One Drunk to Another A Bunch of Actors
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Illustration · A desk with one thing from each way the world heard about AA: a radio, a film can, a magazine open at an article on AA, a newspaper clipping and a phone playing a video. Imagined: they come from different decades and were never on one desk.

A Bunch of Actors

How the world heard

Reporters, broadcasters and filmmakers carried AA’s story to the world, and AA learned to tell it without a name or a face.

“Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, and films.”

AA’s Eleventh Tradition, in its short form · Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, 1953

AA’s Eleventh Tradition calls its public relations policy attraction rather than promotion, and asks members to keep their names and faces out of the press, radio and films. So for most of its history the world heard about AA from others: reporters and editors, broadcasters and filmmakers.

This piece follows them part by part: a Liberty writer and a Houston newspaperman in 1939 and 1940; Jack Alexander of the Saturday Evening Post, who thought the first members he met behaved like a bunch of actors; radio, from NBC to a CBS drama that swamped AA’s office; The Lost Weekend and the pictures that followed it; masked members on early television; AA’s own spots, filmed in shadow; and a biography and a television movie of Bill W.’s life. Legacy ends with today, when AA’s spots cast actors as its members and AA tells its story on screens of its own.

It’s built from AA’s own books, the Grapevine and AA’s newsletter Box 4-5-9, the actions of AA’s General Service Conference, Bob P.’s unpublished history of AA, written in 1985, Arthur S.’s timeline, the writers’ own accounts, and film and television reference works. Several of these stories are told elsewhere on this site from AA’s side; here they’re told from the other side of the desk, with links between the two. Where the sources disagree, these pages say so.

Start with 1 · Six articles

How the world heard, year by year

  1. 1939In September Liberty prints “Alcoholics and God,” and a month later Cleveland’s Plain Dealer begins a series on AA.
  2. 1940Larry J., a newspaperman off the train in Houston, boils the Big Book down to six articles for the Houston Press.
  3. 1941The Saturday Evening Post of March 1 carries Jack Alexander’s article. By the end of the year AA has 8,000 members.
  4. 1941NBC begins a 13-part syndicated radio series, Is Alcohol a Problem in Your Home?
  5. 1945Paramount releases The Lost Weekend in November, and Marty M. reviews it in the Grapevine.
  6. 1949A ten-episode CBS radio drama about an alcoholic who finds AA brings AA’s office a flood of inquiries.
  7. 1953Art Linkletter interviews a masked woman member of AA on television.
  8. 1955Actors play Bill W. and Dr. Bob in “One Day at a Time,” on ABC’s DuPont Cavalcade Theater.
  9. 1956AA’s Conference approves a public information policy, and in Detroit Mr. Hope puts members in masks on Sunday television.
  10. 1960sAA’s first television spots show its members only in shadow.
  11. 1968AA’s Conference rules that a full face on television breaks anonymity, even without a name.
  12. 1971At Bill W.’s death, AA’s board gives his full name to the press.
  13. 1979The Conference approves AA’s own film, Alcoholics Anonymous—An Inside View.
  14. 1989ABC broadcasts My Name Is Bill W., with James Woods as Bill.
  15. 2011The Conference adopts a policy on actors who play members in AA’s videos.
  16. 2018AA World Services opens a YouTube channel, with the comments turned off.
  17. 2026AA’s yearly letter to the media asks for first names only, and no faces that can be recognized.

The line the news moved, 1938 to today

AA’s membership, in the round numbers its own books and reports give, with each part’s story pinned where it fell. Each grid line is ten times the one below it, so the first hundred members and the last two million fit on one chart; 2 · A bunch of actors has the first years close up.

AA’s membership, 1938 to today, with the stories in this pieceA line chart of AA’s membership in the round numbers its own books and reports give, on a scale where each grid line is ten times the one below: about 40 in 1938, 100 in 1939, 8,000 at the end of 1941, 200,000 in 1957, more than a million in 1976, about two million in 1990 and still more than two million in 2026. The line climbs steeply until the mid-1940s, then more and more gently. Numbered pins mark the stories of the seven parts: the Houston Press articles early in 1940 (1), the Saturday Evening Post in March 1941 (2), a CBS radio drama in 1949 (3), The Lost Weekend in November 1945 (4), Detroit’s Mr. Hope in 1956 (5), AA’s television spots of the 1960s (6) and the TV movie My Name Is Bill W. in 1989 (7).1001,00010,000100,0001 million19401960198020002020200,0001 million2 millionSix articles: the Houston Press, early 19401A bunch of actors: the Saturday Evening Post, March 19412On the air: a CBS radio drama, 19493Outsiders can understand us: The Lost Weekend, November 19454Masks: Detroit’s Mr. Hope, 19565In shadow: AA’s television spots, the 1960s6My Name Is Bill W.: ABC, April 19897
Counts from the Big Book’s foreword (1939), Bill W. in the Grapevine, AA Comes of Age (1957, with landmarks added in later printings), Pass It On (1984), the General Service Conference’s report for 1990 as Arthur S. tabulated it, and AA’s letter to the media of January 2026. They are estimates; nobody keeps a roll. The 1976 figure is the office’s own estimate, while the 1990 one is what the groups reported, which Arthur S. thought an undercount. From the 1950s on, the line can show only where a story fell, not what it moved.
  1. 1

    Six articles · 1939–1940

    Liberty, the Plain Dealer and six articles in the Houston Press. AA ended 1939 with more than 800 members, Bill W. wrote.

  2. 2

    A bunch of actors · March 1941

    The Saturday Evening Post. AA went from 2,000 members to 8,000 by the end of the year.

  3. 3

    On the air · 1941–1950

    NBC’s series in 1941, a CBS drama in 1949. In 1951, the records showed 111,765 members, Pass It On says; Arthur S. dates that count to 1950.

  4. 4

    Outsiders can understand us · November 1945

    The Lost Weekend. By June 1946 AA had more than 24,000 members, Bill wrote.

  5. 5

    Masks · 1953–1956

    Masked members on television. By 1957 AA had over 200,000 members in 7,000 groups.

  6. 6

    In shadow · the 1960s

    AA’s first spots. By 1976 AA estimated more than a million members worldwide.

  7. 7

    My Name Is Bill W. · April 1989

    The TV movie on ABC. AA’s count passed two million in 1990, dipped below it in the mid-1990s, and is above it today.

Walk through how the world heard

Each part has a short story, a one-minute audio stop, and a closer look for anyone who wants to go deeper. Read them in order, or start anywhere.

    New to the story? The Kitchen Table tells how AA began, from one drunk talking to another to millions around the world.

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