| Some folks save stamps, art glass or 1950 | | | | stores.Father Odell was skeptical but finally |
| Chevys; but I cotton to roadside signs - | | | | consented. In 1926, he gave his son $200 for |
| particularly Mail Pouch barns and Burma Shave | | | | lumber with which to build a dozen sets of |
| ditties.My yard and bank account are much too | | | | signs for two roads into Minneapolis.Allan |
| small for the real things. However, my memory | | | | hurried to install them before winter froze |
| and computer files have ample capacity.Back | | | | the ground. The first series-signs were |
| when two-lane highways and 50 MPH cars were | | | | straightforward:Save Modern WayFine For The |
| the norm, motorists had time to enjoy the | | | | SkinDruggists Have ItBurma Shave |
| scenery.Welcome diversions were Mail Pouch | | | | Druggists sent rush-orders for the cream. On |
| Barns to count, and Burma Shave signs to | | | | this basis, Clinton Odell sold 49 percent of |
| read.Speed limits in the second quarter of | | | | the company's stock to raise money for a sign |
| the twentieth-century - my formative years -- | | | | shop.Sites for series-signs along straight, |
| were leisurely. Free-standing "bill boards" | | | | country roads were rented from farmers. There |
| were not yet cost effective for | | | | had to be enough space between signs to allow |
| advertisers.Bridging the advertising gap was | | | | easy reading at 50 miles per hour - then |
| the Bloch Brothers Tobacco Co. of Wheeling, | | | | considered the top, safe speed.Burma Shave |
| W.Va.Aaron and Samuel Bloch were grocers who | | | | expanded, and expanded again, to meet |
| also made cigars. They retrieved tobacco | | | | demand.No one remembers who conceived the |
| cuttings, flavored them with licorice and | | | | style of catchy witticisms. The earliest |
| introduced it in 1884 as chewing tobacco.They | | | | remembered was:With In This ValeOf Toil And |
| also had advertising instincts. They named | | | | SinHead Grows BaldBut Not Your ChinBurma |
| and packaged their product in a soft | | | | Shave The resulting fervor over the |
| container styled after the familiar and | | | | roadside verses is considered the most |
| respected U.S. mail pouch.As competition | | | | successful advertising campaign of all |
| increased, the Bloch brothers in 1910 began | | | | time.It was the right technique for the roads |
| painting their brand name and slogan in large | | | | of that day. They continued popular until |
| letters on rural barns along well-traveled | | | | discontinued in 1963. By then, increased |
| roads.Farmers were a segment of consumers | | | | driving speeds and proliferation of out-door |
| partial to chewing tobacco inasmuch as | | | | signage by others made Burma Shave verses |
| fire-lit tobacco was a hazard around | | | | less effective.Prior to World War II, Burma |
| barns.Bloch "field agents" solicited | | | | Shave signs were cultural icons. People |
| advertising rights on strategic farm routes - | | | | collected the verses. On family trips, my |
| mostly in the Midwest.Farmers readily signed | | | | mother read them aloud to entertain father |
| up in return for a choice of about $5 | | | | and we youngsters.When the company's |
| annually -- depending upon location and | | | | advertising department ran out of ideas, it |
| bargaining skills -- free tobacco, magazine | | | | conducted a contest to obtain new verses. |
| subscriptions or a pocket watch.After company | | | | More than 50,000 entries were submitted.The |
| reps had lined up a dozen or so barns in an | | | | verses featured safe driving and romantic |
| area, two-man painting crews known as "wall | | | | advice as well as whisker wisdom.Odell was |
| dogs" moved in.If the barns were close | | | | careful not to offend, but some of the |
| together, and in good repair, a crew could | | | | romantic ones occasionally raised an eyebrow |
| paint two signs a day.The crew leader viewed | | | | or two.I still remember one that made Mother |
| the barn surface from the road to gauge the | | | | pause, Dad laugh, and we kids giggle:Dinah |
| size of letters needed. These he lined in by | | | | Doesn'tTreat Him RightIf He'd |
| eye and spotted with a dab of paint in the | | | | ShaveDinah-might!Burma Shave The |
