Comments on: A drive down memory lane

A drive down memory lane

hadjiboy — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 00:21:18 -0800

The wolf

Is shaved so neat and trim

Red Riding Hood

Is chasing him

If you happen to be a Mefi reader who's over 60 years old, or if you have family members who reminisce about the good old days, then there's a strong possibility that the subject of these ads might've come up before. They were a bit before your time (if you're in my age group) and were a constant source of entertainment (via) for the motorists driving along the US highways of that era. From the first (not too original) ones that showed up in 1927, to the (sad yet solemn) last which was put up in 1963, and the many many more creative ones in-between, they have been a part and parcel of the American journey on the open roads of the past. (Even so far as making sure that they did their bit for the community which they served.) And, sometimes, even keeping the promises that you thought they couldn't. Burma-Shave: now being sold at a store near you, but, somehow, quite not the same.

By: clearly

clearly — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 00:39:29 -0800

The Crowd You See Around That Store Are Burma Shavers Buying More Burma Shave My dad has these signs hung from the ceiling in his shop. Great post.

By: Malor

Malor — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 00:56:18 -0800

These things vary in quality pretty wildly. Many are very poor, but the good ones are very good indeed. One I liked, from 1932: Lawyers, doctors Sheiks and bakers Mountaineers and undertakers Make their bristly beards behave By using brushless BURMA-SHAVE

By: squasha

squasha — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 01:04:48 -0800

American road haiku. Love these, and was quite recently considering doing a few in needlepoint for the long stairwell which leads down to our bath. Thanks!

By: CheshireCat

CheshireCat — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 01:06:21 -0800

Burma Shave by Tom Waits "Burma Shave is an American shaving-cream company, like Colgate. They advertise on the side of the road and they have these limericks which are broken up into different signs like pieces of a fortune cookie. You drive for miles before you get the full message. "PLEASE DON'T"... five miles... "STICK YOUR ARM OUT SO FAR"... another five miles... "IT MIGHT GO HOME"... five more miles... "IN ANOTHER MAN'S CAR - BURMA SHAVE." They reel you in. So when I was a kid I'd see these signs on the side of the road - BURMA SHAVE, BURMA SHAVE - and I'm young and I think it's the name of a town and I ask my dad, "When we getting to Burma Shave?" So in the song I used Burma Shave as a dream, a mythical community, a place two people are trying to get to. They don't make it." (Tom Waits in Time Out magazine,interview by Richard Rayner. Date: New York, October 1985)

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 01:20:00 -0800

Now that they call it Myanmar Shave, it just ain't the same...

By: annathea

annathea — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 01:22:21 -0800

Stephen King's novel It is where I first heard of the Burma-Shave advertisements, so the phrase always carries a delicious touch of creepiness.....*whispers* Buuurrrmaaaa Shaaaaave. I'm sort of obsessively reading through all of them...good literature. Thanks hadjiboy.

By: wendell

wendell — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 01:31:50 -0800

BURMA-SAVE!

By: Ian A.T.

Ian A.T. — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 01:37:23 -0800

Now that they call it Myanmar Shave, it just ain't the same... I know there's no such thing as an original idea, I just don't want to see the proof.

By: Jofus

Jofus — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 01:52:25 -0800

As I read this post I immediately think of a saying from my Mum's side of the family (who I've had cause to mention before). There used to be an advert for a product called "Milliner's Straw Hat Cleaner" in, I assume, the fifties. The schtick on the advert used to go something along the lines of: (And this is better is you imagine Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson reading the lines.) Man: "I say, is that a new hat?" Woman: "No, it's the old one done up with Milliner's Straw Hat Cleaner" So for the past 60 years in my family (whose size is considerable) whenever someone asks "Is that a new coat/car/house/iPod" they tend to get the answer, "No, it's the old one done up with Milliner's Straw Hat Cleaner." I've searched all over the Googles and can't find a reference to it. I don't suppose, however, it would make the tendency any more explicable.

By: Jofus

Jofus — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 01:53:07 -0800

Also: great post!

By: darksasami

darksasami — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 02:22:31 -0800

Jofus: never trust an oral spelling. Try Milner's. That was one of only two hits, though. Here's the other.

By: Jofus

Jofus — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 02:29:35 -0800

Ahh! Take 10 Internet Points. Thank you!

By: darksasami

darksasami — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 02:39:37 -0800

Good gravy, if you didn't catch hadjiboy's fine print, I'll write it large here: that "Burma-Shave" they're trying to push is shaving soap! With a brush! I'm honestly shocked and kind of disgusted. And Jofus, I just noticed that that package is dated ca. 1900. Your family has some serious oral tradition!

By: Jofus

Jofus — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 02:47:06 -0800

Darksasami: You betcha. Did you check out the second of my links?

