The Story of the Burma Shave Signs and Jingles

By G.J. Forthun, Manitou Beach, Michigan

December 7, 1995

Some of my favorite childhood memories are of trips I would take with my parents and brothers and sister, in our old family car. The period of time I’m talking about here is the period between about 1945 and 1956, when I was age 7 to 18. Most of the trips we made were either to my mother’s home at Wausau, Wisconsin or to my father’s home at Cresco, Iowa. At the time I was living with my parents at Spring Valley, Wisconsin I didn’t give it much thought, but it was quite a coincidence that my parents established their home exactly half way between their parents’ home towns. Spring Valley was 144 miles straight west of Wausau and was about 144 miles northeast of Cresco, Iowa. That’s either one heck of a coincidence or a carefully negotiated agreement, I’m not sure which.

At any rate, we would travel to either of our parent’s birthplace at least once or twice a year, and sometimes more often, depending on weddings, funerals, and such. The cars that Dad drove through those years included a 1940 gray Chevy, which he drove through the war, and later a 1947 Olds and a 1948 Packard. He later drove a 1951 Chevy and a 1952 Chevy. Mom never learned to drive, so Dad did all of the driving, until Dick was old enough. I remember the anticipation I always seemed to feel when we were on a trip to one of the relatives. I really enjoyed going to see my grandmas and cousins and uncles and aunts. It was a special time, and I felt that it was a real treat to spend a day or two with the other part of the family. We always had a little restaurant or ice-cream parlor that we stopped at along the way, and we usually stopped at the same places on every trip. One of the places I remember was a hot beef stand outside of Cadot, Wisconsin, on the way to Wausau.

One of the things I remember from our trips was that we always passed by more than one series of Burma-Shave signs along the highway - whether we were going to Wausau or to Cresco. I remember that we tried to make a game out of remembering the jingles, or being able to read the signs backwards if they were facing the oncoming cars. We always seemed to get a chuckle from reading the Burma-Shave humor.

It was therefore a pleasant surprise when I recently came across a little book about the history of the Burma-Shave Company, while searching for something else at our county library. Naturally I check out the book so I could curl up and spend a couple of hours immersed in nostalgia. The following information is a summary of that little book, entitled The Verse By the Side of the Road, by Frank Rowsome, Jr. (1965). The book contains a history of the Burma-Shave Company as well as a complete listing of all 600 of the roadside rhymes I have included a small number of the rhymes used during their 38 years of business. Some of the jingles were used several different times through the years, with minor adaptations. A few of these I can remember from my early childhood years. I didn’t realize, however, until I read this little book that the very roads we were driving on were the first roads to have the Burma-Shave signs along them, including U.S. Highway 63 through Red Wing, Minnesota, and Wisconsin Highway 29 across central Wisconsin

The Burma-Vita Company was formed in Minneapolis in the early 1920’s by the Odell Family. The grandfather, who was an attorney, also happened to manufacture a liniment in his office, which he named Burma-Vita, since the essential oils were imported from Burma. After a few years the company was taken over by his middle-aged son, Clinton Odell. Following some lean years trying to sell the liniment, he collaborated with a toiletry chemist and produced a brushless shaving cream which was packaged in a jar. The first year or so the shaving cream was sold on a “jars on approval” basis. A salesman would leave a jar of the cream with a prospective customer and come back several months later to see if his customer liked the cream and would therefore wish to pay for it. This was obviously a slow business, and to speed up sales a little bit one of the Odell sons, Allan, came up with the idea of advertising with signs along the local highways. He had gotten the idea while driving through southern Illinois on his sales route. He noticed a series of signs along a highway advertising a gas station ahead. The signs advertised “Gas / Ice / Beer / Ice Cream / Free air /”, and the last sign was an arrow pointing to the gas station. He was mesmerized by this series of signs, and realized that he was drawn, almost compelled, to read each sign as he drove along. A few days later he got $200 from his father to make and paint a few (series of 6) signs advertising Burma-Shave shaving cream in a jar.

The first few sets of Burma-Shave signs were placed along the highway between Minneapolis and Red Wing, and between Minneapolis and Albert Lea, Minnesota in the fall of 1925. By the spring of 1926 the company was receiving numerous repeat orders from drug stores along these same highways, and the road-side signs were thereby proven to be a huge success. Over the next several years the signs were placed throughout 44 of the 48 contiguous states; eventually numbering around 7,000 sets of signs, or approximately 42,000 individual signs. A well-organized system of maintaining and updating the signs was placed into operation, and the signs became an expression of folk humor that was on everyone’s lips. The Burma-Shave signs were frequently referred to in newspapers and on radio shows, and several radio comedians often made jokes about or quoted the Burma-Shave jingles. Fibber McGee once said of a friend’s poem that he had seen better poetry “on Burma-Shave signs with the last two posts missing”! The company opened up to the public the opportunity to create new jingles, and contests were held every year for many years.

The Burma-Shave rhymes also reflected different times and events in American and world history. For example, one jingle refers to “Bolsheviks”, another group of jingles was about soldiers and sailors, or about the 2^nd World War. Many of their rhymes promoted highway safety or other public service messages such as the need to prevent forest fires.

