The Saga of the Automobile and Burma-Shave

Prior to 1925, the Burma-Vita Company, owned by Clinton Odell, was marketing a liniment concocted from ingredients imported from the Malay Peninsula and Burma. However, sales were few and the company decided to switch to a product with more demand. The result was Burma Shave, a brushless shaving cream. Clinton's son, Allan, thought that sales could be improved through an advertising campaign using wooden signs planted along the side of the roads. Clinton did not think much of the idea but he did give Allan $200 to try it out. Allan and brother Leonard were soon posting signs along America's roads until 7000 signs stretched across United States highways. The signs were white on red in groups of four, five or six. The last sign always read Burma-Shave. As it turned out, Allan had a great idea because the company's sales started to increase. The signs were particularly popular with families as they kept kids occupied on long trips.

The first ones to be posted were straightforward advertisements. These were followed by verses such as:

For shaving comfort / Without /A sting / That big blue tube / Has everything /Burma-Shave

Then humor was injected:

The big blue tube's / Just like Louise / You get / A thrill / From every squeeze / Burma-Shave

Then in the late 30's auto safety messages began to appear: Take / Your / Time / Not / Your life / Burma-Shave

and

When passing / Through school zones
Please drive slow /Let's let our / Little shavers
/Grow

or

Train approaching / Whistle squealing / Pause! /
Avoid that / Rundown feeling! / Burma-Shave

There was also an attempt to educate the public against drunk driving with messages such as:

Drinking drivers / Nothing worse / They put /
The quart / Before the hearse / Burma-Shave

Another topic was fire safety with:

The blackened forest / Smolders Yet / Because /
He flipped / a cigarette / Burma-Shave

and

Many a forest / Used to stand / Where a /
Lighted match / Got out of hand / Burma-Shave

In the late thirties, some of the signs were a take off on The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere with verses such as:

Hardly a driver / Is now alive / Who passed /
On hills / At 75 / Burma Shave

and

The midnight / Ride of Paul / For beer / Led to a warmer / Hemisphere / Burma-Shave

The signs appeared in practically all of the forty-eight states except for New Mexico, Arizona and Nevada, states in which the company thought the road traffic was too light to make the signs worthwhile. The colors were changed to white on blue for South Dakota, which, by law, reserved red for official warning signs.

One of the early advertising signs was:

Shaving brushes / You'll soon see 'em /
On a shelf / In some museum / Burma-Shave.

This sign together with a shaving brush and mug can be found in the Smithsonian Institution. All 600 of the signs can be found in Frank Rowsome, Jr's book, "The Verse by the Side of the Road: The Story of the Burma-Shave Signs and Jingles." They disappeared in the 1960's with the advent of super highways when the high speeds made them difficult to read.