A Tough Winter
1930 film by Robert F. McGowan
A Tough Winter is a 1930 Our Gang short comedy film, the 99th in the series, directed by Robert F. McGowan.
Plot
The gang goes to Wheezer and Mary Ann's house for a taffy pull, but they botch the recipe and make a huge mess. They attempt to clean it and ask Stepin Fetchit to help, but he crosses wires, plumbing and gas lines. As a result, light bulbs pop, water sprays from gas heaters, a phone acts as a vacuum cleaner and music plays from the icebox.
Cast
The Gang
Norman Chaney as Chubby
Jackie Cooper as Jackie
Allen Hoskins as Farina
Bobby Hutchins as Wheezer
Mary Ann Jackson as Mary Ann
Beverly Parrish as Girl with Mary Ann
Warner Weidler as Our Gang member
Wolfgang Weidler as Our Gang member
Pete the Pup as himself
Dinah the Mule as herself
Tommy Atkins as Toddler (unconfirmed)
Additional cast
Stepin Fetchit as Stepin
Lyle Tayo as Miss Radio
Production
The first Pete the Pup was poisoned by an unknown assailant after this film.
Stepin Fetchit had signed a one-year contract with Hal Roach Studios to appear with the gang in nine episodes during the 1930-31 season. His character was included in the scripts for several episodes, including Pups Is Pups, Helping Grandma and Little Daddy, but his contract was canceled for unknown reasons and the Our Gang series continued without him.
Because of perceived racial insensitivities, A Tough Winter was eliminated from the syndicated Little Rascals television package in 1971.
Beverly Parrish was signed for two years to replace Jean Darling, who had been dismissed six months earlier, but she died suddenly a week and a half after this episode was filmed. Shirley Jean Rickett replaced her several episodes later, although she lasted only half a season.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “A Tough Winter” is 1930 film by Robert F. McGowan. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Tough, Winter and film, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “1930 film by Robert F. McGowan” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4660244. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1930 and 1971.
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This entry incorporates text from “A Tough Winter” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.