| color desired.His helper followed to lather | | | | hidden meaning probably would have been |
| on a thick mixture of white-lead paste | | | | missed if the exclamation point hadn't made |
| thinned with linseed oil and gasoline and | | | | it explicit.One year the American countryside |
| colored with appropriate dyes.Painters earned | | | | was flooded for a year with this series:Free |
| from $50 to $125 a week. They furnished their | | | | OfferRip A FenderOff Your CarMail It InWin A |
| own paint, brushes, ladders truck and | | | | JarBurma Shave. To the company's |
| lodging. They were assigned territories they | | | | surprise, it was flooded with fenders |
| could maintain.At the peak of chewing tobacco | | | | scavenged from junkyards and toys. However, |
| use in 1930, Mail Pouch had 20,000 barns | | | | Odell was pleased to pay off.Odell took great |
| under contract and enjoyed 65 percent of the | | | | pride in the commendations he received from |
| product market.Under the impact of "eye | | | | highway safety officials for Burma Shave |
| pollution," Congress in 1965 enacted the | | | | safety tips like this:Past SchoolsTake It |
| Highway Beautification Act. This banned all | | | | SlowLet The LittleShavers GrowBurma Shave |
| commercial signs within 660 feet of a | | | | The sale of shaving cream, of course was |
| federally funded highway.Barns with Mail | | | | the primary objective. Whisker witticisms |
| Pouch signs were classified as commercial | | | | dominated the verses:Whale Put JonahDown The |
| advertisements. Many thousands were | | | | HatchCoughed Him UpCause He ScratchedBurma |
| demolished. In their places are eyesore | | | | Shave No one knows how many |
| billboards readable from across a proscribed | | | | different verses were put on sign sets - one |
| strip of featureless ground.It is estimated | | | | collector has catalogued 600.Certainly this |
| that there are only 2,000 original Mail Pouch | | | | is only a fraction of the 60-year history of |
| barns remaining - objects of pilgrimages by | | | | the campaign. My own collection consists of |
| history buffs and photographers. Smile | | | | about 150.At the peak, there were 35,000 |
| While DrivingAnother roadside advertiser, | | | | Burma Shave signs throughout the United |
| pre-billboard days, was Burma Shave. This was | | | | States.After World War II, electric razors |
| a soothing, pleasant smelling whisker | | | | became popular. Highway speeds increased to |
| lubricant that replaced shaving mugs, soap | | | | the point that leased space for wider-spaced |
| and brushes.According to the Eisner Museum of | | | | signs was prohibitive and distracting.The |
| Advertising and Design, the product began in | | | | signs were taken down in 1963. Sales of Burma |
| 1925 as Burma-Vitae liniment. This allegedly | | | | Shave plummeted and the product was |
| was concocted by the father of Clinton Odell | | | | discontinued.The company was sold to the |
| from a recipe sent by a sailor-friend in the | | | | American Safety Razor Company in 1997. It |
| Orient.Clinton Odell was a lawyer at | | | | reintroduced the wonderful shaving cream for |
| Minneapolis, Min. The liniment did not sell | | | | old-timers who still like to shave with it |
| well so he asked a chemist friend, Carl | | | | and recall favorite Burma Shave |
| Noren, to improve the patent medicine. His | | | | sallies.Sorry, aficionados, I use |
| formula 143 turned the medicine into a slushy | | | | electric.Lindsey Williams is a Sun columnist |
| cream ideal for use with the new "safety | | | | who can be contacted at:Website: with |
| razors."Odell's sons, Leonard and Allan, set | | | | several hundred of Lin's Editorial & At Large |
| about selling the new product re-named Burma | | | | articles written over 40 years.Also featured |
| Shave. However, it also did not sell | | | | in its entirety is Lin's groundbreaking book |
| well.Young Allan suggested they advertise | | | | "Boldly Onward," that critically analyzes and |
| with a series of small, related signs. He had | | | | develops theories about the original Spanish |
| seen them along a road while peddling the | | | | explorers of America. |
| "brushless" shaving cream to drug | | | | |