The National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence fights the stigma and the disease of alcoholism and other drug addictions.

For Over 50 Years, The Voice of Americans Fighting Alcoholism

1944 - 1953

"This organization is neither `wet' nor `dry.' It shall not engage itself in any activities designed to promote or prevent the sale or consumption of alcoholic beverages."          Marty Mann, ca 1945. "As long as alcoholism remains essentially a moral problem, it will be met with the weapons of moral issues--condemnation and punishment or, at best, shame, exclusion and ostracism."          Yvelin Gardner          NCADD acting executive director, 1950. It was an idea whose time had come. Not long after Marty Mann became the first woman to stay sober in Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), she resolved to let America know that alcoholism is a disease and that the alcoholic is a sick person. She knew it would be an enormous undertaking that would need the support of an established academic institution so she turned to her friends at Yale University where E.M. Jellinek--father of the modern disease concept--and some of the most progressive minds in the country had been working to transform alcoholism from a moral problem into a public health issue. They recognized that Marty could popularize their cause. A NEW, RATIONAL APPROACH Word spread quickly after Marty and a single secretary opened the New York office of what she called the National Committee for Education on Alcoholism on October 2, 1944. New York had nine newspapers in those days, and Marty used the public relations skills she developed while working at Macy's department store to make sure they all covered the event. When the wire services picked up the story too, editorial pages were quick to applaud what they called a "new, rational approach," and soon speaking requests began pouring in from all over the country. AA, then barely a decade old, contributed to the demand for Marty by publishing notices of her inspirational lecture tours in the Grapevine. But Marty recognized from the very beginning that she could not change America's attitudes about alcoholism all by herself. Her earliest goals included establishing community organizations which would operate "information centers" as well as procure beds in hospitals for alcoholics, whose disease was then more likely to land them in jail. She even envisioned that these organizations would eventually establish their own "rest centers" for the long-term treatment of individuals who could not recover any other way from their disease. "SPARK PLUG" FOR A NEW KIND OF HEALTH MOVEMENT Marty's timing was perfect. The success of AA and the attention generated by the release of "The Lost Weekend" in Hollywood created a steady appetite for information about alcoholism from the public after World War II. Even government and industry turned to the new organization for advice. The heavy volume of speaking and writing requests, constant press interviews, thousands of inquiries from the public and the task of developing and distributing educational literature nearly overwhelmed the tiny organization which Marty described as the "spark plug" for a new kind of health movement. A decade later NCADD was strong enough to stand on its own, thanks to the recruitment of a volunteer board of directors. It amicably had severed formal ties to Yale to avoid being too closely identified with a single school of thought about alcoholism. It also had changed its name to the National Committee on Alcoholism and acquired "NCA," the acronym that would identify it for the next forty years. Marty and the board had good reason to celebrate NCADD's tenth anniversary. More than 50 communities in 27 states had established Affiliates to continue NCADD's work at the local level. State governments had begun developing alcoholism programs with tax dollars instead of relying on punitive sanctions to deal with the problem. The disease concept was beginning to take root among the medical community. And most importantly, alcoholics had better access to care than ever before. When Marty founded NCADD, fewer than 100 general hospitals accepted acute cases of alcoholism. By 1953, 3,000 hospitals offered such care. NCADD was clearly on a roll. It also was broke. 1954 - 1963

National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, Inc.

244 East 58th Street, 4th Floor, New York, NY 10022 phone: 212/269-7797   fax: 212/269-7510 email: national@ncadd.org   http://www.ncadd.org HOPE LINE: 800/NCA-CALL (24-hour Affiliate referral)