Film recalls Akron’s role in AA’s founding
By Craig Webb
Beacon Journal Posted May 21, 2020 at 4:22 PM
https://www.beaconjournal.com/story/news/local/2020/05/21/film-recalls-akron-s/1165044007/
It was supposed to be a homecoming of sorts.
A documentary film about the historic meeting arranged by Henrietta Seiberling where she introduced Bill Wilson to Dr. Bob Smith in the Gate Lodge at Stan Hywet in Akron on May 12, 1935, was to be shown this past week in Akron.
It was to be part of preparations to unveil a new exhibit inside the Gate Lodge that has restored the historic place back to what it looked like when the meeting took place that led to founding principles of Alcoholics Anonymous.
But the coronavirus has put all that on hold, along with the opening of Stan Hywet Hall and the Gate Lodge for public tours for the time being. The grounds are open Wednesday through Sundays so the public can enjoy the gardens for free but the buildings remain closed.
The film’s director Kathy Anderson said she was looking forward to returning to Akron for the showing of “Witness to a Miracle: The Mary Seiberling Tapes” in the place where it all began.
The 43-minute documentary film traces its origins back to a 2015 interview she conducted with Mary Seiberling Huhn, daughter of Henrietta Seiberling, on her recollections of growing up on the estate of the founding family of Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. and, in particular, the night a movement to help alcoholics was born.
Mary Huhn has since passed away, but she shared vivid recollections during the interview of the night that Bill W. and Dr. Bob visited the Gate Lodge where her family lived at the time, Anderson said. The meeting arranged by her mother was supposed to be a short introduction, but Huhn recalls it went much later into the night.
Huhn said even as a little girl, she sensed from her mother that something special had taken place inside their home that particular Mother’s Day.
“There comes a time in life when you want to be part of something important, you know,” she recalled in the documentary. “And she [Henrietta] recognized right away that this was an extremely important movement.” Henrietta was a part of the so-called religious Oxford Group who, among other things, believed ordinary people had the power to change their lives.
Anderson, a Pennsylvania native, said a friend connected her with Huhn and suggested she do a short documentary about her life at Stan Hywet and recollections of the historic meeting that led to the creation of AA.
Huhn died in 2018 in her home in Berwyn, Pennsylvania, at the age of 98. But she was born in Akron and grew up in the small, three-bedroom Gate Lodge that was home to F.A. and Gertrude Seiberling’s eldest son, Fred, his wife, Henrietta, and their three children.
“She had such an important story to tell,” Anderson said. “We were very lucky to talk with her.”
The film was shown at a number of film festivals in New York and Los Angeles in the ensuing years and is available on DVD at the gift shop at Stan Hywet and at Dr. Bob’s House Museum Bookstore in Akron.
But with the anticipated opening of the new “Henrietta Seiberling: A Spark for a Movement” exhibit inside the Gate Lodge on hold until the state allows such places to reopen and the Founders’ Day activities in Akron going virtual this year, Anderson said she decided to make the documentary available for the public to watch online for just $1 at vimeo.com/ondemand/witnesstoamiracle.
“It is so important to share Henrietta’s contribution to the creation of AA,” Anderson said. “This was the start of all of it.”
Film recalls Akron’s role in AA’s founding
Details
What: “Witness to a Miracle: The Mary Seiberling Tapes,” a documentary interview with Mary Seiberling Huhn, daughter of Henrietta Seiberling.
Where to watch: It is available to stream on Vimeo for $1 at vimeo.com/ondemand/witnesstoamiracle
Where to purchase: DVDs are for sale at Molly’s Cafe and Gift Shop at Stan Hywet and Dr. Bob’s House Museum Bookstore.
For more: Visit witnesstoamiracle.info/