Henry Blake's Desk - On episode "To Market, To Market" (aired 9/24/72) on the military sitcom M*A*S*H/CBS/1972-83 Lieutenant Colonel Henry Blake (McLean Stevenson) shows off a beautiful 100 year old antique desk that he had shipped from the States to adorn his Korean War headquarters. The desk was Henry's pride and joy and a pleasant reminder of his home in Bloomington, Illinois. Unfortunately, when black marketers steal a much needed shipment of  medical supplies (hydrocortisone), the crafty surgeons Captain Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce (Alan Alda) and Captain John  "Trapper John" McIntyre (Wayne Rogers) convince a Korean officer (Jack Soo) to retrieve the hydrocortisone in exchange for Henry's desk. Henry, of course, never authorized such a deal. Early the next day at 5:00 AM Pierce and Trapper entered Henry's office to prepare the desk for truck transport. But when Major Frank Burns (Larry Linville) and Major Margaret Houlihan (Loretta Swit) arrive on the scene during a security check and lock Hawkeye and Trapper the office, the cornered desk thieves look for some way to get out with their booty. Their solution? Remove the bolts that secure that back wall of Henry's office. Escaping with Henry's desk in hand, our intrepid duo again run afoul of Major Burns who scares away the truck and driver who was to transport the desk. Not deterred Pierce and Trapper carry the desk to a helicopter pad where it is whisked away to its news owner. A few minutes later Trapper John saunters up to a disbelieving Henry Blake and asks "Sending it out to be waxed?" Dumbfounded, all Henry can say is "I don't know what it's doing up there? It's just going up, up, up." Hawkeye then interjects "To a far better place, I'm sure."

             

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