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