THE VICIOUS CIRCLE

[Music] [Music] so [Music] who is this man this bum this drunk it's i tommy farrell i'm sorry and ashamed that you see me like this i thought that i could run away from you yes you and everyone else for a month i've been trying to run away to escape from myself from from reality i thought that if i drank enough i could forget forget who i am and forget the grief and anxiety i've caused my family and my friends i'm an artist who was among advertising men i'm known as the fair-haired boy of poster art especially liquor poster art you've all seen my work or at least some of it i know you're all familiar with liquor ads everywhere you look you see them you've caught me at a pretty bad time but i might as well face you i can't hide anymore believe me when i say this could happen to you or to a friend or even to your family listen to my story and watch closely then maybe you'll believe as i was stumbling through this oil field along the pacific coast i didn't realize that an old friend john manning was close by getting information for an advertising campaign a campaign for beach oil and manning didn't realize that the staggering character pointed out to him was me yes tommy farrell to whom he'd offered a lucrative position several years ago and it all started with one drink not even whiskey at that it started with one drink of beer but that one glass of beer was a lighted fuse that set up a whole powder keg of misery when i started with that one beer i smashed open a whole pandora's box of anxiety pain and nerve shattering despondency that one drink of beer started me in a vicious circle that led from beer to wine to whiskey and later a combination of the three finally i was driven to taking sedatives or goofballs as they're called on skid row in an effort to soothe my jumping nerves nerves made raw by alcohol at this point i sunk so low or thought i had the only solution to my problem seemed to be to do away with myself yes i know the coward's way out i know that but you must remember that my brain was crowded with alcohol that i was anything but rational [Music] so [Music] at first manning didn't recognize me i doubt if my own wife would have but when he did the shock of witnessing a near tragedy coupled with the realization that the would-be suicide was an old friend prompted him to take charge of me forcefully but gently see he was wise enough not to start firing questions at me he wanted to take me to his home and call a doctor [Music] the fresh air revived me considerably and at my insistence we pulled in at an auto park where i started to tell manning what had happened to me i was sick scared and ashamed but i wanted to talk manning asked if i was having trouble at home with dorothy my wife no no it wasn't that my business after the last time i'd been at the office business was excellent i had a fine office in a beautiful building and i was making money hand over fist turning out poster art for several brewers and distillers it wasn't the type of work i wanted or liked but it paid extremely well i constantly had the feeling that i was helping to sell the public a legitimate but insidious drug i was helping to plaster the countryside and the city streets with obnoxious liquor ads enticing people to drink constantly reminding them of alcohol well that's when the trouble began [Music] in a mood of depression i decided to follow the advice on a poster i was doing feel bad have a glass of ale well one wouldn't hurt i thought and it might help [Music] it didn't and i forgot to stop at one drink in fact i kept drinking and forgetting i even talked to a girl at the bar who was a perfect stranger she accepted my invitation for a drink a glass of beer that drink was real but later i learned that she was employed by the bar to solicit drinks from customers when she ordered whiskey she was given cold tea of course she got a cut from each drink she could wrangle from a pickup so you see i was on the way down but fast [Music] then one morning one morning after i'd been out drinking all night i staggered home [Music] just in time for my wife and daughter to see me [Music] my daughter frightened turned from me dorothy perturbed but understanding help me up the steps [Music] i promised dorothy that i'd stopped drinking and i tried i really did but my nerves were on edge i found out how ragged my nerves were one day when my wife dropped into the office to say hello i blew up for no reason whatsoever no reason she merely musked my hair a bit it was just a little gesture of affection on her part i tried to stop drinking but no matter what i did or where i went i was constantly reminded that a drink could be had almost anywhere at any time for almost any price everywhere i looked i saw liquor ads to make matters worse it was but a few weeks to christmas but i couldn't see the colorful decorations the whiskey ads were in the way every magazine i picked up seemed filled with information and advice upon how to be the life of the party the possessor of a clear head and the owner of a sweet tasting breath if only the reader would buy and drink the best whiskey or the cheapest or just any old liquor at all just as long as it contained alcohol i was particularly aware of the thousands of outdoor displays partly because i designed so many of them even the buses and streetcars were plastered with liquor ads and on the radio the commercials were continuously touting beer and wine one display i saw every day as i left the office covered the entire side of a 12-story building one day at the office i thought i could stand it no more unless i had a drink i kept a bottle in the desk now i used to drink at night and then before lunch but now now i started in the morning i was associating with people i never would have associated with were i sober i was even giving my money away to a bar girl whose only interest i knew was in how much he could get out of me but i didn't care i was afraid to go home now oh i knew that dorothy would stick by would try to understand and would certainly do anything to help me but i gotten to the point where i was ashamed confused and getting more irrational by the hour i didn't want anyone i knew or loved to see me i'd work this out all right at night when i roamed the streets the same old signs glared at me those leering beckoning neon signs dragged me away from what senses i had left and into any bar that might be handy soon i was on skid row yeah the end of the line for me and for thousands of others here in these brick and cement jungles found in almost every city of any size are countless men all trying to escape existing only for the next drink begging stealing and even sometimes killing for enough money to buy another drink and another and