While we got plenty of Paul Newmans here in America, we never really got Nissan Skylines, which is, of course, a horrific crime. In Japan, though, they faced no such deprivation: American generosity provided them with all the Paul Newman they could want, and, of course, they had Skylines. Sometimes, even, these things intersected in magical ways, like the New-Man Skylines.
I wasn’t aware of the New-Man Skylines until The Bishop showed me this wonderful ad of the actor, an apple, and an R30 Skyline, the sixth generation of the car, introduced in 1981.
There’s a lot of subtle things going on in this ad, so we should give it a good look here:
We have Paul Newman, dressed casually in pleated chinos and a light jacket, standing smack dab in the middle of a lane of the road, eating what appears to be an apple. It’s a rainy day, and based on the position of the car and the fact that Paul there is just hanging out in the middle of the road, one could be forgiven for assuming that the Skyline had broken down, somehow, which I suspect is very much not the intent of the ad.
The Skyline also features a rear window wiper, something we rarely see on a notchback/sedan/coupé type of car, at least in America, and it’s also wearing a Connecticut license plate, which is a little confusing, since, as I said, we never got these in America, and the setting appears to be a road in Japan.
Here’s what the copy of the ad says, robot-translated:
“Touring Spirit.
The Skyline has a heart that loves driving.
Touring, the joy of riding. Skyline has always pursued this wonderful world. A seat that doesn’t tire you even after long rides, a horizontal circuit meter. Skyline’s unique “human mechanism” was born from a heart that loves touring. The world’s first electronically controlled ignition system, the “Plasma Spark Series,” is the new heart of the car.
GT Catalogue Monitor Information Request Ticket If you would like a catalogue or more detailed information on the SW Skyline GT, please open the enclosed envelope and send it to the following address: Nissan Prince Co., Ltd., Publicity Department, 3-5-26 Mita, Minato-ku, 108, Nissan Prince Co., Ltd., c/o “GT Catalogue Monitor.”
I’m not sure what they mean by “horizontal circuit meter,” but it sure sounds cool. This era of Skyline became known as the New-Man Skyline, with that hyphen getting introduced into the actor’s name I guess just to emphasize how the car would make one feel new, man? I’m not sure.
There was a whole Paul Newman edition Skyline in 1983, which was basically the high-end GT-ES Turbo with Paul Newman autographs stuck on the outside (look just in front of the rear wheel) and embroidered on the seats.
Paul Newman did all sorts of commercials for the Skyline, too, and sort of became the face of the R30, at least in Japan. Like this one, where you get to feel what it’d be like if Paul Newman was your neighbor and watched you through your windows:
I’m curious to know where this one was shot, because it looks like it could be America?
This one puts Paul in a tux, the required formalwear for looking out over a balcony. And there’s a bit where he looks to be in a JDM car, a RHD one, driving in Japan, but there’s an old Checker cab behind him?
So many mysteries!
Skylines are already wildly cool, and associations with Paul Newman can only just add to that. It’s a lot of cool for one car to carry, but I think it can handle it. Still, I’ll check the horizontal circuit meter to be sure.
The creepiest thing I’ve seen today is Paul Newman peering through a window and inviting me on a “loooong drive.”
A dude so cool, even his salad dressing gets more action than me
Shake well before use, baby…
With all due respect to a fine actress, this campaign beats the hell out of Brie Larson.
The real question is can I at least be as cool as that Mr. K impersonator and his dog from that “Enjoy the Ride” ad?
Yeah, Paul Newman always looked effortlessly cool regardless of situation or raiments, like here where he’s bearded, barefoot, wearing cutoffs and a t-shirt that says “get really stoned” while holding four bottles of beer, and standing in front of a mighty sweet mustard-yellow early 140-series Volvo station wagon: https://iconicimagesgallery.com/cdn/shop/products/ES_PAN004_799x999.jpg?v=1667556250
I’ll take this photo instead!
https://d2dsc1gf0t80gb.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/22155428/paul-newman-was-the-king-of-sleeper-cars-1476933939907-350×320.jpg
It was after seeing that very pic that someone from the Gucci marketing department yelled “HO CAPITO” and finally had a name for those hybrid horsebit loafers with rubber souls. Fortunately, they ditched those Docksiderish white rubber soles in future models of their famous Driving Loafers.
