Uncle Henry is a fictional character from
The Oz BooksThe Oz books form a book series that begins with The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and that relates the "history" of the Land of Oz. Oz was originally created by author L. Frank Baum, who went on to write fourteen Oz books...
by
L. Frank BaumLyman Frank Baum was an American author, poet, playwright, actor and independent filmmaker, best known today as the creator, along with illustrator W. W. Denslow, of one of the most popular books in American children's literature, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz...
. He is the uncle of
Dorothy GaleDorothy Gale is a fictional character, the protagonist of many of the Oz novels by American author L. Frank Baum and best friend of Oz's ruler, Princess Ozma. Dorothy first appears in Baum's classic children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and reappears in most of its sequels. She also is the...
and husband of
Aunt EmAunt Em is a fictional character from the Oz books. She is the aunt of Dorothy Gale and wife of Uncle Henry, and lived together with them on a farm in Kansas...
, and lived with them on a
farmA farm is an area of land, including various structures, devoted primarily to the practice of producing and managing food , fibers and, increasingly, fuel. It is the basic production facility in food production. Farms may be owned and operated by a single individual, family, community, corporation...
in
KansasKansas is a state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa tribe, who inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south wind," although this was...
.
After their house was famously carried off to the
land of OzOz is a fairy country containing four lands under the rule of one monarch.It was first introduced in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, one of many fairy countries that he created for his books. It achieved a popularity that none of his other works attained, and after four years, he...
by a tornado in
The Wonderful Wizard of OzThe Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a children's novel written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W.W. Denslow. It was originally published by the George M...
, Henry
mortgageA mortgage is the transfer of an interest in property to a lender as a security for a debt - usually a loan of money. While a mortgage in itself is not a debt, it is the lender's security for a debt...
d his farm in order to rebuild. This crisis, combined with the stress of Dorothy's prolonged disappearance and sudden reappearance, took a toll on his health, and his doctor ordered him to take a vacation.
Uncle Henry is a fictional character from
The Oz BooksThe Oz books form a book series that begins with The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and that relates the "history" of the Land of Oz. Oz was originally created by author L. Frank Baum, who went on to write fourteen Oz books...
by
L. Frank BaumLyman Frank Baum was an American author, poet, playwright, actor and independent filmmaker, best known today as the creator, along with illustrator W. W. Denslow, of one of the most popular books in American children's literature, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz...
. He is the uncle of
Dorothy GaleDorothy Gale is a fictional character, the protagonist of many of the Oz novels by American author L. Frank Baum and best friend of Oz's ruler, Princess Ozma. Dorothy first appears in Baum's classic children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and reappears in most of its sequels. She also is the...
and husband of
Aunt EmAunt Em is a fictional character from the Oz books. She is the aunt of Dorothy Gale and wife of Uncle Henry, and lived together with them on a farm in Kansas...
, and lived with them on a
farmA farm is an area of land, including various structures, devoted primarily to the practice of producing and managing food , fibers and, increasingly, fuel. It is the basic production facility in food production. Farms may be owned and operated by a single individual, family, community, corporation...
in
KansasKansas is a state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa tribe, who inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south wind," although this was...
.
Oz Books
After their house was famously carried off to the
land of OzOz is a fairy country containing four lands under the rule of one monarch.It was first introduced in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, one of many fairy countries that he created for his books. It achieved a popularity that none of his other works attained, and after four years, he...
by a tornado in
The Wonderful Wizard of OzThe Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a children's novel written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W.W. Denslow. It was originally published by the George M...
, Henry
mortgageA mortgage is the transfer of an interest in property to a lender as a security for a debt - usually a loan of money. While a mortgage in itself is not a debt, it is the lender's security for a debt...
d his farm in order to rebuild. This crisis, combined with the stress of Dorothy's prolonged disappearance and sudden reappearance, took a toll on his health, and his doctor ordered him to take a vacation. He took Dorothy with him on an ocean voyage to
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
, where he had relatives, but during this trip (in
Ozma of OzOzma of Oz, published on July 29, 1907, was the third book of L. Frank Baum's Oz series. It was the first in which Baum was clearly intending a series of Oz books...
) Dorothy was lost again during a storm, and for several weeks a despondent Henry believed she had
drownedDrowning is death from suffocation caused by a liquid entering the lungs and preventing the absorption of oxygen leading to cerebral hypoxia and myocardial infarction...
