderation only to die a hidden alcoholic in 1929.

The heart of the lead is the well-dressed-man story. After five years of prayer with blisters on his knees, Ed receives a vision telling him to move his family to Ravenna, Ohio, where he will meet a well-dressed man. He waits eleven days, drinks through his stash of blackberry wine and whiskey, and on the twelfth day a stranger named Smitty joins him at Sam's bootlegger table. Three Sundays later a husky sand-pit man calls Smitty 'Doc,' and Ed realizes the well-dressed man is Dr. Bob Smith from Akron. Ed describes burying a gallon of whiskey in his yard with a prayer never to touch it unless too sick to reach the bootlegger.

He recounts working with Dr. Michael Miller and Mark Hanna in Cleveland's Hoover Dump and Warrensville Workhouse, the medical board trying to seize the program, his trip to Cordoba Argentina to study alcoholism, and his October 24, 1939 introduction to Bill Wilson at the Portage Hotel. From his office in Cleveland's Central Police Station he funneled thousands of judge-referred drunks into AA, then opened groups across California, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona — including the first Phoenix group launched after a chance hamburger-counter encounter with a rancher's son.

Later stories include Wallace, sober seven years and seven days, who returns to Vern Bender's at 8023 Detroit and saves a man pronounced dead by spotting him move his eyes; Addie Harrison, the stuttering politician whose police-dog Rex pulls him from a wine store and becomes his sponsor; Steve Bond, the millionaire who waved a hundred-dollar bill as his spiritual program and died six months after discharge; and brushes with Lawrence Welk, Jack Bailey, and Bing Crosby. Ed closes saying he would rather have the spirit of Higher Power in him than the spirits of alcohol.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:00 Opens with tribute to Clarence Snyder and the Borden Group, the world's first AA group, and the pioneers who froze and starved opening trails west
• 5:00 1912 pail of beer at age six, drinking holy wine in the parochial school basement, voted to guard the Jesus in the manger Christmas 1917
• 12:00 Mr. Kirch lecturing Stanley and Harry about drinking too much while claiming a drink morning, noon, and night never made him drunk — then collapsing as a hidden alcoholic by 1919
• 20:00 Three-quart bootlegger run that turned into a twenty-day disappearance from June 18 to July 8, cashing checks and sleeping above the saloon
• 28:00 Third and fourth stage shakes, Warner Brothers Lost Weekend dummy wall with snakes and rats, attempted shotgun and rope suicide stopped by hundreds of birds
• 36:00 Five years of prayer with blisters on knees, vision of Higher Power telling him to move to Ravenna Ohio to meet a well-dressed man
• 48:00 Twelfth day at Sam's bootlegger meets Smitty, three Sundays later Harry from the sand pits calls him Doc — revealing Dr. Bob Smith
• 65:00 Cleveland origin work with Dr. Michael Miller and Mark Hanna, Hoover Dump and Warrensville Workhouse experiments, Plain Dealer story, government offer of Lexington Kentucky and Cordoba Argentina
• 78:00 October 24 1939 introduction to Bill Wilson at the Portage Hotel, Central Police Station office at 21st and Payne, opening groups across California Colorado New Mexico Arizona
• 95:00 Addie Harrison and the police dog Rex who got drunk on drip-pan wine, dragged his master to the curb, and became his AA sponsor at the Banner Hall on Lorain Avenue