When I first started collecting M*A*S*H items in 2007, I quickly realized that the scripts, press materials, etc. from the late 1970s and early 1980s were fairly easy to find. However, since M*A*S*H wasn’t as popular in its first season, it is harder to find anything that was saved from the earlier seasons. This is fairly common for most shows. The more popular a show got, the more people saved. Of course, that is great for someone like me who collects original materials from the show. Unfortunately, finding early materials is more of a challenge, and that is where most of my big gaps are in the collection. When I find something from the early years of M*A*S*H, I try to get it as quickly as possible, and that is the case for this press photo. Just looking at this photo of Alan Alda as Hawkeye, it is easy to discern that it is from season one because of the way he is dressed. However the source of this photo was not Fox or CBS like many of the others in the collection, but the Associated Press. Let’s take a look at why!
With any press photo from M*A*S*H, the back is often more important than the front. Most photos were sent out with a paper press releases that included a description of the photo. In the case of this publication, they thankfully taped that release to the back of the photo for safe keeping. That helps us identify the photo today, but the back of this press photo has some interesting quirks. The most obvious thing on the back is the bright orange paper from the Associated Press. It includes the text of a syndicated column, and it is dated April 26, 1973. The first season of M*A*S*H ended on March 25, 1973, but CBS aired reruns of season one over the summer. A well placed article, such as this, would bring M*A*S*H to the attention of new audiences who didn’t watch the show in its first run. The document includes instructions for when to run this photo and story as well. It was supposed to run on May 13, 1973 to coincide a story about Alan Alda. This is a great example of the AP working with local newspapers to run a syndicated article highlighting a show.
The story on the back of the photo doesn’t end there, however. The publication that had this press photo kept it on file to use in future articles, and we can tell from the back of this photo that they did reuse the photo more than once. There are clippings of the times it was used dated December 23, 1979 and January 8, 1982. I find it interesting that such an early photo was used of Hawkeye’s character since he did change after season one. He rarely wore the hat (similar to the style we saw Donald Sutherland wear as Hawkeye in Robert Altman’s M*A*S*H film), and I am sure there were other photos of Alda as Hawkeye available. There are a few other markings specific to this newspaper indicating that the photo was filed in 1978, and there’s also a bright pink “Return to Library” sticker to ensure that after the photo was used for a story, it would be refiled for potential future use.
This press photo had a unique journey. CBS and Fox regularly sent out press photos promoting new seasons and each week’s M*A*S*H episode. Those photos were often not reused since they were specific to a single episode. However, these character portraits were often used multiple times. I have similar examples for Gary Burghoff and Loretta Swit. This photo of Hawkeye is good because it immediately recognizable, and it would quickly grab the attention of someone glancing over the newspaper. That was the goal! A fan of M*A*S*H would want to read why a photo of Alda was in the paper. I love seeing the provenance on the back of these press materials because we can typically trace when they were released, what they were used for, and whether they were used more than once. In the era before the internet, magazines and newspapers were how networks reached their audience, and press materials such as this were vital to the success of a show.
The M*A*S*H Historian 