Alison Leslie Gold on AA. One of 121 stories from Brand Stories from Brand Champions, which I devised and curated for The Store, WPP.
Alcoholics Anonymous at first sight: ruby-haired, sultry Susan Hayward (playing torch singer Lillian Roth) drinks too much in the 50s movie "I'll Cry Tomorrow." She drags her mink coat along the floor while wailing/ slurring "Sing, You Sinners." Helping her rise from collapse, stalwart Eddie Albert (as Burt McGuire, once also brought to his knees by whiskey), offers a steadying cup of coffee, guides her to a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous. More meetings follow. When renewal, along with a happy, sober life results, Susan changes her tune, sings "When the Red, Red Robin …" in a clear, majestic voice:
Wake up, wake up, you sleepy head
Get up, get out of your bed
Cheer up, cheer up; the sun is red
Live, love, laugh, and be happy*
Affected by Susan/Lillian's transformation in my raw youth, the power of Alcoholics Anonymous lodged in the back of my mind though I hadn't even gulped the first of many gin and tonics, nor dragged my own coat across a dance floor. Time passed, destiny danced, quietly waiting in the wings hovered the cost-free fellowship that remains apolitical, international, multiracial, interdenominational, intergenerational. As it had for Susan/Lillian, its long open arms remained ever-ready to enfold all in need of help. Including oneself.
Begun in 1935 by a failed stockbroker and a doctor, AA has since provided sanctuary for many millions of shaky folks in more than one hundred-eighty different countries around-the-world. The organization's covenant with privacy/anonymity at a personal and public level discourages self- identification, but, as "Sing, You Sinners" warns, if one is
…wicked and depraved
And you've all misbehaved
If you wanna be saved **
earthy Alcoholics Anonymous, its waiting empty chair, its offer of support by those who came before, the never-empty pot of coffee, is there. In the same way that a Life Saver promises a fruit- flavored circular candy, Alcoholics Anonymous (its triangular Brand logo – service, unity, recovery , enclosed within a circle), envisions a life raft upon a tumultuous river; its Brand reflects the culture, aims and overall integrity of an ego-free, self- help organization.
I've been a witness to AA's miracles, seen ruined lives salvaged, the sick get well, watched the hopeless find hope, outcasts come in from the cold. Had it not been for the modesty of anonymity, I might describe the pale-yellow silk lampshade I once wore on my head, the golden child I once neglected because another martini took precedence, the amorous inappropriateness undertaken on the S.S. Christoforo Columbo, the seizure had in a Greek island pine grove, but, I needn't. Suffice to say –
Sobriety is a jewel
That I do much adore;
And therefore keep me dancing
Though drunkards lie and snore
O mind your feet, O mind your feet
Keep dancing like a wave
And under every dancer
A dead man in his grave.***
* “Red, Red Robin” words and music by Harry Woods, 1926.
** “Sing, You Sinner” music by W. Franke Harling, lyrics by Sam Coslow, 1930
*** “A Drunken Man’s Praise of Sobriety” by William Butler Yeats, 1869 – 1939
Alison Leslie Gold
Alison Leslie Gold is the author, with Miep Gies, of Anne Frank Remembered: The Story of the Woman Who Helped to Hide the Frank Family, an international bestseller that has been translated into 23 languages. Gold is also the author of Fiet’s Vase and Other Stories of Survival, Europe 1939-1945 as well as the novel The Devil’s Mistress, nominated for a National Book Award. She has recently published a new memoir titled Found and Lost: Mittens, Miep and Shovelfuls of Dirt.
There are 120 more. Brand Stories from Brand Champions collects 121 people writing about the one brand that shaped them. Amazon UK · Amazon US. The full index is at www.davidroth.com/brand-stories/stories/.