Burma-Shave

Burma-Shave was an American brand of brushless shaving cream, famous for its advertising gimmick of posting humorous rhyming poems on small, sequential highway billboard signs.

Contents 1 History 2 Roadside billboards 3 Examples 4 Special promotional messages 5 Political Burma-Shaving 6 Popular culture 7 Books 8 References 9 External links

History

Burma-Shave was introduced in 1925 by the Burma-Vita company, owned by Clinton Odell. The company's original product was a liniment made of ingredients described as coming "from the Malay Peninsula and Burma."^[1] Demand was sparse, and the company sought to expand sales by introducing a product with wider appeal.

The result was the famous Burma-Shave advertising sign program, and sales took off. At its peak, Burma-Shave was the second-highest selling brushless shaving cream in the United States. Sales declined in the 1950s, and in 1963 the company was sold to Phillip Morris. The signs were removed at that time. The brand decreased in visibility and eventually became the property of the American Safety Razor Company.

In 1997, the American Safety Razor Company reintroduced the Burma-Shave brand, including a nostalgic shaving soap and brush kit. In fact, the original Burma-Shave was a brushless shaving cream, and Burma-Shave's own roadside signs frequently ridiculed "Grandpa's old-fashioned shaving brush."

Roadside billboards

Burma-Shave sign series appeared from 1925 to 1963 in most of the contiguous United States. The exceptions were New Mexico, Arizona, and Nevada (deemed to have insufficient road traffic), and Massachusetts (eliminated due to that state's high land rentals and roadside foliage). Typically, six consecutive small signs would be posted along the edge of highways, spaced for sequential reading by passing motorists. The last sign was almost always the name of the product. The signs were originally produced in two color combinations: red-and-white and orange-and-black, though the latter was eliminated after a few years. A special white-on-blue set of signs was developed for South Dakota, which restricted the color red on roadside signs to official warning notices.

This use of the billboard was a successful advertising gimmick during the early years of the automobile, drawing attention and passers-by who were curious to discover the punchline. As the Interstate system expanded in the late 1950s and vehicle speeds increased, it became more difficult to attract motorists' attention with small signs.

Some of the signs, instead of directly advertising the shaving cream, featured public safety messages (usually about speeding).

Examples of Burma-Shave advertisements are at The House on the Rock in Spring Green, Wisconsin. Re-creations of Burma-Shave sign sets also appear on Arizona Highway 66, part of the original U.S. Route 66, between Seligman and Kingman, Arizona (though they weren't installed there by Burma-Shave during its original campaigns).

Examples

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The complete list of the 600 or so known sets of signs is listed in Sunday Drives and in the last part of The Verse by the Side of the Road.^[2] The content of the earliest signs is lost, but it is believed that the first recorded signs, for 1927 and soon after, are close to the originals. The first ones were prosaic advertisements. Generally the signs were printed with all capital letters. The style shown below is for readability:

• Shave the modern way / No brush / No lather / No rub-in / Big tube 35 cents - Drug stores / Burma-Shave

As early as 1928, the writers were displaying a puckish sense of humor:

• Takes the "H" out of shave / Makes it save / Saves complexion / Saves time and money / No brush - no lather / Burma-Shave

In 1929, the prosaic ads began to be replaced by actual verses on four signs, with the fifth sign merely a filler for the sixth:

• Every shaver / Now can snore / Six more minutes / Than before / By using / Burma-Shave
• Your shaving brush / Has had its day / So why not / Shave the modern way / With / Burma-Shave

Previously there were only two to four sets of signs per year. 1930 saw major growth in the company, and 19 sets of signs were produced. The writers recycled a previous joke. They continued to ridicule the "old" style of shaving. And they began to appeal to the wives as well:

• Cheer up face / The war is past / The "H" is out / Of shave / At last / Burma-Shave
• Shaving brushes / You'll soon see 'em / On the shelf / In some / Museum / Burma-Shave
• Does your husband / Misbehave / Grunt and grumble / Rant and rave / Shoot the brute some / Burma-Shave

