Remember Burma Shave?

In the good old days of my youth, there were these signs appearing along the highway and they told a story, and at the end was the sign that said Burma Shave. Remember? To see many of these signs reproduced, go to this site:

DO YOU REMEMBER THESE? 

I think you will love the site. I did, and it is one really great video presentation.  

For  those who never saw any of the BurmaShave signs, here is a quick lesson in our history of the 1940's and '50's.   Before there were interstates, when everyone drove the old 2 lane highways, BurmaShave signs would be posted all over the countryside in farmers'  fields.

They  were small red signs with white letters.   Five  signs, about  100 feet apart, each containing 1 line of a 4 line couplet......and  the obligatory 5th sign advertising  BurmaShave, a popular shaving cream. Here is a good example above of a Burma Sign Group.  

Burma-Shave was a United States brand of brushless shaving cream famous for its advertising gimmick of posting humorous poems on sequential highway billboard signs.

Burma Shave was introduced in 1925 by the Burma-Vita company, owned by Clinton Odell. At its peak, it was the second-highest selling shaving cream in the United States. But 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 as a nostalgic shaving soap and brush kit — ironically, the original Burma Shave was one of the first brushless shaving creams.

Hey, if you want to receive a fresh new Burma Shave couplet every day, just CLICK HERE and subscribe at Bruma-Shave.Org.

DON'T STICK YOUR  ELBOW
OUT SO FAR
IT MAY GO HOME
IN ANOTHER  CAR.
BURMASHAVE  

TRAINS  DON'T WANDER
ALL OVER THE MAP
'CAUSE NOBODY SITS
IN THE  ENGINEER'S LAP
BurmaShave

HE SAW A TRAIN
AND TRIED TO DUCK IT
KICKED FIRST THE GAS
AND THEN THE BUCKET
BurmaShave
   

LISTEN BIRDS THESE
SIGNS COST MONEY
SO SIT A SPELL
BUT DON'T GET FUNNY
BurmaShave      

A MAN, A MISS
A CAR, A CURVE
HE KISSED THE MISS
AND MISSED THE CURVE
BurmaShave      

SHE   KISSED THE HAIRBRUSH
BY MISTAKE
SHE THOUGHT IT WAS
HER  HUSBAND JAKE
BurmaShave  

DON'T  LOSE YOUR HEAD
TO GAIN A  MINUTE
YOU NEED YOUR HEAD
YOUR  BRAINS ARE IN IT
Burma   Shave
 

BROTHER  SPEEDER
LET'S REHEARSE
ALL TOGETHER
GOOD MORNING,  NURSE
BurmaShave
 

NO   MATTER THE PRICE
NO MATTER HOW NEW
THE BEST SAFETY DEVICE
IN  THE CAR IS YOU
BurmaShave

A  GUY WHO DRIVES
A CAR WIDE OPEN
IS NOT THINKIN'
HE'S JUST  HOPIN'
BurmaShave
 

THE  ONE WHO DRIVES
WHEN HE'S BEEN  DRINKING
DEPENDS ON  YOU
TO DO HIS THINKING
BurmaShave  

 PASSING  SCHOOL ZONE
TAKE IT  SLOW
LET OUR LITTLE
SHAVERS  GROW
BurmaShave
 

Do  these bring back any old memories?
If not, you're merely a child.   If they do - then you're old as dirt   ..

• Cheer up face / The war is past / The h is out / Of shave / At last / Burma-Shave
• A peach / looks good / with lots of fuzz / but man's no peach / and never was / Burma-Shave
• Does your husband / misbehave / grunt and grumble / rant and rave? / shoot the brute some / Burma-Shave
• Don't take a curve / at 60 per / we hate to lose / a customer / Burma-Shave
• Every shaver / now can snore / six more minutes / than before / by using / Burma-Shave
• He played / a sax / had no B.O. / but his whiskers scratched / so she let him go / Burma-Shave
• Henry the Eighth / sure had trouble / short-term wives / long-term stubble / Burma-Shave
• Grandpa's beard / was stiff and coarse / and that's what / caused his / fifth divorce / Burma-Shave
• Missin' / kissin'? / Perhaps your thrush / can't get through / the underbrush — try / Burma-Shave
• A chin / where barbed wire / bristles stand / is bound to be / a no ma'ams land / Burma-Shave
• Within this vale / of toil and sin / your head grows bald / but not your chin / Burma-Shave
• Dinah doesn't / treat him right / but if he'd / shave / dyna-mite! / Burma-Shave
• To change that / shaving job / to joy / you gotta use / the real McCoy / Burma-Shave
• Don't lose / your head / to gain a minute / you need your head / your brains are in it / Burma-Shave
• The bearded Devil / is forced / to dwell / in the only place / where they don't sell / Burma-Shave
• In Cupid's little / bag of trix / here's the one / that clix / with chix / Burma-Shave
• A shave / that's real / no cuts to heal / a soothing / velvet after-feel / Burma-Shave
• Riot at / drug store / calling all cars / 100 customers / 99 jars / Burma-Shave
• The wolf / is shaved / so neat and trim / Red Riding Hood / is chasing him / Burma-Shave
• This cooling shave / will never fail / to stamp / its user / first-class male / Burma-Shave
• The monkey took / one look at Jim / and threw the peanuts / back at him / he needed / Burma-Shave
• Listen birds / these signs cost money / so roost awhile / but don't get funny / Burma-Shave
• If you don't know / whose signs these are / You haven't driven / very far (no final "Burma-Shave" sign)
• Round the corner / lickety split / beautiful car / wasn't it! / Burma Shave
• That big blue tube / is like Louise / it gives a thrill / with every squeeze / Burma-Shave
• If harmony / is what you crave / get a tuba / Burma-Shave
• Said Farmer Brown, / who's bald on top, / "Wish I could / rotate the crop." / Burma-Shave
• I use it too / The bald man said / It keeps my face / Just like my head / 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

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

Visit the Eisner Museum of Advertising to see the story of Burma Shave. 

BURMA SHAVE - BURMA SHAVE SIGNS - HIGHWAY SIGNS BURMA SHAVE