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in 1925 young Allan Odell pitched this great sales idea to his father,
Clinton: use small, wooden roadside signs to pitch their product,
Burma-Shave, a brushless shaving cream. Dad wasn't wild about the idea
but eventually gave Allan $200 to give it a try.
But it didn't take long for sales to soar. Soon Allan and his brother
Leonard were putting up signs all over the place. At first the signs were
pure sales pitch but as the years passed they found their sense of humor
extending to safety tips and pure fun as well as nd some good old-fashioned
down home wisdom.
At their height of popularity there were 7,000 Burma-Shave signs stretching
across America. The familiar white on red signs, grouped by four, fives
and sixes, were part of a family trip. You'd read first one, then another,
anticpating the punch line on number five and the familiar Burma-Shave
on the sixth.
By 1925 St. Brigid's was already 75 years old,
so it's with a tip of the
hat to those nostalgic days that we're using the same technique along
the
paths from the parking lots to the church and school.
Hope you enjoy!
To see some of original Burma Shave poems,click
here. |
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