Aunt Em

Emily Gale is the aunt of Dorothy Gale and a supporting character in The Wizard of Oz.
In the 1939 version, she was played by the late Clara Blandick.
In Return to Oz, she was played by the late Piper Laurie.
==History==
Unlike many versions of the story, in the original The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and its many sequel books by Baum, Dorothy's Aunt Em does not seem to have a close relationship with her niece. Surprisingly, it is Uncle Henry who bonds more with Dorothy, even bringing her on vacations to Australia and California, while Aunt Em stays behind to look after the farm. Aunt Em also appears to be unable of finding the simple joys in everyday life that Dorothy, being a mere child, still could. She is puzzled and even taken back by Dorothy's child like qualities and couldn't understand how her niece could remain blissful on such a bleak and desolate environment such as Kansas. However, at the very end of the story, when Dorothy and Toto are sent home after being swept away to Oz, Aunt Em is delighted to see Dorothy has come back to her, indicating that she does have love for the child after all.
In Baums' Oz sequel Books...
Due to the damage the cyclone caused on the farm in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Aunt Em confesses to Dorothy the state of poverty that Henry was in and that their farm was facing imminent foreclosure. So Em, Henry and Dorothy all moved to the Land of Oz to escape the trouble in Kansas and live in the Royal Palace of Oz in the Emerald City. Princess Ozma gave them a suite of rooms and gave them both beautiful and handsome clothes to wear, instead of the old worn out farm clothes they we're so used to wearing all their lives. And Ozma also appointed Em "Royal Mender of the Stockings of the Ruler of Oz" in order to keep her busy since she no longer had to do any of the farm labor she did most of her life. However, both Henry and Em later decided to live together in a little cottage on the outskirts of the Emerald City as the city's extravagance was a little too luxurious for their liking (The Emerald City of Oz).
==Trivia==
*In the RSC version she and Glinda are both played by the same actress even though in the original movie they were played by two different actresses.
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