[Ads-l] M*A*S*H (was Re: More on "moist")

ADSGarson O'Toole adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM
Sat Sep 24 18:29:04 UTC 2016


Dan Goncharoff  wrote:
> I didn't think the asterisks were added until the 1972 TV show.

This movie poster displays asterisks in the Newsweek blurb. But
primary movie title in the poster seems to use non-standard symbols
between letters. Also, the IMDB title is simply MASH.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066026/mediaviewer/rm1210768384

The cover of the book by Richard Hooker shown in Wikipedia (at this
moment) does not use asterisks.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MASH:_A_Novel_About_Three_Army_Doctors

Garson


>
> On Sep 24, 2016 1:00 PM, "Jonathan Lighter" <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> The movie is titled _MASH_ on screen.
>>
>> Meanwhile, Xfinity on demand describes in a printed caption the
>> Bogart-Allyson film _Battle Circus_ (1953) as set in "a M*A*S*H unit during
>> the Korean War."
>>
>> Don't know if the initialism itself is used in the movie, irrespective of
>> asterisks.
>>
>> JL
>>
>> On Mon, Aug 10, 2009 at 12:12 AM, Douglas G. Wilson <douglas at nb.net>
>> wrote:
>>
>> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> > -----------------------
>> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> > Poster:       "Douglas G. Wilson" <douglas at NB.NET>
>> > Subject:      Re: M*A*S*H (was Re: More on "moist")
>> > ------------------------------------------------------------
>> > -------------------
>> >
>> > Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>> > > The Army acronym never involved asterisks. Nor did the title of the
>> 1968
>> > > novel by "Richard Hooker" on which the movie was based.
>> > >
>> > > Asterisks may have been added in the 1970 paperback reprints - can't
>> > recall
>> > > for sure.  The 1997 printing, the cover of which is visible at Google
>> > Books,
>> > > lacks them.
>> > >
>> > > If memory serves, the newspaper ads and theatrical posters, all (?) of
>> > which
>> > > included the
>> > > asterisks, bore the explanatory footnote,   " *Mobile Army Surgical
>> > > Hospital."  That's what the asterisks were there for.
>> > --
>> >
>> > Those asterisks were added by Hyman Kaplan, I think. (^_^)
>> >
>> > -- Doug Wilson
>> >
>> > ------------------------------------------------------------
>> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>> >
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



More information about the Ads-l mailing list