Award-winning 'meditating' monkey in Walkman commercial dies at 29
(Kyodo) An award-winning monkey who held a Sony Corp. Walkman player in his hand, wore a headset and stood as if captivated by music in a TV commercial aired in the late 1980s died of old age in Kumamoto Prefecture on Sunday.
The monkey, known by its stage name Choromatsu, was 29, said to be equivalent to roughly 100 years old for a human, according to a person involved in running the monkey troupe he belonged to.
Choromatsu belonged to a troupe based in Hikari, Yamaguchi Prefecture. He was recruited for the commercial when he was giving a performance at Tokyo's Yoyogi Park, the group said.
Choromatsu's facial expressions in the commercial for the music player aired in 1987 as if he was meditating while listening to music drew comments from many people that they were suggestive of a monkey that has evolved into a human. It won an award for best commercial in that year.
He "retired" in 1990 after giving performances in various parts of Japan.
Goro Murasaki, 41, Choromatsu's human partner of many years in performances, said, "He was a partner I am thankful for. He had a full life given by heaven."
http://asia.news.yahoo.com/070114/kyodo/d8ml0vhg0.html
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It's hard to read the model number at the end of the commercial. The Walkman on the right clearly is a WM-150, and the one on the left looks like a cleaner WM-F550C. According to this page, Choromatsu's listening to a WM-550C.
Ah, the days when "It's a Sony" meant something more than DRM rootkits.
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