My Sainted Aunt! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Em

Clara Blandick created the role of Aunty Em in the immortal film "The Wizard of Oz", based on Frank L. Baum's childhood classic. While several of the actors played dual roles (Ray Bolger played Huck/Scarecrow, Bert Lahr portrayed Zeke/Cowardly Lion, Jack Haley doubled as Hickory/Tin Man, Margaret Hamilton did triple time as Miss Gulch/Wicked Witch of the East/Wicked Witch of the West and Frank Morgan beat them all by playing five characters - Professor Marvel, the doorman of Emerald City, the cabbie, the Wizard's guard and the Wizard himself), Miss Blandick and Charley Grapewin played only Aunty Em and Uncle Henry, so we only see them in the black and white Kansas part of the film. Of course, I don't have to tell you that Judy Garland played Dorothy.

Answer: Mame

Madcap Auntie Mame first appeared on the scene in Patrick Dennis' 1955 novel. He claimed it was autobiographical, but while Dennis' father may have had a sister named Mame, the author was raised by both his parents, not by an eccentric aunt. In 1957, the book was dramatized and 'Auntie Mame' hit Broadway with Sylvia Sydney in the title role. Rosalind Russell brought Mame to life in the hilarious 1958 movie (with Peggy Cass as the woebegone Agnes Gooch, reprising her Broadway role), and in 1966 'Auntie Mame' became 'Mame!', a musical, with Angela Lansbury playing Mame and the inimitable Bea Arthur as her actress friend Vera.

The 1974 movie with Lucille Ball playing Mame was not as successful, however.

Answer: Polly

Poor Aunt Polly. She did her best to bring Tom Sawyer up right, but never really felt up to the job of handling such a spirited youngster. There's no doubt she loved Tom, but, like most parents and guardians of the 19th century, would have seen it as a sign of weakness if she had let him know how much she loved him.

Answer: Jane Murdstone

Miss Murdstone comes into David's life when her brother Edward marries David's widowed mother Clara. David's previously happy childhood descends into a pit of misery under Murdstone influence, and his mother is too weak a character to do anything about her son's unhappy circumstances.

Answer: Abby and Martha Brewster

Aunt Abby and Aunt Martha were brought to life (and took others to their deaths) in Joseph Kesselring's smash hit play 'Arsenic and Old Lace', which debuted on Broadway in 1941. Frank Capra brought the comedy to the screen in 1944. The sweet little maiden lady Brewsters assist indigent men out of the world by feeding them well and slipping arsenic into their elderberry wine. If you've never seen this wonderful film, run, don't walk, to your nearest movie rental establishment and get it today. You'll laugh yourself silly.

The outstanding cast includes Cary Grant, Priscilla Lane, Raymond Massey, Peter Lorre, Jack Carson, John Alexander (as the dotty Teddy Brewster who truly believes that he is Theodore Roosevelt - he alone is worth the rental fee!), with Josephine Hull as Abby and Jean Adair as Martha.

Interesting trivia: some twenty years before, actress Adair had helped to nurse back to health a very sick vaudeville entertainer by the name of Archibald Leach, who later morphed into Cary Grant. Adair and Grant remained good friends until her death, and when Capra was casting 'Arsenic and Old Lace', Grant suggested Ms Adair for the role of Martha.

He'd have made a good casting agent!

Answer: Mrs. Malaprop

Mrs. Malaprop is a character in Richard Brinsley Sheridan's 'The Rivals', a comedy of errors, mistaken identity, love and money, which is still mounted over two hundred years since it was first performed. Mrs. M is the aunt of the heroine, Lydia, and there isn't enough space to give you the whole plot here, but I recommend the play for your reading enjoyment (better yet, see it!) Every time I hear George Bush speak off the cuff, I can be assured of adding yet another malapropism to my collection. Using the word 'illusion' or 'delusion' for 'allusion', for example, is a malapropism.

Answer: Miss Havisham

Miss Havisham appears in Dickens' 'Great Expectations', one of his most popular books, but not one of my favourites. Frankly, I itch to box Estella's ears. She's such a stuck-up little drip.

Answer: Eller Murphy

In 1947 I was taken to see 'Oklahoma' in London and thus began my lifelong love of musical comedy. A very young Howard Keel played Curly in that production (yum). I can't for the life of me remember who played Aunt Eller, but Charlotte Greenwood played her in the movie version, which also starred Gordon MacRae as Curly, Shirley Jones as Laurey, and Rod Steiger as a marvellously menacing Jud Fry. Gloria Grahame (Ado Annie), Gene Nelson (Will Parker) and Eddie Albert (Ali Hakim) round out a sterling cast. 'Oklahoma!' is based on 'Green Grow the Lilacs', the book by Lynn Riggs.

Answer: Betsy

Miss Betsy Trotwood is present at David Copperfield's birth, but is not impressed by the fact that the baby is a boy rather than the girl for which she had hoped. She leaves, and we hear no more of her until David, after many trials and tribulations, walks from London to Dover to seek her help. Miss Trotwood takes him in and changes his first name to Trotwood.

She is a feisty old lady who has the gumption to set Mr. Murdstone and his miserable sister Jane to the rightabout when they descend on her, demanding that David-Trotwood be returned to their 'care'. Years later, David repays her kindness to him by naming his first daughter Betsy Trotwood Copperfield, and all's well that ends well.

Answer: March

Aunt March was the wealthy widowed aunt of Mr. March, father of the 'Little Women' - Meg, Jo, Amy and Beth. She generally disapproved of the younger Marches. When the family falls on hard times, Amy is invited to live with Aunt March, as the old lady's companion.

It is Aunt March who pays for Amy's education and her trip to Europe, where she reconnects with and marries Laurie, the old friend of the March family. It is also Aunt March's resistance to John Brooke that stiffens Meg's resolve to marry him.