Profile[]
The Jackson-Hutchins Residence is the lower to middle-class home of Wheezer and Mary Ann Jackson and like the Cobb Residence in town, their continuity and family structure also differs widely over several shorts. At times, it seems to run parallel with the Spear Family where Wheezer is the son of a prize-fighter and the Smith Family with a lineage of inventors.
When Wheezer and Mary Ann first appear as siblings in The Spanking Age, their mother is deceased and they're living with their step-mother and step-sister, Jean Darling, but their father, the inventor (shades of the Smith Family), sells his patent and comes to rescue them to live elsewhere. This story is retold in Small Talk, but this time, Mary Ann and Wheezer are living in an orphanage and are rescued separately this time by a rich socialite, who turns out to be their mother's twin sister in Little Mother and then their father's sister in Dogs Is Dogs. (In that retelling, Mary Ann is replaced by Jackie's sister, Echo.) In those other shorts, Jean is replaced first by Spud Janney and then by Sherwood Bailey, the three of them possibly siblings of their father's second wife if the shorts are all different versions of one event.
Behind the scenes at least, Mary Ann and Wheezer's father ends up marrying a third time to the mother of Echo and Jackie Cooper. (Wheezer encounters her and Echo previously in Choo-Choo! Jackie and Wheezer's friendship is quite antagonistic to say the least. Wheezer locks him outside the house one night in When The Wind Blows and tries selling his baseball gear in Bargain Day with Echo and his best friend, Stymie, helping him. Mary Ann, meanwhile, has quite a unrequited infatuation with Jackie who in turn ends up having a crush on his new teacher Miss Crabtree in School's Out. Wheezer complicates things for Jackie and his teacher by selling his new mother's love letters to Chubby Chaney in Love Business. Later on, Wheezer feels neglected when a new baby is born in Bouncing Babies and soon frets that divorce may occur again in Big Ears, but he and the gang come together and convince dad and mom to stay together.
Wheezer and Mary Ann's father is named James Jackson in Growing Pains, but in The Spanking Age, he's Thomas E. Brown. In Bouncing Babies, his wife is called Mrs. Dean by a nurse. (An apparent blooper, this was the actress's real name!)
Mr. Cooper's first name is mentioned in When The Wind Blows.
Family[]
- Father - Mr. Henry Jackson - Warner Richmond in Little Mother, Eddie Dunn in Bouncing Babies, Charles McAvoy in When The Wind Blows and Creighton Hale in Big Ears
- Mother - Mrs. Hutchins-Jackson - Lyle Tayo in Little Mother and Adele Watson in Saturday's Lesson
- Daughter - Mary Ann Jackson - Crazy House to Fly My Kite
- Son #1 - Wheezer Hutchins - Robert Hutchins - The Spanking Age to Mush And Milk
- Son #2- Beezer Hutchins - Donald Smith - Fair And Muddy to Boxing Gloves (uncertain)
- Step-Mother #1 - Mrs. Janney-Bailey - Lyle Tayo in The Spanking Age and Blanche Payson in Dogs Is Dogs
- Step-Son #1 - Donald Janney - Donald Janney in Bear Shooters
- Step-Daughter #1 - "Jean Janney-Bailey" - Jean Darling - The Spanking Age
- Step-Son #2 - Sherwood Bailey - Sherwood Bailey in Dogs Is Dogs
- Step-Mother #2 - Mrs. Cooper - Dora Dean in Bouncing Babies, Lyle Tayo in Pups Is Pups, Estelle Ettere in Choo-Choo!, Ann Christy in Big Ears and May Wallace in Readin' And Writin' and Love Business
- Step-Son #3 - Jackie Cooper - Boxing Gloves to Bargain Day
- Step-Daughter - Dorothy Cooper - Pups Is Pups to Mush And Milk
- Son #3 - Unnamed Boy - Actor Unnamed - Bouncing Babies