Sammy Davis Jr. and Suntory. You know, for kids!

We went to Zoetrope the other day, a Shinjuku bar known for the owner's tremendous selection of Japanese whiskeys and for the eclectic films he projects on the wall. Horigami-san stopped a Fatty Arbuckle silent reel and put in a DVD of old Suntory ads. When he saw us smiling at this Sammy Davis Jr. commercial, he said that it had been "the first – well, maybe or maybe not the first, but definitely one of the first "– in the long line of Japanese TV ads starring famous foreigners. (Hear that? No Sammy Davis Jr, no Lost in Translation.) He said the ad was popular when he was in elementary school and that all the boys loved to recreate it at recess. He claims that any Japanese man in his early fifties is guaranteed to have memories of pouring milk or juice into a cup in the schoolyard and doing his best Sammy Davis Jr. impression. His face lit up when he re-enacted his 10-year-old self doing the commercial. Wait!