, until she suddenly returned again, courtesy of the
Nome King'sThe Nome King is a fictional character in L. Frank Baum's Oz books. Although the Wicked Witch of the West is the most famous of Oz's villains , the Nome King is the closest the book series has to a main antagonist.-In the novels:The character called the Nome King is originally named Roquat the Red...
Magic Belt.
In
The Emerald City of OzThe Emerald City of Oz is the sixth of L. Frank Baum's fourteen Land of Oz books. It was also adapted into a Canadian animated film in 1987. Originally published on July 20, 1910, it is the story of Dorothy Gale and her Uncle Henry and Aunt Em coming to live in Oz permanently...
, Henry and Em finally confessed to Dorothy the extent of their financial problems, and revealed to her that their farm was on the verge of foreclosure. Dorothy solved this problem for them by bringing them to live with her in the
Emerald CityThe Emerald City is the fictional capital city of the Land of Oz in L. Frank Baum's Oz books, first described in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.-Fictional description:...
, as permanent guests of
Princess OzmaPrincess Ozma is a fictional character in the Land of Oz universe created by L. Frank Baum. She appears in every book of the series except The Wonderful Wizard of Oz .- The classic books :...
. Henry was given the job of being Keeper of the Jewels in Ozma's treasure hoard for the purpose of keeping him occupied. Unlike Aunt Em, who is questioning everything about the Land of Oz, Uncle Henry accepts his new life and home with surprising ease, having traveled and seen the world a lot more than his wife had.
By
Glinda of OzGlinda of Oz is the fourteenth Land of Oz book written by children's author L. Frank Baum, published on July 10, 1920. Like most of the Oz books, the plot features a journey through some of the remoter regions of Oz; though in this case the pattern is doubled: Dorothy and Ozma travel to stop a war...
, he has become one of Ozma's closest advisers, having taught his agricultural abilities to Ozite farmers, getting them producing surplus for the Emerald City storehouses.
Uncle Henry has been featured slightly more than Aunt Em in the Oz books, despite being less featured than Auntie Em in the film,
The Wizard of OzThe Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical / fantasy film directed mainly by Victor Fleming from a script by Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson, Edgar Allan Woolf, and others and based on the 1900 children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum...
(1939). Ruth Plumly Thompson gave him only two brief mentions, in
The Royal Book of OzThe Royal Book of Oz is the fifteenth in the series of Oz books, and the first to be written by Ruth Plumly Thompson after L. Frank Baum's death. Although Baum was credited as the author, it was written entirely by Thompson...
and
Grampa in OzGrampa in Oz is the eighteenth in the series of Oz books created by L. Frank Baum and his successors, and the fourth written by Ruth Plumly Thompson....
. He had somewhat larger roles in
John R. NeillJohn Rea Neill was a magazine and children's book illustrator primarily known for illustrating more than forty stories set in the Land of Oz, including L. Frank Baum's, Ruth Plumly Thompson's, and three of his own. His pen-and-ink drawings have become identified almost exclusively with the Oz series...
's
The Wonder City of OzThe Wonder City of Oz is the thirty-fourth in the series of Oz books created by L. Frank Baum and his successors, and the first written and illustrated solely by John R. Neill.-Tone:...
and
The Scalawagons of OzThe Scalawagons of Oz is the thirty-fifth in the series of Oz books created by L. Frank Baum and continued by his successors; it is the second volume in the series both written and illustrated by John R. Neill.-Bell-snickle:...
,
Jack SnowJohn Frederick "Jack" Snow was an American radio writer and scholar, primarily of the works of L. Frank Baum. When Baum died in 1919, the twelve-year-old Snow offered to be the next Royal Historian of Oz, but was politely turned down by a staffer at Baum's publisher, Reilly & Lee...
's
The Magical Mimics in OzThe Magical Mimics in Oz is the thirty-seventh in the series of Oz books created by L. Frank Baum and his successors, and the first written by Jack Snow. It was illustrated by Frank G. Kramer.-A new "Royal Historian":...
, and
Eric ShanowerEric James Shanower is an American comics artist and writer, best known for his Oz novels and comics and the on-going retelling of the Trojan War as Age of Bronze.-Biography:...
's
The Giant Garden of OzThe Giant Garden of Oz is a novel written and illustrated by Eric Shanower, first published in 1993 by Emerald City Press, a division of Books of Wonder. As its title indicates, the novel is a volume in the ever-growing literature on the Land of Oz, written by L...
