Robert Hutchins. Wheezer.

[oldfireguy]

So I'm out with my wife at the cemetery today putting flowers on her mothers grave when she starts telling me this story. She tells me that her great aunt had a son who played Wheezer on Spanky and our Gang. She takes me over to his grave site and the first thing I notice is the AAC wings engraved on the stone. The photo is hard to read but it says "Our Bob" "Robert Hutchins" "1935 to 1945". I came back home and did a quick search and found he died in Calif trying to land a military plane during a training excerise. Here is a cut and paste on Robert. I had no clue and the cemetery is only a couple of miles from the house. Damn you learn something new every day.

 

Bobby Hutchins was born to James and Constance Hutchins in Washington state. His father was a native of Kentucky and his mother a native of Washington. Wheezer appeared in 58 Our Gang films during his six years in the series. For much of his run, "Wheezer" was portrayed as the perennial tag-along little brother, put off by the older children but always anxious to be part of the action. Hutchins's tenure in Our Gang took him through both the silent and early sound periods of the series. he appears as the main character of several of the films, including Bouncing Babies (1929), Pups is Pups (1930), and Dogs is Dogs (1931). He left the series at the end of the 1932-33 film season; his only film work outside of Our Gang includes a handful of appearances in three outside features in 1932 and 1933.

 

Other members of the Our Gang troupe remember very little about Hutchins. Jackie Cooper said "You’d go to play with Wheezer and his father would pull him away. Very competitive. I didn't get a satisfactory answer from my mother or grandmother as to why, but he was to be left alone. Other cast members reported that Hutchins was abused by his parents to keep him from outgrowing Our Gang.

 

After outgrowing the series, Wheezer and his family eventually moved back to Tacoma, where he entered public school. He joined the U.S. Army in 1943 after graduating high school, served in World War II, and in 1945 enrolled to become an air cadet.

 

Hutchins was killed in a plane crash on May 17, 1945, while trying to land a B-26 Marauder in the Merced Army Air Corps Field in Merced, California, during a training exercise. Hutchins' mother, Olga Hagerson, was to travel to the airfield for his graduation from flying school the week after he died.

[SteveR]

This is a very interesting post.

[Teamski]

Very interesting, indeed. Thanks for sharing!

 

-Ski

[gunbarrel]

I agree--very interesting. Here is some more information:

 

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?G...818&page=gr

[sgtdorango]

Very interesting....I wonder if your wifes family might have a wartime photo of Weezer in uniform, that would be cool to see what he looked like at age twenty and in uniform......mike

[andrewt]

Nicely done. A very interesting post indeed . . .