In 1931, the writers began to reveal a "cringe factor" side to their creativity, which would increase over time:

• No matter / How you slice it / It's still your face / Be humane / Use / Burma-Shave

In 1932, the company recognized the popularity of the signs with a self-referencing gimmick:

• Free / Illustrated / Jingle book / In every / Package / Burma-Shave
• A shave / That's real / No cuts to heal / A soothing / Velvet after-feel / Burma-Shave

Along with the usual jokes, a regional contest spawned several signs in 1933, held during football season:

• Within this vale / Of toil / And sin / Your head grows bald / But not your chin - use / Burma-Shave
• Hit 'em high / Hit 'em low / Follow your team / Over WCCO / And win a prize / Burma-Shave

In 1935, the first known appearance of a road safety message appeared, combined with a punning sales pitch:

• Train approaching / Whistle squealing / Stop / Avoid that run-down feeling / Burma-Shave
• Keep well / To the right / Of the oncoming car / Get your close shaves / From the half pound jar / Burma-Shave

A punning reference to another well-known drug store product 1936:

• Riot at / Drug store / Calling all cars / 100 customers / 99 jars / Burma-Shave
• Smith Brothers / Would look immense / If they'd just / Cough up 50 cents / For half pound jar / Burma-Shave
• Free! Free! / A trip / To Mars / For 900 / Empty jars / Burma-Shave

Self-referencing signs continued in 1937, along with puns:

• You've laughed / At our signs / For many a mile / Be a sport / Give us a trial / Burma-Shave
• If harmony / Is what / You crave / Then get / A tuba / Burma-Shave

Another safety message from 1938:

• Don't take a curve / at 60 per / we hate to lose / a customer / Burma-Shave

Safety messages began to increase in 1939, as these examples show. (The first of the three is a parody of Paul Revere's Ride by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.)

• Hardly a driver / Is now alive / Who passed / On hills / At 75 / Burma-Shave
• Past / Schoolhouses / Take it slow / Let the little / Shavers grow / Burma-Shave
• If you dislike / Big traffic fines / Slow down / Till you / Can read these signs / Burma-Shave

1939 also saw more puns for the product:

• A peach / Looks good / With lots of fuzz / But man's no peach / And never wuz / Burma-Shave
• I proposed / To Ida / Ida refused / Ida won my Ida / If Ida used / Burma-Shave

In 1939 and subsequent years, demise of the signs was foreshadowed, as busy roadways approaching larger cities featured shortened versions of the slogans on one, two, or three signs — the exact count is not recorded. The puns include a play on the Maxwell House Coffee slogan, standard puns, and yet another reference to the "H" joke:

• Good to the last strop
• Covers a multitude of chins
• Takes the "H" out of shaving

1940 saw an early reference to the idea of a designated driver:

• It's best for / One who hits / The bottle / To let another / Use the throttle / Burma-Shave

More safety slogans in 1941, along with ads:

• Don't stick / Your elbow / Out so far / It might go home / In another car / Burma-Shave
• At intersections / Look each way / A harp sounds nice / But it's / Hard to play / Burma-Shave
• From / Bar / To car / To gates / Ajar / Burma-Shave
• Broken romance / Stated fully / She went wild / When he / Went wooly / Burma Shave

Possibly the ultimate in self-referencing signs, leaving out the product name. This one also adorns the cover of the book:

• If you / Don't know / Whose signs / These are / You can't have / Driven very far

The war years found the company recycling a lot of their old signs, with new ones mostly focusing on World War II "propaganda":

• Let's make Hitler / And Hirohito / Look as sick as / Old Benito / Buy defense bonds / Burma-Shave
• Slap / The Jap / With / Iron / Scrap / Burma-Shave

1947:

