Boots And Dog Tags Alan Alda Wore On ‘M-A-S-H’ Sell At Auction For $125,000 That Will Go To Charity

DETROIT — The dog tags and combat boots Alan Alda wore while portraying the witty physician Hawkeye on the enduring television series “M-A-S-H” fetched $125,000 at auction on Friday.

After the program finished, Alda kept the boots and dog tags for more than 40 years before deciding to sell them through Dallas’ Heritage Auctions to earn money for his center to improve communication between scientists and clinicians.

The buyer’s identity was withheld.

Alda, 87, claimed he wore the boots and dog tags during the show’s 11-season run about a medical unit in the Korean War. He played Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce, a skilled surgeon who used quips and practical jokes to relieve the tension of working in a combat zone. The show’s final episode, which Alda wrote, directed, and aired in 1983, received the most television viewers in American history.

The dog tags and combat boots Alan Alda wore while portraying the witty physician Hawkeye on the enduring television series “M-A-S-H” fetched $125,000 at auction on Friday.

The wardrobe department’s gift to him of the boots and dog tags “made an impression on me every day that we shot the show,” according to Alda, who received five Emmy nominations for his performance in the sitcom.

Alda claimed that selling the boots and dog tags at auction suddenly made sense. I saw this as an opportunity to get people back to work,” he said.

The Alan Alda Centre for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University in New York, which works to improve scientific and medical communication through improvisational exercises and other techniques, will receive the funds raised from the auction.

SOURCE – (AP)