For 11 seasons Alan Alda graced our television screens portraying the wisecracking Capt. Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce on M*A*S*H. Now, 40 years later Alda is ready to let go of a piece of television history: his character’s boots and dog tags.
The 87-year-old actor plans to auction the worn boots and dog tags with the proceeds benefitting Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University, according to the Associated Press.
The center, founded by Alda, helps scientists and doctors communicate better by applying improvisational exercises and communication strategies.
At the conclusion of the series the costume department gifted the boots and dog tags to Alda.
The items, he said, “made an impression on me every day that we shot the show.”
“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 and I think the boots had that effect on me.”
After receiving the dog tags Alda realized they didn’t bear his character’s name, instead the tags carried the name of two men, likely soldiers.
“I saw those names every day,” he said. “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.”
Heritage Auctions conducted their own research and discovered both men, Hersie Davenport and Morriss D. Levine, had served in the military and were discharged in 1945.
Davenport died in 1970, while Levine died in 1973.
In the decades that followed the series finale of M*A*S*H, Alda kept the items on a shelf in his office before storing them away for safe keeping.
“I saw this as a chance to put them to work again.”
READ MORE:
- ‘M*A*S*H’ star Alan Alda overcame childhood struggles, now battles Parkinson’s
- Gary Burghoff retired his role as Radar on M*A*S*H to be a daddy, a role he says is more important than money or fame
I love Alan Alda even more for donating his prized possessions from his days on M*A*S*H to support research.