By: Kattullus

Kattullus — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 03:41:54 -0800

I don't know where I first heard about Burma-Shave, possibly in a Stephen King novel, who I read a lot of in my youth, possibly from my dad, who lived in the US in the early 60's, but I associate Bill Bryson with these ads. Here's the passage from Lost Continent where he talks about them:

I drove through Kentucky thinking of sad losses and was abruptly struck by the saddest loss of all—the Burma Shave sign. Burma Shave was a shaving cream that came in a tube. I don't know if it's still produced. In fact, I never knew anyone who ever used it. But the Burma Shave company used to put clever signs along the highway. They came in clusters of five, expertly spaced so that you read them as a little poem as you passed: IF HARMONY / IS WHAT YOU CRAVE / THEN GET /A TUBA BURMA SHAVE. Or: BEN MET ANNA / MADE A HIT / NEGLECTED BEARD BEN-ANNA SPLIT / BURMA SHAVE. Great, eh? Even in the 1950s the Burma Shave signs were pretty much a thing of the past. I can remember seeing only half a dozen in all the thousands of miles of highway we covered. But as roadside diversions went they were outstanding, ten times better than billboards and Pella's little twirling windmills. The only things that surpassed them for diversion value were multiple-car pileups with bodies strewn about the highway.

By: louche mustachio

louche mustachio — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 04:06:24 -0800

This style of verse Is easier Than iambic Pentameter BURMA SHAVE

By: hexatron

hexatron — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 04:06:41 -0800

Just a note on Tom Wait's scabrous lie: The signs were never five miles apart. They were placed so drivers would pass them at several-second intervals--that is, they were at most a few hundred feet apart. And I just remembered this from my own departed childhood (Image: guy in tiny spaceship, signs on a series of tiny 'asteroids'): When you ride
a magnetic wave
look your best
Burma Shave.

By: dabitch

dabitch — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 04:09:54 -0800

She eyed His beard And said no dice The wedding's off-- I'll COOK the rice! Burma-Shave from page here

By: Stewriffic

Stewriffic — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 04:16:04 -0800

Planned Parenthood uses the Burma Shave method in some of its local awareness-raising activities. (That's just one example of many!)

By: DU

DU — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 04:40:02 -0800

Pella doesn't have little windmills anymore either. Well, as of the last time I was there, which was like 20 years ago. I did see a Burma Shave poem once when driving cross country. But that was a while ago and I'm associating it with Wall Drug, so maybe it was a fake.

By: blasdelf

blasdelf — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 05:10:39 -0800

A while ago I was ordering a MacBook for my younger sister, and finagled a way into getting her a free older-model iPod Nano. I had it engraved with:

    get a tuba
    Burma Shave

It's as much as would fit. Because it was late in the 'free iPod' campaign, I had to order over the phone. It took quite awhile to talk the nice call-center worker on the other end through it!

By: languagehat

languagehat — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 05:34:06 -0800

I remember these from cross-country trips as a kid in the '50s. Thanks for the post!

By: Tube

Tube — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 05:42:57 -0800

Previously.

By: mwhybark

mwhybark — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 08:28:58 -0800

I have occasionally seen either recreated sign sets or survivors in the wild. I believe the recreated set was here in Washington state, and I think it was a recreation because it was brand-new looking and may possibly have included a tag-line advertising something else (an antique shop or something). The original-looking set was very weathered in appearance and was glimpsed over a decade ago on a rural North Carolina road somewhere on the coastal plain. I couldn't tell if it was a legitimate survivor, a bit of recreated old-timery, or something else entirely. A quick Flickr search shows that I was probably not imagining things in either case.

By: dd42

dd42 — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 09:22:06 -0800

A gun advocacy group in Central Illinois has taken the Burma Shave idea and run with it - they've got these kinds of signs up all around the area. Unfortunately, they're not very clever. For example: WHEN GUN CONTROL HAS US BEAT CRIMINALS WILL OWN THE STREET GUNS SAVE LIFE.comhere. P.S. DU, I think Pella still has windmills. I've never been there, but here 40 miles away in Grinnell they're still known for it, although with their tulips and bakery.

By: dd42

dd42 — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 09:29:10 -0800

along with, of course, not although with.

By: Guy_Inamonkeysuit

Guy_Inamonkeysuit — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 10:16:01 -0800

I remember those little red signs from my boyhood, traveling with my folks in the car on vacations. I loved them. I haven't thought of them in years. This is a wonderful post, thank you very very much, hadjiboy! So do you think Firesign Theater got their inspiration for the Antelope Freeway signs on their first album from Burma Shave?

By: ALongDecember

ALongDecember — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 11:25:24 -0800

A macabre example exists in an 5 story stairwell in Carnegie Mellon's Wean Hall, known as Architect's Leap: If you're feeling like a jerk 'cause your project just won't work Go ahead and take the leap Then finally you'll get some sleep Burma Shave

By: Paragon

Paragon — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 11:43:44 -0800

Through winding roads And steep inclines Please watch the road And not the signs (which would have been funnier if it hadn't been an old B.C. cartoon).

By: NationalKato

NationalKato — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 12:36:55 -0800

Just a note on Tom Wait's scabrous lie: posted by hexatron Go easy on him: he was a child at the time. He thought it was a town. Likely, the intervals felt like 5 miles. Do you remember the way time bent when you were a kid?

By: pjern

pjern — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 14:46:12 -0800

I remember these from the early 1960's, there was a set near Kankakee, IL that we passed when going to my grandparent's house. That might have been the only set I ever saw.

By: ClarissaWAM

ClarissaWAM — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 09:01:59 -0800

"No, it's the old one done up with Milliner's Straw Hat Cleaner." That reminds me of the French "Oh c'est doux, c'est neuf?" "Non, lavé avec Mir Laine. Avec adoucissant!!" I can still hear the exact intonation of that "avec adoucissant."

By: anotherpanacea

anotherpanacea — Wed, 07 May 2008 07:29:19 -0800

heh