another here i could get raw wine for 39 cents a quart and whiskey for a dime a shot 50 cents would buy me a ticket to oblivion for a while the next morning would always come around the light of day would bring out all the hidden fears and the despondency that i tried to drown in alcohol the night before only the fears would be magnified and my shaking hands would tremble so badly that i could hardly lift another drink to my lips another drink in an attempt to quiet my screaming body thousands of others were doing the same thing some of them hardly in their teens many veterans of the last war and of the first there were old old men living only to drink and drinking to live [Music] i had to have money for a drink for a bottle i had one thing left with me that would interest a pawn broker an expensive foreign camera that dorothy had given me on our last anniversary i've been in the habit of carrying it with me always for photographing outdoor scenes that might be used in future advertising posters now i would sell it for the price of two more days drink to keep me going to keep me going for what [Music] [Music] i wasn't choosy about where i did my drinking now any convenient alley would do stay out of the bars i figured it's cheaper than the cheapest bar to buy the stuff by the bottle and drink outside just as long as the law didn't see me i still had my feet out of the gutter almost [Music] my nerves throbbing from alcohol yelled for something to quiet them alcohol alone wasn't enough so i found a man who would sell me sedatives sleeping pills without a prescription and for a price [Music] now i was down to gutter level alcohol and sleeping pills alcohol to pet me up to try to make myself feel like a human being sedatives to quiet me down to cancel the ravishing effects of drink the two combined to make me one of the skid row living dead i entered into a nightmare existence now [Music] when i awakened from that drink and drug stupor i wandered down to the waterfront where several days later manning found me [Music] [Music] manning called his doctor who examined me carefully and then told me that i was in pretty bad shape fortunately this spree that i'd been on was an isolated incident had it been habitual or of longer duration it could have meant my life up to the time when i began to drink i had been in good physical condition but even so the road back to reality was a hard one when i'd not care to travel over again my wife came to see me as soon as the doctor thought it advisable she didn't ask one question that might cause me remorse we had a silent understanding between us that closed the book on this sordid chapter in my life after i was well enough to get out of bed a plan formed in my mind to help others who might find themselves haunted by the constant reminders of ever-present liquor ads dr cartwell helped me he'd been fighting the whiskey interest for years he pointed out that alcohol like sedatives was a hypnotic it might be classed as habit forming the doctor gave me a booklet it was the union signal the weekly publication of the woman's christian temperance union until then i had no idea how deeply this organization had gone into the fight against alcohol and with proven figures and facts to back up their fight the figures were terrifying around nine billion dollars spent last year for liquor nearly twice that amount spent in fighting crime and vice which had started with a drink to say nothing of the cost in lives and dollars caused by drinking drivers dr cardwell left me with a final bit of advice stop smoking tommy and you will feel like a new man lungs were not made to be filled with smoke and nicotine i presented my plan to manning why not a law to force all distillers to put warning labels on each and every bottle containing an alcoholic beverage the label to read warning may be habit forming that would help stop drinking and would certainly keep the younger people from ever taking that first drink manning liked the idea so well that he arranged for me to meet his biggest client mr george jason president of beach oil we met at mr jason's beverly hills home there he told me that he was having many problems at his refineries and oil wells there had been many accidents and much absenteeism amounting to thousands of lost hours accidents and absenteeism caused directly by alcohol well i outlined my campaign to combat liquor advertising and alcohol in general i showed him many pages of liquor ads cut at random from dozens of national magazines the ads were designed to attract both the young and the old the drinker and the non-drinker invariably they boldly suggested that to be a real man a man of distinction a man looked upon as a success in business and the life of the party it was necessary only to buy a certain brand of whiskey or wine or beer what a joke what a tragic joke it was a vicious campaign to lure as much of the population as possible into a trap baited with ridiculous possibilities drink this drink that alcohol the great panacea the great cure-all alcohol was being ballyhooed all over the nation our country was taking on the aspect of an old-time medicine show i pointed out to jason the great possibility of using warning labels on liquor bottles as a stopgap between the distiller and his advertising and the probable consumer of his product dr cardwell explained that the plan was not only feasible and ethical but was desperately necessary to the nation's well-being [Music] i further told mr jason that i thought it a good idea to place in schools and in churches and factories and wherever possible cartoons lampooning the liquor industry and liquor advertising cartoons designed to tell the truth about alcohol to show that almost everything that is undesirable in our lives today can be traced to the use of alcohol as a beverage most crime and vice and gambling exist because alcohol is somewhere in the background [Music] jason was immediately impressed with my ideas and he suggested that manning and i leave with him for washington as soon as possible two days later i said goodbye to my family and we drove down to the station to board a train for washington [Music] so well my personal battle is one now i'm about to enter into a greater battle the fight to tone down insidious liquor advertising in the fight to eventually remove alcohol from the american scene and way of life i learned the hard way i want to make it possible for you to avoid in any degree the suffering that i have endured just because of that first drink that first glass of beer take heed my friends i implore you take heed as we faced the capital marched up those broad steps i felt that we were fighting for our homes our children our very country even our sanity [Music] you