Burma Shave – Tuesday Morning Engine Starter

by Bennett Owen

All rights reserved by cavemanz (Larry Zimmer)

Hurry while supplies last, we’ve only got 6990 Burma Shave ditties left!

In the meantime, here’s some more trusty trivia:

• The family-owned company was broke when the first signs went up outside Minneapolis
• The initial ‘advertising’ budget was $200

The first slogan:

Shave the modern way
Fine for the skin
Druggists have it
- Burma Shave

Photo courtesy of ilmungo

Guess what happened when Burma Shave posted this rhyme:

Free Offer! Free Offer!
Rip a fender
Off your car
Mail it in for
A half-pound jar
- Burma Shave

Exactly. The company was swamped with bumpers sent in from all over the US. And each one received a free jar of Burma Shave. The publicity was priceless.

And with that, here’s our My-West ditty of the week, soon to be seen on highways and by-ways everywhere: 

If you give
My-West
A pass
You might
Just be a
Horse’s….fetlock
- My-West.com

Burma Shave – Renew Your Poetic License Here

by Bennett Owen

Shouldn’t we be calling it Myanmar Shave?  

Prepare here for the Burma Shave Quiz, to be held at a time of our choosing:

• The first Burma Shave jingle went up in 1925 on highway 65 between Albert Lee, Minnesota and Minneapolis. It didn’t rhyme…wasn’t funny…and within four weeks the family-run business couldn’t keep up with orders.
• By 1929, the signs were in 44 of 48 states.
• Maintenance crews were called PhD’s (post hole diggers) and at the height of the ad craze cared for 40,000 signs.
• A depression-era Burma Shave ditty contest attracted 50,000 poems
• The most suggestive Burma Shave slogan ever:

Substitutes
Can let
You down
Quicker than
A strapless gown
Burma Shave

As you travel the Internet super highway, please slow down for our My-West slogans! Here’s our latest:

Mail your Dad
And tweet
Your mom
Then hurry to
My-West.com

Saving Face – Burma Shave

by Bennett Owen

Photo courtesy of mlhradio

As I recall there were three sets of Burma Shave signs out on old highway 91 between Dillon, Montana and Idaho Falls…a stretch of roughly 140 miles surrounded by mountains and sagebrush.  One was about jackrabbits having to pack their own lunch and the other warned motorists to be careful of Mormon crickets, but the one I remember best was printed in white lettering on six red signs that read:

When passing
Schoolyards
Please drive slow
Let the little
Shavers grow
 - Burma Shave

We’ll be resurrecting a few of our favorite Burma Shave Ditties over the next few weeks as our Monday morning engine starter.  The story behind the famous red signs is quite amazing… a company and its product wholly dependent on one simple but ingenious advertising ploy.  Read about it here.

And in the meantime, here’s the Burma Shave premier on My-West:

This cream
Makes the
Gardener’s daughter
Plant her tu-lips
Where she oughter…
 - Burma Shave

These signs
Are not
For laughs alone
The face they save
May be your own
 - Burma Shave

And really, who can resist?  Send us one of your own! Here’s one of ours: