Boots worn by Alan Alda for his run on M*A*S*H are among more than 800 items up for auction this week at Heritage Auctions in Dallas. Bidding has started in the Hollywood/Entertainment Signature Auction and will continue through Saturday.
Alda wore the same boots and dog tags through M*A*S*H's 11 season run. Heritage Auctions says the show's costume department did not create the items. They belonged to two World War Two veterans: Hersie Davenport and Morris Levine.
"As he says, you don't really become a character until you slip into somebody's boots, and in this case, those boots have, in fact, been on somebody's feet in World War II," says Heritage Auctions' Robert Wilonsky. "There was something about having real service members' names on his chest that really brought extra weight and gravitas to the moment."
Wilonsky worked with Alda to set up the auction. The winning bid will come with a letter from Alda.
"When I laced up the boots, I thought about the guy who had worn them before me, and what he might have had to go through, compared to their present occupier," Alda writes.
Alda says money from the sale will benefit the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science which helps scientists communicate about their work with the public.
Among other items are Darth Maul's lightsaber from Star Wars: Episode 1, a stormtrooper helmet worn in A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back and a blaster used by Luke Skywalker in Empire Strikes Back.
Other lots include Arnold Schwarzenegger's costume from Terminator 2: Judgment Day, the ears worn by Leonard Nimoy in the first season of Star Trek and a munchkin costume from Wizard of Oz.
"What this is about is memorabilia, the 'm-e-m' portion of memorabilia, it takes people back to when they first watched or experienced the film," says Heritage's Brian Chanes.
Chanes says the items can show people the amount of work actors do to create a character.
Other items include Orson Welles Grammy for Best Spoken Word and his Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for Citizen Kane.
"To them, it was a job. They didn't look at it through the same lense as we in the audience did," says Heritage's Brian Chanes.
A total of 815 items are up for auction. A complete list is available HERE.
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