M*A*S*H has made television history in a way that’s never been rewritten to this day, and so to own tokens from this show is to own a piece of history. That’s exactly what series star Alan Alda is allowing some lucky fans to do, by selling off his own boots and dog tags from M*A*S*H all in the name of a good cause.
From 1972 to ’83, Alda starred as Captain Benjamin “Hawkeye” Pierce in 256 episodes of M*A*S*H, while also directing several successful episodes of the wartime dramedy. The show meant just as much to him as it did to the 106 million viewers who tuned in for the series finale and so he still had these pieces of memorabilia – and the touching story behind each item.
Alan Alda is selling his boots and dog tags from ‘M*A*S*H’
These items are going up for auction, with all proceeds going to the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science. The auction, overseen by Heritage Auctions, will take place on July 28 in Dallas. Alda’s organization, based at New York’s Stony Brook University, is dedicated to helping doctors and scientists communicate better by creating various scenarios and exercises. It’s a cause Alda grew attached to when he hosted the PBS series Scientific American Frontiers, where he saw how his skills and experience as an actor helped him communicate with scientists and bridge a gap to ensure information is clearly and accurately disseminated.
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He’s combining that passion with his ongoing devotion to M*A*S*H, 40 years later. Heritage Auctions’ chief strategy officer Joshua Benesh is already excited about the dog tags and boots, saying they harbor abundant “incredible” because of their long history with Alda, who kept them in his quarters all these decades.
“It was pretty thrilling that what he chose to keep was something that endured with him episode after episode, season after season, throughout the entire run of M*A*S*H,” said Benesh. But, remarkably, the history extends even further beyond M*A*S*H.
The boots and dogs have a real history outside of ‘M*A*S*H’ before Alda ever touched them
When Alda was given the dog tags for his Hawkeye costume, he found that the names hammered into them were not his character’s, but actually two different, very real names of real soldiers: Hersie Davenport and Morriss D. Levine. Heritage Auctions conducted additional research and found that both men were discharged in 1945. Levine, whose first name was misspelled with an extra ‘S’ on his dog tags, died in ’73. Davenport died three years before him.
“I saw those names every day,” said Alda. “It was an interesting experience to put them on. I wasn’t dealing with props. I was dealing with something that put me in touch with real people.” The simple act of carrying and living with those names each day “made an impression on me every day that we shot the show.” The same could be said with the boots, which were authentic to what soldiers would wear – would need to wear, to survive – at the time.
Alan Alda kept his boots and dog tags from 'M*A*S*H' for 40 years. Now he'll offer them at auction https://t.co/A1DBuHFmP6 pic.twitter.com/2G09K3M7GX
— CTV News (@CTVNews) July 5, 2023
But they also helped fully put Alda into the mindset he needed for the role. “There’s an old belief among actors that when you put the shoes of the character on, it’s easier to believe you’re the character,” he mused, “and I think the boots had that effect on me.”
What items from a beloved show would you want, given the chance to have?
