A common tradition on the sets of television shows is cast and crew gifts. Ken Levine wrote about M*A*S*H gifts on his blog, and I have written about a few M*A*S*H cast and crew gifts including a “Greatest Hits” record and belt buckle. Those two objects were the special gifts given at the end of the season and were distributed at the wrap party at Christmas time. But there were other cast and crew gifts that were more common and frequent such as mugs, pens, and jackets. Personally, I really like the jackets that M*A*S*H crew members were given, and I have wanted to add at least one of the jackets to my collection for a while. Thankfully, a few years ago, I was able to find someone selling not one, but two M*A*S*H crew member jackets that were distributed in the early 1980s. In this week’s post, we take a look at one of the M*A*S*H cast and crew jackets.
Cast and crew gifts on shows are very common, and as Levine discussed in his blog, mugs and jackets are the most common gifts because they were easily produced in large quantities. That is certainly the case for this blue M*A*S*H jacket from the early 1980s. The jacket has a slick, windbreaker outer shell and a light insulated inside. It would be perfect for working at Malibu Creek State Park in the early mornings, but it would definitely need to be removed as it got warmer later in the day. This jacket was produced by Lord James, which had the tag line “Fine California Sportswear.” It would have been fairly easy to order a bunch of these jackets and have them customized. The back of the jacket has the M*A*S*H logo with a red cross. Of course, by the early 1980s, there were several licensed M*A*S*H products on the market. So, how can we tell this is a cast and crew object and not something sold in stores? The easily way to distinguish this jacket from the other products sold under license is the lack of trademark or copyright information below the logo. I have several t-shirts and other clothing items from this era, and the M*A*S*H logo always 20th Century Fox trademark and copyright date. Since this jacket was not produced for the general public, the trademark was left off.
I have previously written about one of these jackets in a Press Pass post. In a black and white press photo, Jamie Farr wears one of these jackets and is showing one that was custom made for President Ronald Reagan. I am fairly certain that this is the same style jacket since that press photo is dated 1981, but since the photo is in black and white, I cannot be sure the jacket is blue. And I know that blue wasn’t the only color these jackets were made in. I mentioned that there were two jackets that came from this one person, and the other jacket that they had was green. So it is possible that the jacket in the press photo is the darker green one instead of the blue. Either way, having a crew jacket in the collection is very important because it documents one of the gifts that were given to the cast and crew over the years. There were many others, and I have several of the mugs and other objects that I plan to feature in future posts. These jackets do occasionally came up for sale, and if you want to add one to your collection, they are a very cool conversation piece!
The M*A*S*H Historian 