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Post by mtw12055 on Jun 20, 2016 3:39:42 GMT -5
Good detective work you're doing here, wheezer!
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senel
New Member
Fan of Our Gang Shorts..Wheezer the Slayer!
Posts: 19 
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Post by senel on Jan 3, 2017 15:29:31 GMT -5
Wheezer is one of my all time favorite Our Gang members. Top 3 easily. Have you tried contacting family. He had siblings that lived to adulthood and more than likely had children. Photo's are taken of pretty much every service member and am sure that was practiced in the 40's. Is it possible to get a better photo of him as an adult, perhaps while in service. That photo looks like it was traced over from a real picture. It's a sad story. I know he died prematurely, but I hope he was happy before the end.
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Post by bigshotjones on Jan 4, 2017 14:51:58 GMT -5
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Post by wheezer on Jan 7, 2017 19:03:40 GMT -5
Wheezer is one of my all time favorite Our Gang members. Top 3 easily. Have you tried contacting family. He had siblings that lived to adulthood and more than likely had children. Photo's are taken of pretty much every service member and am sure that was practiced in the 40's. Is it possible to get a better photo of him as an adult, perhaps while in service. That photo looks like it was traced over from a real picture. It's a sad story. I know he died prematurely, but I hope he was happy before the end. Wheezer's brother, Dickie, has no recorded information regarding children. I've somewhat looked into family, but haven't come across much. Also, unfortunately, the adult picture of Wheezer is the only one available. It is very sad, indeed. |
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Post by sandro on Jan 8, 2017 21:04:07 GMT -5
Another day I watched a video tribute from Our Gang and I saw this photo of the adult Wheezer but I'm not sure if it's him.  |
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Post by tboneator64 on Jan 13, 2017 3:29:18 GMT -5
Another day I watched a video tribute from Our Gang and I saw this photo of the adult Wheezer but I'm not sure if it's him. I know this popped up in a different topic awhile back, but I don't recall the details at the moment. To my eyes, it certainly looks like this could be Wheezer as a young adult! CHEERS!  |
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Post by carolken on Feb 7, 2017 22:46:11 GMT -5
Another day I watched a video tribute from Our Gang and I saw this photo of the adult Wheezer but I'm not sure if it's him. I know this popped up in a different topic awhile back, but I don't recall the details at the moment. To my eyes, it certainly looks like this could be Wheezer as a young adult! CHEERS! There's a resemblance, but the film is from 1942 and Wheezer didn't pilot until 1945. |
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Post by thinker on May 12, 2017 20:52:03 GMT -5
"Wheezer was a special case. Wheezer felt like he was being picked on, or something. There was a problem of some kind associated with Wheezer, maybe it was because of his parents. He would cry at a moment's notice. We had to be careful around Wheezer, that we wouldn't hurt his feelings. Those were instructions, I believe, from Bob McGowan. Wheezer's dad was pushing McGowan and Hal Roach to feature Wheezer at the expense of the other kids, which they resisted. Roach and McGowan did. In our group at that time, Jackie Cooper was the star. You could see Stymie was going to be star, and then Spanky McFarland, too." I want to look at "Bobby's father had a plan to keep the child star small and employable by underfeeding him. He didn't want Bobby and his siblings to learn that normal kids got a lot more to eat than they did. NO one ever attempted to intervene on the children's behalf" combined with the former.  There's Wheezer on the right. A skinny little fellow.  Is it just my eye that's leading me to believe he looks skinnier than everyone else? But, the aforementioned alongside the well-known quote from Jackie Cooper gives me the understanding of Wheezer that he was sensitive, isolated, and malnourished. I suppose that the kids couldn't do much about Wheezer being underfed, and the parents -- well, the moms, if what Shirley Jean Rickert has any truth to me -- would care more about their child succeeding in the gang than the health of another. "They called him Wheezer because he wheezed the first day he was at the studio. In his excitement, he ran all over the place, and his breath made a whistling, wheezy noise. ...Wheezer's father caused production problems for Hal Roach, and one of the kids, who didn't want to be quoted, said that Wheezer was ill-treated by one of his parents in an attempt to keep him from outgrowing his role. ...Wheezer completed high school and in 1942 took a job as a gas station attendant." -- The Little Rascals: The Life and Times of Our Gang. That might confirm one of my suspicions about the kids not being able to do anything, and we can only assume that it was his father that was malnourishing him, especially because his mother moved away rather quickly after Wheezer left the gang, if I remember correctly. I suppose she was only staying in the area for Wheezer (and his brother), and once he was finished, she divorced James Hutchins, and moved back to Washington with family. His father seemed to be the one in control of Wheezer's time in the gang (posing with him in the family picture, being quoted as pulling him away, causing production problems), and perhaps he was much in control of his film career? After he finished in Our Gang, and away from his father, he was never in any other productions, but even in his time off from the gang, he appeared in Yoo-Hoo (in which he looked skinny as ever). I can only assume that James Hutchins wanted Wheezer to be a star -- "Wheezer's dad was pushing McGowan and Hal Roach to feature Wheezer at the expense of the other kids, which they resisted." -- much alike the catty mothers of the other children. He was willing to do anything to have his fame, even if it meant abusing his sons. With Wheezer being supposedly timid, (apparently) dim-witted, isolated, and malnourished, it only goes to show how lucky we are that child stars can no longer be treated like this (And soon, I hope, children can't be treated like this in general). I can't find information about Wheezer's weekly salary, but my guess is that it went to James, considering the fact that Wheezer got a job as a gas station attendant when he was 17. Of course, this is purely speculation. |
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Post by thinker on May 12, 2017 21:28:15 GMT -5
Very nice detailed information on the mystery surrounding Wheezer.