• Don't lose / Your head / To gain a minute / You need your head / Your brains are in it / Burma-Shave (repeated in 1963)
• Car in ditch / Driver in tree / Moon was full / And so / Was he / Burma-Shave
• I use it too / The bald man said / It keeps my face / Just like / My head / Burma-Shave
• In Cupid's little / Bag of trix / Here's the one / That clix / With chix / Burma-Shave

1950:

• He tried / To cross / As fast train neared / Death didn't draft him / He volunteered / Burma-Shave
• My job is / Keeping faces clean / And nobody knows / De stubble / I've seen / Burma-Shave
• Her chariot / Race 80 per / They hauled away / What had / Ben Hur / Burma-Shave

1951:

• Drinking drivers / Don't you know / Great bangs / From little / Binges grow? / Burma-Shave
• Proper / Distance / To him was bunk / They pulled him out / Of some guy's trunk / Burma-Shave

1952:

• Pedro / Walked / Back home, by golly / His bristly chin / Was hot-to-Molly / Burma-Shave (repeated in 1963)
• The wolf / Is shaved / So neat and trim / Red Riding Hood / Is chasing him / Burma-Shave
• Missin' / Kissin'? / Perhaps your thrush / Can't get thru / The underbrush — try / Burma-Shave
• A chin / Where barbed wire / Bristles stand / Is bound to be / A no ma'ams land / Burma-Shave

1953:

• Around / The curve / Lickety-split / Lovely car / Wasn't it? / Burma Shave

1955

• Dinah doesn't / Treat him right / But if he'd / Shave / Dyna-mite! / Burma-Shave
• The big blue tube's / Just like Louise / You get / A thrill / From every squeeze / Burma-Shave
• To change that / Shaving job / To joy / You gotta use / The real McCoy / Burma-Shave
• The monkey took / One look at Jim / And threw the peanuts / Back at him / He needed / Burma-Shave
• Slow down, Pa / Sakes alive / Ma missed signs / Four / And five / Burma Shave

1959's ads included perhaps the worst of the "cringe-worthy" safety slogans:

• Said Farmer Brown / Who's bald / On top / Wish I could / Rotate the crop / Burma-Shave
• This cooling shave / Will never fail / To stamp / Its user / First-class male / Burma-Shave
• Don't / Try passing / On a slope / Unless you have / A periscope / Burma-Shave
• If daisies / Are your / Favorite flower / Keep pushin' up those / Miles per hour / Burma-Shave
• He lit a match / To check gas tank / That's why / They call him / Skinless Frank / Burma Shave

1960 saw the last group of original signs until 1963:

• Henry the Eighth / Sure had / Trouble / Short term wives / Long term stubble / Burma-Shave
• Ben / Met Anna / Made a hit / Neglected beard / Ben-Anna split / Burma-Shave
• Dim your lights / Behind a car / Let folks see / How bright / You are / Burma-Shave
• Angels / Who guard you / When you drive / Usually / Retire at 65 / Burma-Shave

1963 was the last year for the signs, most of which were repeats, including the final slogan, which had first appeared in 1953:

• Our fortune / Is your / Shaven face / It's our best / Advertising space / Burma-Shave

One sign considered, but never used:^[3]

• Listen birds / These signs cost / Money / So roost a while / But don't get funny / Burma-Shave

Special promotional messages

• Free offer! Free offer! / Rip a fender off your car / mail it in / for a half-pound jar / Burma-Shave

A large number of fenders were received by the company, which made good on its promise. ^[4]

• Free — free / a trip to Mars / for 900 / empty jars / Burma-Shave

One respondent, Arlyss French, who was the owner of a Red Owl grocery store, did submit 900 empty jars; the company replied: "If a trip to Mars you earn, remember, friend, there's no return." After he collected 900 more jars for the return trip, the company, on the recommendation of Red Owl's publicity team, sent him on vacation to the town of Moers (often pronounced "Mars" by foreigners) near Duisburg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.

