A documentary in ten chapters
The history of Alcoholics Anonymous, from a Brooklyn kitchen table in 1934 to meetings in some 180 countries. Told in captions, about 20 minutes.
Space pauses and resumes. The arrow keys step through captions. Click the picture to pause.
An independent history, built from Alcoholics Anonymous's published histories and archives, newspaper accounts, and the work of AA historians. It is not produced, approved or endorsed by Alcoholics Anonymous World Services.
Following AA custom, members are named by first name and last initial. Nonalcoholic friends of the fellowship are named in full. The pictures are illustrations of places and objects, not archival images. Quotations are kept short, and words that appear without quotation marks are paraphrased.
Dates follow AA's own accounts. Where historians disagree, as with the exact day of Dr. Bob's last drink, the film says so.
| When | Members (estimated) | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Summer 1935 | 3 | Bill W., Dr. Bob, Bill D. |
| Late 1937 | about 40 | The founders' own count |
| Spring 1939 | about 100 | Big Book foreword |
| End of 1939 | about 800 | Foreword to the second edition |
| March 1941 | about 2,000 | Foreword to the second edition |
| End of 1941 | about 8,000 | Foreword to the second edition |
| 1950 | about 100,000 | AA General Service Office |
| 1955 | over 150,000 | Foreword to the second edition |
| Today | over 2 million | AA General Service Office |