One of the most entertaining things while traveling in the west in California Oregon, Washington Arizona Nevada and other states was being very very remote with no radio reception at all in your car and seeing these kinds of messages on signs and laughing when I was a kid in the 1950s. It would usually be one to three words on a sign, then you would have to drive further for the next message and then the next. But, today with infinite media I'm not sure you can relate to the boredom of traveling miles across straight roads in the west with no towns through deserts with no media of any kind and coming upon Burma shave signs that made you laugh or think differently at least about what was happening while traveling across the wide open spaces.
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Examples[edit]
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.[4] 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
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
Safety messages began to increase in 1939, as these examples show. (The first of the four 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
- Don't take / a curve / at 60 per. / We hate to lose / a customer / Burma-Shave[5]
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
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 / Feel as bad / as Old Benito / Buy War Bonds / Burma-Shave
- Slap / The Jap / With / Iron / Scrap / 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
Special promotional messages[edit]
- Free offer! Free offer! / Rip a fender off your car / mail it in / for a half-pound jar / Burma-Shave
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- A large number of fenders were received by the company, which made good on its promise.[6]
- Free — free / a trip to Mars / for 900 / empty jars / Burma-Shave
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- Arlyss French, owner of a Red Owl grocery store, did submit 900 empty jars; the company at first replied: "If a trip to Mars / you earn / remember, friend / there's no return." Then Burma-Shave, on the recommendation of Red Owl's publicity team, withdrew the one-way offer and instead sent Mr. and Mrs. French on vacation to the town of Moers (often pronounced "Mars" by foreigners) near Duisburg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.[7][8]
Cultural Impact[edit]
A number of films and television shows set between the 1920s and 1950s have used the Burma-Shave roadside billboards to help set the scene. Examples include Bonnie and Clyde, A River Runs Through It, The World's Fastest Indian, Stand By Me, Tom and Jerry, M*A*S*H 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.
The final episode of the popular television series M*A*S*H featured a series of road signs in Korea "Hawk was gone, now he's here. Dance til dawn, give a cheer. Burma-Shave".
Roger Miller's song "Burma Shave" (the B-side to his 1961 single "Fair Swiss Maiden") has the singer musing that he's "seen a million rows of them little red poetic signs up and down the line", while reciting rhymes in the manner of the ads. Tom Waits' song "Burma-Shave" (from his 1977 album Foreign Affairs) 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") Chuck Suchy's song "Burma Shave Boogie" (from his 2008 album Unraveling Heart) incorporates several of the Burma Shave rhymes into its lyrics.
The pedestrian passageway between the Times Square and Port Authority Bus Terminal stations 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:[9]
- Overslept, / So tired. / If late, / Get fired. / Why bother? / Why the pain? / Just go home / Do it again.
Several highway departments in the United States use signs in the same style to dispense travel safety advice to motorists.
Several writers of doggerel and humorously bad poetry (such as David Burge), often use "Burma Shave" on the last line of their poems to indicate their non-serious nature.
The word "burmashaving" is used in Canada to describe politicians holding signs and waving to traffic by the side of the road, a common sight during election campaigns.[10][11] One of the first to use the phrase was Nova Scotia Progressive Conservative premier John Buchanan, who would stand at the end of a long line of party signs and wave to morning traffic.[12][self-published source?][13][self-published source?]
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