M*A*S*H It all started with a book written by Dr. Richard Hornberger as he sat waiting for patients at his offices in Bremen, Maine. Using the allias Richard Hooker it was a fictional account of his years at the 8055 Mobile Army Surgical Hospital in Korea. He based Hawkeye on himself (though he said he never liked Alda's portrayal of the character). Hornberger wrote a number of novels featuring the same characters but none were as successful as the first. The movie rights to Dr. Hornberger's book were bought for $100,000 by Ingo Preminger and a screenplay was written by Ring Lardner Jr who had been blacklisted by Hollywood in the fifties. The film was dire