Political Burma-Shaving

In Nova Scotia, Canada, Progressive Conservative premier John Buchanan would stand at the end of a long line of party signs and wave to morning traffic. This took on the name "Burma-Shaving" and continues to this day by candidates of all parties and political causes. [1] [2]

Popular culture

Movies and television shows set in the 1950s (either "period pieces" or time-travel plots) have used the Burma-Shave roadside billboards to help set the scene. Examples are Bonnie and Clyde, The World's Fastest Indian, Stand By Me, and the pilot episode ("Genesis") of Quantum Leap. The long-running series Hee Haw borrowed the style for program bumpers, transitioning from one show segment to the next or to commercials.

Tom Waits' song "Burma-Shave" (from his 1977 Foreign Affairs album) uses the signs as an allegory for an unknown destination:

I guess I'm headed that-a-way, Just as long as it's paved, I guess you'd say I'm on my way to Burma-Shave

Ironically (given the propensity of Burma Shave signs to dispense road-safety messages) both of the song's protagonists die in a car crash.

Chuck Suchy's song "Burma Shave Boogie" (from his 2008 Unraveling Heart album) incorporates several of the Burma Shave rhymes into its lyrics.

The 1952 animated cartoon Rabbit Seasoning begins with Daffy Duck posting signs luring hunter Elmer Fudd to Bugs Bunny's hole in the ground. A series of signs is written in Burma-Shave style verse:

If you're looking for fun / You don't need a reason / All you need is a gun / It's rabbit season!

The billboard rhymes were an occasional talk topic among the characters of M*A*S*H, particularly Hawkeye Pierce and B. J. Hunnicutt. In "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen" (the show's final episode) there is a scene where Hawkeye returns to the camp, greeted by a series of road signs:

Hawk was gone / Now he's here / Dance 'til Dawn / Give a Cheer / Burma-Shave

Saga of the Swamp Thing #26 ends with a drunk man crashing his car into a tree near a Burma Shave billboard.

The night can make / A man more brave / But not more sober / Burma-Shave

The pedestrian passageway between the Times Square and Port Authority Bus Terminalstations in the New York City subway system contains a piece of public art inspired by the Burma-Shave ads; Norman B. Colp's The Commuter's Lament, or A Close Shave consists of a series of signs attached to the roof of the passageway, displaying the following text: ^[5]

Overslept, / So tired. / If late, / Get fired. / Why bother? / Why the pain? / Just go home / Do it again.

In 1994 and 1995, nostalgia magazine Reminisce used Burma-Shave style advertising signs on two-lane, non-interstate highways to promote their magazine. Two of the jingles read:

Today's Kids / Sure Missed a Treat / No Moonlight Rides / In a Rumble Seat / Reminisce Magazine [3]

We Played Marbles / And Climbed In Trees / Now Kids Can't Play / Without Batteries / Reminisce Magazine ^[6]

The 1997 computer game Exile III: Ruined World contains two references to the Burma-Shave signs. By pressing a combination of keys one can obtain the message "If Valorim... / You want to save... / Back up your save files... / Burma Shave." There are also four road signs to be found, which read "Before they send us / To a grave / Alien Beasts use / Burma Shave."

Books

The Verse by the Side of the Road: The Story of the Burma-Shave Signs and Jingles by Frank Rowsome Jr. gives a full history of the Burma-Shave sign campaign, and its impact on popular culture. The book also lists all 600 of the campaign's signs. In the book, the author laments the passing of the Burma-Shave signs using a self-referential jingle from 1940:

If you / Don't know / Whose signs / These are / You can't have / Driven very far

The book's illustrator, Carl Rose, has his own lament:

Farewell, O verse / Along the road / How sad to / Know you're / Out of mode / Burma-Shave

References

• An article detailing some of Burma-Shave's advertising techniques, as well as the story of Arlyss French

External links

• Burma Shave Modern Shaving Brush by Personna/American Safety Razor Company
• The Burma-Shave rhymes
• More Burma-Shave rhymes
• NPR radio story on Burma Shave