Jason, none of us will ever be as cool as Paul Newman doing just about anything…
But does driving a Nissan still make me cool? Wait…why are you all laughing?
Any of us mere mortals driving today’s Nissans, ugh… But P.N. driving yesteryear’s Datsuns? MONEY!
in the 80s my brother had a Skyline hatchback, my best friend had the sedan. At that point the cars were being assembled in S. Africa. We didn’t get the Newman ads tho, had to be cool all on our own..
This guy sure has a gravelly voice, they should put him in cartoons.
Nice touch using “Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head” in the final spot.
It’s too bad we don’t have a pic of his standing next to an old racing Hudson Hornet. I assume you were talking about Cars.
Yeah, I was being clever [hangs head in shame].
Cars was his last movie! He’d already retired or I’m sure they’d have gotten that photo!
Sounds entirely plausible to me. I saw that movie no less than 326 times thanks to my son who was young at the time. The second one was his first theatre movie but it kinda sucked so bad that he wanted to leave. Something about going from a nice sweet fun movie in the first one to seeing people trying to kill his hero and saying “kill him” over and over didn’t sit well with the little guy.
“people” as in cars.
I never did see the second but Cars 3 was pretty good.
Did you erase a reply about him not wanting to do the movie, like James Earl Jones and Star Wars or did I just imagine that? That’s what I replied to below.
I did; you saw it in the short span of time between posting and editing, when I couldn’t find anything to corroborate my story. I figured I’d better wipe it rather than commit and launch an exhaustive search for something that might never have existed.
I’m no stickler about that kind of thing, hence saying it was plausible. Besides, I rather liked your version of a surly old Paul being talked into it, only to have it be his last movie and be immortalized for the much younger generations that didn’t see him in his prime. What’s funny is I’ve heard kids recognized Cheech Marin’s voice as the “slow and low” lowrider from the movie as well. Of course, that not what comes to mind for us.
FTR, I thought it was damn clever. Keep your chin up!
Too bad Mr. Newman wasn’t around for some of Nissan’s more recent campaigns. I’d liked to have seen a Cool Hand Juke.
Rogue to Perdition is my alltime fave!
“I’m glad it’s you.”
If I remember rightly, Butch Cassidy and the Sunnydance Kid was about hatchbacks badge-engineered in South America, right?
Take your prize dammit!
Few can exude timeless casual cool like Paul Newman.
Now I want to re-watch “Lost In Translation.”
I think they almost certainly shipped the Japanese spec car to the USA for Paul Newman and took the photos somewhere in the states. The traffic orientation in the photos is not Japan, where they drive on the left side of the road. And in that top photo with the apple, I doubt they just flipped the image because you can just make out the steering wheel on the right (Japanese) side. This was Japan at the height of its economic powers and they spent big on international stars for advertisements. They weren’t selling just Paul Newman, but “American movie star, Paul Newman” — so they shipped him some Nissans, slapped on the CT license plate and handed Paul some fresh-pressed slacks. The man was likely paid hundreds of thousands for an afternoon’s work.
Fresh pressed slacks? Those are definitely “I’ve been driving for several hours” creases in the front of them.
Don’t forget Nissan sponsored his racing.
Key point.
It wasn’t the work he was paid for, really. It’s the rental of his likeness for a very specific period of time in a very specific set of media that Nissan paid for. With talent at that level, there is no such thing as a buyout, and you pay for every additional channel you use. Like the Goodfellas riff: Print magazines? Pay me. Radio? Pay me. Want to be on TV now? Pay me. Thirteen week flight expired and you want to keep running? Pay me.
Definitely shipped here, just like Nissan (and other Japanese manufacturers) did for their other ad campaigns.
He’s either parked next to a driving range or a landfill based on those net poles along the road.
> the setting appears to be a road in Japan.
