It’s crazy how shorthand travels for cars that aren’t actually sold in this country. The Nissan Skyline is a case in point: most old school fans will know what a hakosuka is (hako, for box; suka, for the Japanese pronunciation of the first half of the Skyline name), and some may even know the Japan Skyline (1977-81, named for its “I Love Japan” advertising theme) and the Newman Skyline (1981-85, so named because Paul Newman raced a version in international competition).
Skyline fans will be jumping up and down at the omission of one important missing generation from the list above: the kenmeri generation. The “Japanization” of the name abbreviated the names Ken and Mary, a young couple in love who appeared in the car’s TV advertising. Tall, exotic Ken; curvy, adorable Mary; they toured rural Japan in their lovely Skyline 2000GTX, getting back to “Beautiful Nature,” Nissan’s pro-environmental slogan at the time. Ken and Mary took Japan by storm starting in late 1972.
Commercials don’t often sweep the nation anymore in these times of personalized media, so some context is in order. Remember the stink made about Isaiah Mustafa, the really cut black dude in the Old Spice ads about a year ago? Take that reaction and cube it. Or, go ask your parents about the dude in the Taster’s Choice ads from the early ‘90s; it was that level of mania, and beyond. Only lately, thanks to YouTube, can we find these vintage ads and gaze back at them for what they really were, rather than through four decades of rose-tinted nostalgic haze.
Almost forty years ago, Diane Krey-Wesley played Mary, a household name in Japan. Her face was iconic among a generation of car buyers and TV watchers, and even today, her character’s name is inextricably associated with the product. Today she’s a Northern California schoolteacher, but an increasing American appreciation for all generations of Nissan’s Skyline—plus the return of those videos, now available for anyone to see at any time—mean that fame may yet have a second act in store for her.
Initially, she was a military brat, going to school locally while her dad was a pilot with the US Air Force. “I was at Yokota Elementary School for four years, from Grade 1 to Grade 4. Yokota means “edge of the rice field” and was located near the now-decommissioned McLelland airbase. Later, after he was decommissioned and he got a job with Japan Air Lines as a pilot, my brother and I went to Johnson Air Station High School (Johnson is also decommissioned now).” In high school, Diane describes herself as “shy... at home I was outgoing and silly, but in public I was kind of shy. I kept to myself a lot, but then I felt like I was in another existence when I went to do the modeling.”
Ah, yes, the modeling. Something of an accident, that. “At school, I had a crush on a boy who worked for a modeling agency. I followed him to one of his gigs, for Honda minibikes.” She just went to watch, but was quickly recruited to assume an on-camera role, to look impressed as the boy du jour chugged by on his high-fashion moped. She quickly secured a contract with the Eddie Arab Modeling Agency, which specialized in placing non-Japanese kids into Japanese TV and print ads. Soon, Diane was in high demand, shilling for everything from clothing to makeup to electronics—all without a single interview. “Later, I heard that one of the reasons they liked me was that I never complained. Long hours? No problem. Eight straight hours with fake nails, arms up, holding a curler in my hair? Sure. Shave all the hair off half my face? OK. I used to get carsick from all of the cigarette smoke as we traveled to shoots, but I never complained!”