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

The Burma-Shave craze reached its zenith during the 1950s, withmore than 7,000 signs posted across the United States. To market Burma-Shave, Allen Odell, an advertising wordsmith,devised the concept of sequential signs to sell his shaving cream.Typically, six signs were erected, with each of the first fivecontaining a line of verse, and the sixth trumpeting the brand name. Burma-Shave signs appeared in every state except Arizona,Nevada and New Mexico. The creative people at Burma-Shave, aswell as customers who sent in jingles of their own, ultimatelycreated more than 600 of the rhymes. In the world of advertising, Burma-Shave stood as unique, creatingsigns that became a part of the popular culture. Although the Burma-Shave company is no more, these fun littlerhymes hold great nostalgic value for those of us who fondlyremember them from our Sunday drives.Larson, Michael is the author of 'Sunday Drives: Nostalgic Reminiscing with the Best of Burma-Shave' with ISBN 9780595676941 and ISBN 0595676944.