TAGS: william g wilson, bill wilson, vinyl recording, lp
 record,rockhill radio record, aa, alcoholics aononymous,
78 vinyl lp bill wilson

more photos here

this google picassa album

from aa history lovers yahoo group
where I am banned by moderator Glenn C
there is also a Milestone Recording of Bill W

I own a red record called Milestones of
Alcoholics Anonymous by Bill
from Rockhill Recording with an address on the
label of 10 east 50th street new
york city.
ELdorado5-1860.
it is a 78 record.

bill wilson alcoholics vinyl

from aa history lovers yahoo group
where I am banned by moderator Glenn C

The Alcoholic Foundation sold these records from 1947 to 1951. I am not sure
exactly how many copies were made and the GSO Archives could not determine this
amount either. The following is a copy of an article I wrote for the May 2007
Area 09 Newsletter while I was the Area Archivist:

=========================================
A Southern California Connection by C P K napp

A few years ago, I
purchased an audio CD of what was being titled "Bill W.'s 1st Recorded
Talk." It said the talk was made in 1947, but gave no other information. When I
listened to it I heard a quote that I recognized. The quote was:

"Perhaps this is not the place to talk at length of my own recovery, of our A.A.
program in detail, or of our astounding growth. This room is filled with fellow
alcoholics who know and practice the A.A. way of life as well as I. The
accomplishments of Alcoholics Anonymous are headlined in the press of the world.
So I shall be content if I can remind myself, and any who would hear that
Alcoholics Anonymous is not, after all, a personal success story. It is instead,
the story of our colossal human failures now converted into the happiest kind of
usefulness by that divine alchemy -- the living grace of God."

I remember this from the 2005 International Convention in Toronto
because I saw this quote on one of the GSO Archives displays panels. Also from
that CD I recognized the talk Bill was giving was copied from a phonograph
record. In October 2006 while in New York doing some research at the GSO
Archives, I was able to piece together some history of this recording. At that
time I was the Archivist for Area 9 in Southern Californian and I found that it
had a Southern California connection other than just the location of his talk.

On Wednesday April 9, 1947, Bill came to Los Angeles and gave a talk at a big
open meeting. After the meeting a member from Los Angeles, who was in the
recording business, suggested to Bill that he should record his talks. This
member offered to provide Bill and AA his recording services, for a small fee,
of course. Sometime during that weekend, Bill shortened his talk and he made a
wire recording and this recording was pressed into a 16 inch record. Bill took
the recording back to New York and found a record company there that
would press records as needed. The member in Los Angeles wanted to press a
couple hundred records at one time, but Bill thought this would put an
unnecessary financial burden on the New York Office. Beside he didn't think they
would sell that many records.

Bill found a company in New York, without ties to AA, called Rockhill
Radio Company, on fiftith Street, that was willing to press one record at a time
or as many at one time as need. This way the New York office would not have to
fork out a lot of money all at once or keep track of any inventory. Bill even
negotiated a deal where the New York office would take all the orders and handle
the money from sales and this reduced the selling price of the records even
more.

We do not know the member's name from Los Angeles or the company he worked for.
However, in the file in New York where I found this
information was a yellowed business card from Specialty Records,
2719 W 7th Street Los Angeles with the name "Art" handwritten on the back. After
some searching I found that Art Rupe started Specialty Records in LA in 1946,
but it is not clear if Art was the member that made the suggestion or just
someone the AA member put Bill in touch with.

In a letter to the group secretaries from the New York office dated May 6, 1947
it offers these records for sale for $3.30 including shipping. Not everyone had
a phonograph that could play 16 inch records so the talk was made on two 12 inch
records, having a playing time of about 15 minutes (15 minutes is a very short
talk for Bill).

In this letter it stated that Bill was very reluctant on make any kind of
records, but finally gave in.

If anyone has a photo of these 2 records,
I would love to have a copy for Area 9's file.

hope this helps

Charles from Wisconsin

re purchased on ebay

This auction is for a very rare set of records. These records contain a speech
by Bill W. , founder of Alcoholics Anonymous. It is thought that these records
represent the first recording of a Bill W. speech. Bill is reported to have been
very reluctant to allow any recording of his talks. However, a persuasive
gentleman in the recording business finally persuaded Bill to make a record
after this man heard Bill give a series of talks in Los Angeles in April of
1947. Bill made an early record that was 16 inches wide, but because many people
had no equipment to handle this format, he authorized the talks to be
transcribed to two 12-inch vinyl records. The label Rockhill was selected
because this small outfit agreed to make small lots of pressings as demanded and
sell and distribute the records for the price of $3.30 including shipping. Bill
was determined to make these talks as widely available, affordable and
convenient to listen to as possible. however, it was never in mass release, and
few copies survive. I do not have any sleeves nor jackets. The records
themselves are in pretty rough shape. I took several photos at various angles to
give an idea of their condition. I see no cracks no warping and no deep
scratches. I have no turntable, so I have no idea of their sound quality.

I believe the quote you gave is from an LP
record Bill made in April or May 1947. The
original version of the quote is as follows:

"Perhaps this is not the place to talk at
length of my own recovery, of our A.A. program
in detail, or of our astounding growth. This
room is filled with fellow alcoholics who know
and practice the A.A. way of life as well as
I. The accomplishments of Alcoholics Anonymous
are headlined in the press of the world. So
I shall be content if I can remind myself, and
any who would hear that Alcoholics Anonymous is
not, after all, a personal success story. It
is instead, the story of our colossal human
failures now converted into the happiest kind
of usefulness by that divine alchemy - the
living grace of God."

That was from a talk Bill gave April 9, 1947 in
Los Angeles. When Bill got back to New York he
revised his talk a little and cut a record that
the Alcoholic Foundation sold. I found information
in an early exchange bulletin that said the
records would go on sale in June 1947. If you
went to the International Convention in Toronto,
this quote was part of the GSO Archives display.

Encore Tapes sells a taped version of the
recording, but so far have been unable to find
a complete copy of his original talk.

Hope that helps
Charles for California

- - - - - - - -

From: <
(feelgoodcp at o.com)

I am not sure where it is written, but an old
timer's son who had passed, brought me a set of
orange red colored records with the rockhill
label. I understand these were produced in the
early days for new groups to play because they
had no members with sobriety. On those records
I heard the quote above.

Hope that helps

Gary Rohde
Ft Myers Florida