Japan drives on the other side of the road.
Yup, this is definitely a road in North America, going by the centerline striping.
Yellow no-passing centre-lines in Japan, too. Everything else – driving on the right, the wide lanes, no guardrails, thin, closely spaced wooden utility poles, the hard-boiled egg – say otherwise.
Yeah but the skipdash pattern gives it away.
We have those in Japan, too…
https://en.namu.wiki/w/%EA%B5%90%ED%86%B5%EB%85%B8%EB%A9%B4%ED%91%9C%EC%8B%9C/%EC%9D%BC%EB%B3%B8
True, but the ratios on the skips are totally different. To someone who manages these assets, it’s like a fingerprint.
*backs out of room, closing door gently*
“What we have here is failure to communicate”
Sure looks like his signature to the right of the 25 liter Peoples Republic of China plate
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=paul+newman+signature&iax=images&ia=images&iai=https%3A%2F%2Fmarksclone-images-wp.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fimg%2F569121_1624273819129.jpg
Rear window wiper on a sedan, coupe. You do not see that very often.
Now I’m wondering how many hard boiled eggs could be stuffed into a Skyline in an hour.
I see what you did there.
Cool Hand Puke
It sure seems like they probably shipped a skyline over to the US for the shooting of the ad campaign.
There is a checker cab behind him because I’m pretty sure that’s NYC. It’s so grainy but I’d say the Manhattan Bridge from the FDR but traveling that way the Brooklyn should be visible so maybe it is the Brooklyn or they filmed on the wrong side of the road?
That’s the Verrazano Bridge as seen from the Belt Parkway as you go towards Coney Island
https://maps.app.goo.gl/E6DwxK3sbLiMepME7
The one with the apple may not look like anywhere in CT, but the one with him in front of the garage looks 100% New England.
Wouldn’t be surprising if Newman’s price for doing the Skyline ads was having his own, personal Skyline imported. Schmucks like us might have to wait 25 years for JDMs, but I don’t think guys like Newman—and there aren’t many guys like Newman—have to follow the same rules.
You forget that the 25 year rule wasn’t in play prior to 1989. When these ad spots were being shot, anyone could essentially import anything as a private import.
That’s right!
This is actually how my old (now long gone) US (and California!) legal DR30 Skyline RS Turbo made it into the US. A private import just before the curtain came down in 1989.
Paul Newman eating an apple, glaring at the camera:
The Photographer: …Paul Newman’s gonna have my legs broke.
CT plate because Newman lived in CT. Nissan’s ad people were precision enthusiasts. Nice.
That’s very obviously not CT for anyone who also lived in CT.
He lived quite close to Lime Rock. I believe the yellow Panters with a student driver sign was his.
I’m going to argue that this is NOT Connecticut. Paul lived in Southwestern CT (Fairfield County for us locals), I believe. I know he spent a LOT of time at LimeRock. This is not the landscape of western CT. It is full of hills, and you would not be able to see that far into the distance without a hill obscuring your view.
BUT, this could perhaps be anything west of the Adirondacks (Appalachians mountain range), perhaps western NY? I would ponder that this may be somewhere between CT and Watkins Glen? Once you get past the Appalachian mountains, it’s pretty flat.
Maybe he was on his way there, but his buddy was not as fast? And, this is his baller way of stopping to wait for them to catch up.
BONUS for the old school CT plates. I so very much wish these were still a choice. I am extremely jealous of folks who held on to them and still use them for the front plate (illegally, of course).
Do you still remember the plate numbers your family members had? It’s an accurate old-style plate, for sure.
I don’t think that’s even the U.S., but maybe. If it were, a more logical location might be someplace in CA, where Nissan was setting up a design studio around that time and would have been able to ship a car in from Japan with relative logistical ease.
Yes, I still have one of the plates somewhere. After further review, I will argue that the plate is a fake.
This picture is taken a LONG time ago, probably in the 80’s?? Back then, the current number scheme was:
XXX-YYY
Where XXX = Letter Letter Letter, aka “HTB”
While YYY = Number Number Number, aka “420”
Before they started the 3-n-3 nomenclature, it was XX-YYYY, which is what my parents had on their car in 1978 (specifically “HB-YYYY”).
