Magnificent Desolation by Buzz Aldrin

Author:Buzz Aldrin [Aldrin, Buzz]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 0307463451
Publisher: Crown Archetype
Published: 2009-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

ON MAY 8, 1976, I attended the “Operation Understanding” banquet at the Shoreham Americana Hotel in Washington, D.C., sponsored by the National Council on Alcoholism (NCA). I had achieved less than a year of sobriety at this point, and several people cautioned me against going public about my alcoholism. No doubt they were not only worried about the repercussions such public exposure might have in my life; they were also concerned that I had not been living sober long enough. They were right.

But this was the first time that a large group of celebrities planned to declare themselves publicly as “controlled alcoholics” in a campaign to encourage others afflicted with alcoholism to seek help for their drinking problems, and I wanted to be a part of it.

It was an amazing evening. The excitement in the air was almost palpable as twelve hundred people sat around banquet tables in the Shoreham ballroom. Although familiar big-band music played in the background, everyone sensed that this would be unlike any other event they had ever attended. Something special was about to happen.

When the house lights dimmed, a two-tiered dais was illuminated on the platform at the front of the huge hall. For the next twenty-five minutes, CBS television network vice president Thomas J. Swafford and entertainer Johnny Grant introduced a most unusual assortment of dignitaries. The fifty-two people included Arkansas congressman Wilbur D. Mills; entertainer Dick Van Dyke; Garry Moore, best known as the host of the popular What’s My Line? television show; Robert Young, known to millions as television’s Marcus Welby, M.D.; Sylvester J. Tinker, the chief of the Osage Indian Nation; as well as an airline captain, several sports stars, Broadway and recording stars, a surgeon, various Hollywood movie and television stars, a member of Great Britain’s House of Lords, prominent leaders from the spheres of business, religion, labor, journalism, the armed forces, and, of course, me. Each person on the dais was greeted with tremendous applause.

When the last person was introduced, Thomas Swafford announced, “Ladies and gentlemen, we are recovered alcoholics.”

The room exploded with even more thunderous applause as the audience rose to its feet in one motion. This was the first time in history that such a large group of public figures had identified themselves as alcoholics. Of course, prior to that event, rumors had swirled for years about certain individuals in the room, but now here we were, admitting to the world that we needed help to win the battle of the bottle. In his remarks, NCA’s president, John MacIver, said, “I am more than a little awed. It is given to very few of us to be present at one of those moments when you know history is being made. This event will do more to reduce alcoholism’s stigma than anything ever attempted. This is a historic occasion. It should dispel once and for all that alcoholism does not happen to nice people.”

The intense emotion we felt in the room all evening long reached a peak when recovering alcoholics in the audience were invited to join those on the platform.

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