The
Dionne quintuplets (born May 28, 1934) are the first quintuplets known
to survive their infancy. They are the only female identical set of five
ever recorded. The sisters were born just outside Callander, Ontario,
Canada near the village of Corbeil.
The Dionne girls were born
two months premature. After four months with their family, they were
made wards of the King for the next nine years under the Dionne
Quintuplets' Guardianship Act, 1935. The government and those around
them began to profit by making them a significant tourist attraction in
Ontario.
The family, headed by father Oliva and mother Elzire
Dionne, married on September 15, 1926. They lived just outside of
Corbeil, in a farmhouse in unregistered territory. Oliva, through his
father, was a descendant of Zacharie Cloutier[2] (via Louise Cloutier
1632–1699, Charlotte Mignault 1669–1747, and Antoine Dionne 1706–1807).
The Dionnes were a farming family with five previous children named
Ernest (b. 1926), Rose Marie (b. 1928), Therese (b. 1929), Daniel (b.
1932), and Pauline (b. 1933), who was only eleven months older than the
quints. A sixth, son Léo (b. 1930), died of pneumonia shortly after
birth.
The Dionnes also had 3 sons after the quintuplets. Oliva Jr. (b. 1936), Victor (b. 1938), and Claude (b. ca. 1940).
Four
months after the birth of the sisters, the Ontario government
intervened and, in an unprecedented fashion, found the parents to be
unfit for the quintuplets, and custody of the five babies was withdrawn
from their parents by the Ontario government of Mitchell Hepburn in
1935, originally for a guardianship of two years. Although Oliva Dionne
remained part of the guardianship, they were put under the guidance of
Dr. Dafoe and two other guardians. The stated reason for removing the
quintuplets from their parents' legal custody was to ensure their
survival into healthy toddlers. The government realized the massive
interest in the sisters and proceeded to engender a tourist industry
around them. The girls were made wards of the provincial crown, planned
until they reached the age of 18.
Across the road from their
birthplace, the Dafoe Hospital and Nursery was built for the five girls
and their new caregivers. The girls were moved from the farmhouse to
this nursery at the end of September. The compound had an outdoor
playground designed to be a public observation area. It was surrounded
by a covered arcade that allowed tourists to observe the sisters behind
one-way screens. The facility was funded by a Red Cross fundraiser. It
was a nine-room nursery with a staff house nearby. The staff house held
the three nurses and the three policemen in charge of guarding them. A
housekeeper and two maids lived in the main building with the
quintuplets. The buildings were surrounded by a seven foot barbed wire
fence. The sisters were brought to play there for thirty minutes two or
three times a day. They were constantly being tested, studied, and
examined with tedious records taken of everything. The Dionne sisters,
while living at the compound, had a somewhat rigid lifestyle. They were
not required to participate in chores. They were privately tutored in
the same building where they lived. Cared for primarily by nurses, the
children had limited exposure to the world outside the boundaries of the
compound except for the daily rounds of tourists, who, from the
sisters' point of view, were generally heard but not seen. They also had
occasional contact with their parents and siblings across the road.
Every morning they dressed together in a big bathroom, had doses of
orange juice and cod-liver oil, and then went to have their hair curled.
They said a prayer before breakfast, a gong was sounded, and they ate
breakfast in the dining room. After thirty minutes, they had to clear
the table, even if they weren't done. Then they went and played in the
sunroom for thirty minutes, took a fifteen minute break, and at nine
o'clock had their morning inspection with Dr. Dafoe. Every month they
had a different timetable of activities. They bathed every day before
dinner and put on their pajamas. Dinner was served at precisely six
o'clock. Then they went into the quiet playroom to say their evening
prayers. Each girl had a color and a symbol to mark what was hers.
Annette's color was red with a maple leaf, Cecile's color was green and
her design a turkey, Emilie had white and a tulip, while Marie had blue
and a teddy bear and Yvonne had pink and a bluebird.
Approximately
6,000 people per day visited the observation gallery that surrounded an
outdoor playground to view the Dionne sisters. Ample parking was
provided and almost 3,000,000 people walked through the gallery between
1936 and 1943. Oliva Dionne ran a souvenir shop and a concession store
opposite the nursery and the area acquired the name "Quintland". The
souvenirs pictured the five sisters. There were autographs and framed
photographs, spoons, cups, plates, plaques, candy bars, books,
postcards, dolls, and much more at this shop. Oliva Dionne also sold
stones from the Dionne farm for $0.50 that were supposed to have some
magical power of fertility. Midwives Madam LeGros and Madame LeBelle
opened their own souvenir and dining stand.[7] In 1934, the Quintuplets
brought in about $1 million, and they attracted in total about $51
million of tourist revenue to Ontario. Quintland became Ontario's
biggest tourist attraction of the era, at the time surpassing the
Canadian side of Niagara Falls. It was only rivaled by Radio City, Mount
Vernon, and Gettysburg in the United States. Hollywood stars who came
to Callander to visit the Quints included Clark Gable, James Stewart,
Bette Davis, James Cagney, and Mae West. Amelia Earhart also visited
Callander just six weeks before her ill-fated flight in 1937.
The
sisters, and their likenesses and images, along with Dr. Dafoe, were
used to publicize commercial products such as Karo corn syrup and Quaker
Oats among many of other popular brands. They increased the sales of
condensed milk, toothpaste, disinfectant, and many other products
through their promotions. They starred in four Hollywood films:
The Country Doctor (1936)
Reunion (1936)
Five of a Kind (1938)
Quintupland (1938)
In
November 1943, the Dionne parents won back custody of the sisters. The
entire family moved into a newly built house within walking distance of
Quintland. The yellow brick, 20-room mansion was paid for out of the
Quintuplets' fund. The home had many amenities of the time, including
telephones, electricity and hot water. The mansion was nicknamed "The
Big House." The building is now a retirement home.
The nursery
was eventually converted into an accredited school house where the
sisters finished their secondary education along with ten girls from the
area that were chosen to attend. Years after, it was used by the
Recluses of Corbeil as a convent.
The quintuplets became
emotionally closest to their sister, Pauline. While the parents claimed
they wished to integrate the quintuplets into the family, the sisters
frequently traveled to perform at various functions, still all dressed
the same. According to the accounts of the surviving sisters, the
parents often treated them at home as a five-part unit, and frequently
lectured them about the trouble they had caused the family by existing.
They were sometimes denied privileges the other children received, and
were more strictly disciplined and punished. They also received a
heavier share of the house- and farmwork. They were unaware for many
years that the lavish house, expensive food and cars the family enjoyed
were paid for with money they themselves had earned.
In particular, the father was resentful and suspicious of outsiders for having lost custody of his children.
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