When Spanky was running home by himself after being frightened by the wild man, in the background is a huge hill with the number 57 in also huge numbers, emblazened on it's side. What was that for? It is at 7 minutes into the video short. I guess I'll have to check every couple months to see if it gets answered as this is not a hugely visited movie. Let me know if any of you out there notices it too.
shareNever noticed before, but just watched the colorized version after reading your post and it's there. It looks a whole lot like the Heinz 57 logo. An early example of subliminal advertising??
shareI was thinking it may be for military training for the air corps, but wasn't sure.
shareYou're very observant! My guess is it's an ad for Heinz 57 but again I could be wrong.
shareYou are right, it is for Heinz 57. They had several of those around LA before the war. See the article at kcet.org "when big numbers roamed the hills of Los Angeles".
There is a photo of one marked 'culver city'. That was the location of the Hal Roach Studios, and is likely to be the one in the film. The shape of the hills is similar, anyway. The photo in the article is from 1916, and the short was made in 1933, so they were there a while. All developed over now, I guess.
Wow...never thought I'd get a reliable answer to that question. Never would have guessed that it was an advertisement. Copied link below. Thanks Franklinlj
http://www.kcet.org/updaily/socal_focus/commentary/where-we-are/when-big-numbers-roamed-the-hills-of-los-angeles.html