The Burma-Shave sign advertising campaign came to an end shortly after the company was sold to Philip Morris, Inc in February, 1963. Within the next year or two the thousands of signs were taken down, and what little advertising was done after that time did not have the magic that the signs had had during the previous 38 years. The light-hearted wit and humor that had delighted American motorists for those many years was gone. The many laughs and chuckles experienced by millions of Americans still are a living monument to a very special advertising gimmick. For those of us who grew up during the Burma-Shave Era, there will always be a memory of one of these jingles:

· 1927 - Shave the Modern Way / No Brush / No Lather / No Rub-In / Big Tube 35 cents / Drug Stores / Burma Shave

· 1928 - Holler / Half a pound For / Half a Dollar / Oh Boy! / Shaving Joy/ Complexion Save / Burma Shave

· 1929 – Every Shaver / Now Can Snore / Six More Minutes/ Than Before / by Using / Burma Shave

· 1930 - Be / No / Longer / Lather’s Slave / Treat Yourself To / Burma Shave

· 1931 - The One Horse Shay / Has Had Its Day / So Has the Brush / And Lather Way / Use / Burma Shave

· 1932 - You’ll Love Your Wife / You’ll Love Her Paw / You’ll Even Love / Your Mother-In-Law / Use Burma Shave

· 1933 – He Played / A Sax / Had No B.O. / But His Whiskers Scratched / So She Let Him Go / Burma Shave

· 1933 – Hit ‘em High / Hit ‘em Low / Follow Your Team / Over WCCO / And Win a Prize / Burma Shave

· 1934 – Pity All / The Mighty Caesars / They Pulled / Each Whisker Out / With Tweezers / Burma Shave

· 1935 – Whiskers Long / Made Samson Strong / But Samson’s Gal / She Done / Him Wrong / Burma Shave

· 1936 – Smith Brothers / Would Look Immense / If They’d Just / Cough Up 50 Cents / For a half-pound Jar / Burma Shave

· 1936 – His Tenor Voice / She Thought Divine / Till Whiskers / Scratched / Sweet Adeline / Burma Shave

· 1937 - Drive / With Care / Be Alive /When You / Arrive / Burma Shave

· 1938 - Don’t Take / A Curve / At 60 Per / We Hate To Lose / A Customer / Burma Shave

· 1939 – Hardly A Driver / Is Now Alive / Who Passed / On Hills / At 75 / Burma Shave

· 1940 – Said Juliet / To Romeo / If You / Won’t Shave / Go Homeo / Burma Shave

· 1941 – When Peter Piper / Pickle Picker / Kissed His Gal / His Beard / Would Prick ‘er / Burma Shave

· 1942 - Drove Too Long / Driver Snoozing / What Happened Next / Is Not / Amusing / Burma Shave

· 1943 – Within This Vale / Of Toil / And Sin / Your Head Grows Bald / But Not Your Chin, Use / Burma Shave

· 1945 – The Chick / He Wed / Let Out A Whoop / Felt His Chin and / Flew the Coop / Burma Shave

· 1947 – Don/t Lose / Your Head / To Gain a Minute / You Need Your Head / Your Brains Are In It / Burma Shave

· 1948 – Speed / Was High / Weather Was Not/ Tires Were Thin / X Marks the Spot / Burma Shave

· 1949 – When Frisky / With Whiskey / Don’t Drive / ‘Cause It’s Risky / Burma Shave

· 1950 - These Signs / We Gladly Dedicate / To Men Who’ve Had / No Date of Late / Burma Shave

· 1951 - Train Approaching / Whistle Squealing / Pause! / Avoid That / Rundown Feeling! / Burma Shave

· 1952 – His Rose / Is Wed / His Violet Blue / But His Sugar Is Sweet / Since He Took This Cue / Burma Shave

· 1953 – If Crusoe’d / Kept His Chin / More Tidy / He Might Have Found / A Lady Friday / Burma Shave

· 1955 - The Blackened Forest / Smolders Yet / Because / He Flipped / A Cigarette / Burma Shave

· 1959 - The Draftee / Tried A Tube / and Purred / Well Whaddya Know / I’ve Been Defurred / Burma Shave

· 1960 – This Will Never / Come To Pass / A Back-Seat / Driver / Out of Gas / Burma Shave

· 1963 - If Our Road Signs / Catch Your Eye / Smile / But Don Forget / To Buy / Burma Shave

· 1963 – In Cupid’s Little / Bag of Trix / Here’s The One / That Clix / With Chix / Burma Shave

· 1963 – We Don’t / Know How / To Split An Atom / But As To Whiskers / Let Us At ‘em / Burma Shave

· 1963 – The Chick / He Wed / Let Out A Whoop / Felt His Chin And / Flew The Coop / Burma Shave

· 1963 – Our Fortune / Is Your / Shaven Face / It’s Our Best / Advertising Space / Burma Shave

When Burma-Shave started “pulling up stakes” in 1963, it truly signaled the end of an era. The idea to place a series of 6 small signs along the highway was truly a stroke of genius, and it appeared at the right time—when cars traveled more slowly and drivers were not so much in a hurry. The signs also infused some badly needed humor into the American scene during the economically lean years of the Great Depression. One author who lived and wrote during the time of the Burma Shave signs aptly captured the genius of the signs. “It was easier to eat one peanut than it was to read just one Burma-Shave sign.”

Allan Odell, the main man behind the Burma-Shave story, died in January, 1994, at the age of 90. For 38 years, from 1925 to 1963, he and his father and brother led the campaign to keep Burma-Shave signs along the roads and in the hearts of the American people. They truly made a valuable contribution to their fellow men that will remain an interesting part of our history.

“Farewell, O Verse / Along the Road / How Sad To / Know You’re / Out of Mode / Burma Shave”

G.J. Forthun

Manitou Beach, Michigan

December 7, 1995