.
Other media
Frank AlexanderFrank Alexander was an American silent film comedian and actor. Alexander, who was morbidly obese , was best known for playing villains in the films of Larry Semon, who are often the father of Semon's love interest.He is best known to contemporary audiences for portraying a villainous...
portrayed him as a villain in
Larry SemonLarry Semon was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter during the silent film era. During that era, Semon was considered a "Comedy King", but is now mainly remembered for working with both Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy before they started working together.He is also sometimes...
's
Wizard of OzWizard of Oz is a 1925 silent film directed by Larry Semon, who also appears in a lead role. The first major film adaptation of L. Frank Baum's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, this film features a young Oliver Hardy as the Tin Man...
.
In MGM's musical adaptation
The Wizard of OzThe Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical / fantasy film directed mainly by Victor Fleming from a script by Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson, Edgar Allan Woolf, and others and based on the 1900 children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum...
, Uncle Henry is played by Charley Grapewin. The name "Gale" appears on his mailbox and Miss Almira Gulch (
Margaret HamiltonMargaret Hamilton was an American film actress known for her portrayal of the Wicked Witch of the West in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz...
) addresses him as "Gale." Baum never gave the character's surname nor made clear which of them is Dorothy's blood relative.
In the film
Return to OzReturn to Oz is a 1985 film which is the semi-sequel to Victor Fleming's The Wizard of Oz. It was made by Walt Disney Pictures without the involvement of MGM, the studio that made the 1939 film. However, no approval was necessary, because by 1985, all of the Oz books on which the film was based...
, Uncle Henry's wife Emily is called "Mrs. Blue," implying that his full name is Henry Blue. He is played by
Matt ClarkMatt Clark is an American actor and director with credits in both film and television. Clark has played diverse character roles in Westerns, comedies, and dramas....
opposite
Piper LaurieRosetta Jacobs, better known as Piper Laurie , is an American actress of stage and screen noted for her roles in the television series Twin Peaks and the film Carrie.-Early life:...
. He has a broken leg throughout the film that Aunt Em insists is mended.
In the comic book
The Oz/Wonderland Chronicles, Henry Gale was born in 1852, but died in old age of a heart attack. He was buried in St. Ann's Cemetery in Kansas. Due to Oz residents never really dying in entirety, the "new" Witch in Oz had Henry in unconscious stasis, after his Earthly soul had died.
In the American television program
LostLost is an American serial drama television series. It follows the lives of plane crash survivors on a mysterious tropical island, after a commercial passenger jet flying between Sydney, Australia, and Los Angeles, United States, crashes somewhere in the South Pacific...
, the character Benjamin Linus initially tells survivors his name is Henry Gale, and claims to have arrived on the island via hot air balloon. It is later revealed that the real Henry Gale was indeed a balloonist who died upon crashing on the island — just one of the many references to Baum's Oz novels on the show.
In the
ABCThe American Broadcasting Company is an American television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. It first broadcast on television in 1948...
telefilm
The Muppets' Wizard of OzThe Muppets' Wizard of Oz is a 2005 musical telefilm directed by Kirk Thatcher and starring Ashanti and The Muppets. The film was produced by Bill Barretta and written by Debra Frank, Steve L. Hayes, Tom Martin, & Adam F...
, Uncle Henry was played by
David Alan GrierDavid Alan Grier , also known as "D.A.G." , is an American actor and comedian known for his work on the sketch comedy television show In Living Color...
and owned a diner.
In the
VeggieTalesVeggieTales is a series of English language children's computer animated films featuring anthropomorphic vegetables. Developed by Big Idea, the films convey moral themes based on Christianity, often compatible with Judaism, spliced with satirical references to pop culture and current events...
episode
The Wonderful Wizard of Ha's The Wonderful Wizard of Ha's is the 33rd episode in the VeggieTales series, and was released on DVD on October 6 2007 in Christian Bookstores and on October 9 2007 in other stores. It is based on the parable from the Bible, The Prodigal Son, and a parody of The Wizard of Oz film adaptation rather...
, Uncle Henry and his wife Aunt Em were substituted by a father (Dad Asparagus) to retell
The Prodigal SonThe Prodigal Son, also known as the Lost Son, is one of the best known parables of Jesus. It appears only in the Gospel of Luke in the New Testament of the Bible. By tradition, it is usually read on the third Sunday of Lent...
, a biblical parable from the Gospel.