After reading through this information and checking out some of the "Our Gang" videos featuring Bobby Hutchins, I have begun to speculate what might have caused some strange treatment in Wheezer's young career as a child actor at Hal Roach Studios. I do not believe he really looks so malnourished in the photographs, just a kid who is growing and beginning to lose the baby fat of his earlier youth. Recently I viewed "Yoo-Hoo" which was produced at Universal Studio's in 1932. He has a lead acting role with plenty of close-ups and good show case of his skills as a child actor. Another one from Hal Roach Studio has made a big impression on me (and caused much additional speculation on my part), this was a Short entitled "Big Ears". This film also has many adorable scenes with Wheezer playing with Pete the Pooch and is a must-see for any Wheezer fan.
In this episode (and from a more sinister standpoint), Wheezer over-hears his father tell his mother he will divorce her. He attempts to ask Stymie what a "divorce" is and finally a bigger kid tells him what it is. Plenty of tear jerking scenes in this one.
I have heard that children are often negatively affected, psychologically from divorce. Since this episode was from 1932, it has Wheezer, in effect acting out on film exactly what is going to happen to him in his real life (at least from what I have read in this blog since his parents really did separate and as I understand it his mother remarried).
This makes me wonder how soon after the film was made, were his real parents separated? The negative affects might have included divorce not only of his parents, but also continued employment of working in the studio. Also, think of the time period during the 1930's, the depths of the "Great Depression". How was a father supposed to support a family, especially with so much time invested with a prodigy child at Hal Roach studios.
Just my thoughts, and purely speculation.
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Post by bigshotjones on May 15, 2017 13:43:12 GMT -5
Just a few notes: Wheezer's father James Arthur Hutchins died in 1961. No indication on whether or not he had ever remarried. Wheezer's father WWI draft registration shows him working for the Northern Pacific Railway. His WWII draft registration shows him working at a foundry. His 1930 census shows his job as working in the Motion Picture Industry as 'Artist's Manager.' Wheezer's step-sister Frances [Hagerson] Nicholson died in 2009. Here's here obit: www.legacy.com/obituaries/seattletimes/obituary.aspx?pid=134155945 Wheezer's stepfather Russell Hagerson (1899-1973) was married three times (that can be accounted for). Frances was from his first marriage to Leona Frayne. He was married briefly in the 1930s to Alleda Synder. His last marriage was to Constance/Olga (1903-1969), Wheezer's mom. (and cribbing from an earlier thread, asking as to whether he had any living relatives:) Wheezer's brother James/Dickie died in 1978. He would have been about 48. Possible children, or a surviving spouse? Constance had at least two brothers, Henry and Konrad/Conrad Roe. It appears that Henry died young (21 or so) in 1915. I found Conrad married in 1940, but with no children. James Hutchins had three sisters, Bessie, Jessie, and Wynona, born @ 1901, 1904, and 1907, respectively. Possible first cousins on that side of the family. |
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senel
New Member
Fan of Our Gang Shorts..Wheezer the Slayer!
Posts: 19
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Post by senel on May 20, 2017 14:24:27 GMT -5
I have to agree with Thinker. I don't think Wheezer was malnourished. If you see him in his latter appearances he's growing and like said losing the baby fat. A lot of kids look skinnier when they start grow spurts. Once his parents separated he went to Washington State to live with his mother. What gets me is why there are no pictures of him post Our Gang. Am sure they took pictures between his departure from Our Gang and his premature death. What happened to his family home? Maybe someone can put something out in the newspaper..where his family was from asking for information. Maybe someone will respond.
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Post by floradoradolly on May 22, 2017 1:31:30 GMT -5
"He didn't want Bobby and his siblings to learn that normal kids got a lot more to eat than they did."
Considering that Wheezer was with the Gang during the height of the Great Depression, I shudder to think of what getting less to eat than "normal kids" would have been like.
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Post by thinker on May 26, 2017 12:22:11 GMT -5
In response to bigshotjones excellent information. |
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Post by thinker on May 26, 2017 12:36:07 GMT -5
For what it is worth, I found this picture of a head stone at www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=8440414The dates on it look like it could be Bobby's father, but not confirmed. The site says this is located at Greenacres Memorial Park ,Ferndale, Whatcom County, Washington, USA I am intrigued enough to attempt to discover more information about Bobby's father. ![]()  |
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Post by wheezer on May 31, 2017 18:43:44 GMT -5
It's so delightful to see more insight into the life of Wheezer. That does very plausibly look like James Hutchins' headstone.
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