Written by Duke Cartwright

Before Interstates, when everyone drove the old 2-lane roads cross country, Burma Shave signs would be posted all over the countryside in farmers' fields. They were small red signs with white letters. Five signs, about 100 feet apart, each containing 1 line of a 4 line couplet and the obligatory 5th sign identifying Burma Shave.

Ever wonder how Burma-Shave came about ? Well, according to the book "The Verse By The Side Of The Road" by Frank Rowsome, Jr. (Stephen Greene Press, Brattleboro, Vermont, 1970) the Burma-Vita company was founded by Clinton Odell originally as a liniment company with "Burma because most of the essential oils in the liniment came from the Malay peninsula and Burma, and Vita from the Latin for life and vigor - the whole name meaning Life from Burma." But because of poor liniment sales, Clinton decided to branch into brushless shaving creams. And as they say, 'the rest is history.' Especially as to the history of the road-side signs and its 'Illinois connection.' Rowsome quotes Clinton Odell's son Leonard:

"All of us went out and tried to market it. My brother Allan was down in Joliet, Illinois working with a program that we called Jars on Approval. You'd just walk into a man's office and say 'Here's a jar of Burma-Shave.' 'What's that?' he'd ask. You'd explain and tell him how to use it. You'd say 'Take it home and try it and if you like it give me fifty cents when I come back next week. If you don't, just give me back what's left and we'll still be friends.

'Jars on Approval' - if you want to starve to death fast, that's one way to do it. I guess Al was pretty discouraged. One day on the road between Aurora and Joliet he saw a set of small serial signs advertising a gas station: Gas, Oil, Restrooms, things like that - maybe a dozen of them - and then at the end a sign would point in to the gas station. Al thought 'Every time I see one of these setups, I read every one of the signs. So why can't you sell a product that way ?"