Customer Reviews

Sunday Drives: Nostalgic Reminiscing with the Best of Burma-Shave

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A little thrill of the drive

before the highway did arrive,

were the red and white signs,

that denoted the times,

Burma Shave.


Part of the magic of the 50's were the small, rectangular red signs with white letters that were spaced about fifty or a hundred feet apart. The signs rhymed and could be read sequentially as your car passed by. I didn't understand them until my father explained that it was a way for a company to get people to buy what they were selling. These weren't billboards, but humble sticks in the ground with rectangular signs attached on top.

Every time they popped up thereafter was a treat and a surprise to be able to read them faster than our car would go, and put the phrase together by the end. It held just as much excitement as spotting a horse in a distant meadow. The open road was America's last frontier, and the exploration was less boring because of the anticipation of the Burma Shave signs.

The book explains their origin which is something that most of us wonder about, but are never curious enough to pursue. It was the second brushless shaving cream ever to be manufactured and the first to ever become a success. Clinton Odell and his sons took over the failed British product and developed a quality shaving cream with the help of a chemist, Carl Noren. It was marketed from 1925 to 1966.

With an investment of $200 in scrap lumber, the signs began appearing in Southern Minnesota. They multiplied to over 7,000 in every state except Arizona, Nevada, and New Mexico. Customers contributed to the signs made up by the Burma Shave employees until there were more than 600 different rhymes. Philip Morris Inc. began removing the signs in 1963 after they bought out the company. An era came to an end.

Life is full of coincidences and this is no different. It was sent to me after I forwarded a very cute song about the 50's and Burma Shave signs. The recipient, a friend of mine, thought it would be a nice way to remember my birthday by sending this along. There are 105 pages, each of which have their own set of "signs." Two or three pages tell you the history of the Burma Shave signs. It is not something I recommend buying for oneself as there is so little content, but it is a treasured gift that I will keep for years. I recommend you consider the book in the same vein. It coincided perfectly with the email.