MOVIES - Jan. 10, 1992

Spanky’s Rights: George MacFarland, 64, can still call himself “Spanky” but does not hold the rights to the image of the chubby, beanie-clad smart aleck he played in the “Little Rascals” and “Our Gang” series, a judge in Trenton, N.J., has ruled. The judge tossed out MacFarland’s lawsuit against an Ocean Township, N.J., businessman whose tavern, Spanky MacFarland’s, was lined with “Little Rascals” photographs. The court said MacFarland relinquished rights to the Spanky name and image in a contract his parents signed with Hal Roach Studios in 1936, and “retained merely the right to use the nickname ‘Spanky,’ not the right to license the name and image of ‘Spanky’ to others.”