Pauls plate is: 25L PRC
This does not appear to be a vanity plate. It doesn’t follow any of the “special” sequences we may have in the state I’m familiar with. I can’t recall EVER having a number scheme of “YYX XXX” in CT.
So, I’m now calling it a fake.
(note: CT license plates give me automotive autism, I’m kind of obsessed with them)
Yes, this is all accurate. My parents and grandparents all had (may still have) XX YYYY plates, and I still remember them to this day. So, the plate is VISUALLY accurate, but the sequence is definitely off. They didn’t start XXX YYY groupings till at least the 80s.
I still also remember the plate I had on my first Volvo 245 that I bought in 96 (and it was YYY XXX pattern – three digits, three letters).
The plate in the ad is definitely pasted in there, and it probably has some kind of cryptic meaning tied to the vehicle.
My first thought was actually southern RI (think Charlestown), which is flatter than most of Rhode Island and New England in general. Maybe Block Island, but that’s far too hilly.
There are some places that look like that in Rho-DIE-lind, I guess. East of New Haven starts looking a little more like that along the coast. It’s definitely not Block.
I grew up in Charlestown, actually. I don’t think this is southern RI. The light poles on the left are a big tell to me. They do not look familiar. I could certainly be wrong, but I would not peg it as southern RI.
Hudson valley has some places that look like that. I did some photo shoots north of Red Hook that passed for Kansas.
I like how the rear view mirror is adjusted for the left hand seat as though it’s a LHD car.
I could buy this. Along rt 22, maybe. BUT, there are still a lot of hills, and anything looking east on that road would show hills. If that were the case, this image is looking WEST, towards the Hudson. I would argue this is not that area based on this.
After further research, this is likely a plate from 81-87. I could also see this being a Veterans plate, but there is no history on those numbers back then. But, the modern vet plates loosely follow this nomenclature.
http://www.15q.net/ct.html
C’mon Jason, you could be basically as cool while standing next to a Nissan Pao that is blocking traffic if you had the right snack.
Yep.
My vote on the snack would be a bag of Hot Takis
On Newman with the apple. The cars in the background seem to be driving on our side of the road. The Skyline is razor-sharp, the background (even where in focus) isn’t. The Connecticut plate looks pasted on. I conclude Photoshop done the old way – with couple of different pictures and an Exacto knife.
I don’t know about that, but I will say that the yellow line to Newman’s right looks very out of place, like it was applied to the image, not part of it. Also, shouldn’t it be either double yellow or have a dashed yellow beside it?
Regardless, you’re definitely right that it’s not Japan, based on the background cars. I guess they could theoretically have flipped the image, but if it really is a separate background shot, no reason not to take it in the States.
Good eye. Definitely some post-exposure shenanigans going on with the image.
Everything in Photoshop – at least the original tools – were named after an analog equivalent. Press photos were heavily manipulated for decades before digital made it so much easier.
Looks like it’s taken with a telephoto lens, if the photographer was using Nikon equipment back then I would guess it is the 180 mm F28 which has a very distinctive look. There are some out of focus signs on the right hand side of the road facing you so it is a drive on the right country. The lighting on the utility poles in the background is coming from the same direction and is overcast, sort of what you would get if you were facing north in the afternoon on a rainy day. I think that is a double yellow line. It’s just out of focus solid yellow on the right hand side dotted on the left. I think there’s a curve that Mr. Newman and the car are standing next to, and the shot is composed of the background looks as though he’s in the middle of the road, but actually the road curves away just outside the shot
This!
It’s not photoshop. Occam’s Razor. It was incredibly popular for Japanese manufacturers to ship cars here for commercials and press shoots in the 80s and 90s (just look up “Integra-Nottegra” and “Art Force Silvia” ad campaigns on YouTube/Google as an example). That’s an out of focus American road with American signage/lane markings and an in-focus Newman/Skyline.