1934: the Dionne Quintuplets
by A glimpse at the famous Dionne quintuplets that were born in 1934.
Between the years of 1936 to 1943 approximately three million tourists went through the viewing gallery, the public could not get enough of these girls. “Quintland” was the main attraction and brought in approximately fifty one million dollars in tourist revenue altogether. The girls outdid Niagara Falls and were one of Ontario’s biggest attractions.
Until the quintuplets were nine years old they were not allowed to have friends, they were not allowed to help with chores, they were not allowed to attend public school or have any contact with their birth family. They lived in their own world with no concept of the outside world and had a guardian with them at all times. Olivia Dionne the children’s mother had never given up the hope of getting her children back and in 1943 she did just that. She won the battle in court when the girls were nine.
Olivia and the rest of the family did not move back into the old homestead, there was a house built for the whole family. The “Mansion” as it was called had twenty rooms and all the luxuries known to man at the time. All of this was paid by the quintuplet’s fund. The Government still made sure the girls attended all the functions that they had scheduled the girls to appear in. During the war the quintuplets sang for the soldiers “There’ll always be an England”, they did commercials and Hollywood made four movies of them. They wrote their own biography which was called “The Dionne Years: A Thirties Melodrama”. There was also another book written over the years and this one was called “The Time of Their Lives- The Dionne Tragedy”. This book eventually became a miniseries for TV in 1994.
The Dionne sisters experienced their own tragedy when their 20 year old sister Emilie died. It was said that she suffered from seizures. Maria died at age 35, Annette died at the age of 74, Cecile died at the age of 74 and Yvonne died at the age of 67. The end of the famous quintuplets was over.
This event that happened so long ago is still debatable today. It leaves us all with questions. Did the Government have the right to remove these children from the parents? What would their life have been like if they weren’t removed? Reading the biography on the Dionne quintuplets may give us the answers we are seeking to these questions but until then, they can only be answered in the mind of the reader.
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Post Commentdenus
On February 9, 2009 at 12:51 pm
Interesting piece to read after the one on the mother that had them not long ago, well done!
Christine Ramsay
On February 9, 2009 at 1:22 pm
What an interesting article. I think the way the children were removed from home to be gawped by the public is dreadful. I hope that would not happen today.
Christine
Joni Keith
On February 9, 2009 at 3:22 pm
I remember watching a show about these girls. It was really quite sad the way the government made them into a circus act of sorts. This story is very different than the story of Nadya Suleman who actually has given birth to fourteen children through in vitro fertilation. I don’t think anything this tragic could happen to those children in this day and age.
Ruby Hawk
On February 9, 2009 at 5:33 pm
I have always had an interest in the Dionne quintuplets. The poor girls were raised in a labratory sitting and from what I read they never felt like part of the family after their mother got them home. They were always isolated and apart. They had a sad life.
Bren Parks
On February 9, 2009 at 8:19 pm
It is terrible what they did to these children…great read!
Catelin Hoover
On February 9, 2009 at 10:55 pm
yaffel
Very well done. I can’t begin to even comprehend the hurt this caused so many.
Mythili Kannan
On February 11, 2009 at 12:25 pm
oh no… babies should not be separted from parents, esp moms
Yovita Siswati
On February 12, 2009 at 1:49 am
Interesting read. I never knew this story before. A sad story. Great work Yaffel. I wonder what’s your next article.
nrm
On February 15, 2009 at 12:34 pm
Hi Yaffel, I can’t believe the government placed the babies across the road from their parents, that is so cruel. It is also shocking that they were marketed in such a way, as if they were animals at the circus. Once again your writing is informing, historical, contemporary and highly interesting!
Jane Anderson
On March 10, 2009 at 5:45 pm
I was only six years old when the gils were born—My what a lot of commotion this made. We all knew their names, and wanted to know everything about them. They were real celebtities! I had paper dolls of them and played with them all of the time.—The doctor, Dr. Defoe, did quite well and acted as though they were his children.-Peaple would pay, and line up to see them through the fence twice a day. They never seemed to be too happy, and I think they didn’t have much of a life.
lala
On March 11, 2009 at 5:00 pm
what happened to the mother??
Mark Allen - Los Angeles, CA
On June 30, 2009 at 12:33 am
My Mother, Gloria, and her half-sister, Patty-Ann, and their parents, Capt. Irv Clarke and his wife Marjorie, visited the “Quints” in the summer of 1936 and were able to view them very briefly in person, but were allowed to visit with the father Oliva Dionne several times. They took many photos of the surroundings which shows the fences and somewhat cold appearance of the birthplace and of the nurses home and police headquarters. My grandfather also made an 8mm movie of the trip to Callendar, Ontario, Canada, including some of the area around the Quints “compound”. My Mother is now 86 and remembers it very clearly. She said that she felt sad for the girls later on in her life; at the time her father explained to her how they lived, and that nearly every day the cars of “visitors”…spectators, lined up in rows in front of the nurses home police headquarters. She said at the time her parents reassured she and her sister, Patty-Ann who was four at the time, that the girls were well cared for and happy. Years later Mother figured out from news reports that it was not the case. But she and her sister played with the paper dolls, and the small dolls that they dressed up – she also remembers that they had cups, saucers and alot of other items her parents bought for them as gifts. My Mother married in 1943, and after that she did not really pay much attention to the “Quints” news – but remembers the death of the first one and that “stories” were circulating then about their unhappiness – Mother lived in 1936-1940 in Auburn, Fleming Township, NY. Her father was a NYS Trooper and was appointed by the NYS Attorney General as investigator of kidnapping and violent crimes – he was also assigned as one of the main body guards for Gov Al Smith and later Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt (later President), both of NYS. As a result they were allowed special – personal, private meetings with the family – but the children were behind a glass wall in a nursery most of the time, and they did not get to see them beyond that wall of glass but only a couple of times, but they did get to meet and see the father, and she has a signed photo by the father of the “Quints” Sept. 11th, 1936. She remembers that they were in Callendar for several days, but cannot recall where they stayed. I would love to hear of any other first-hand accounts and any updates of the last remaining daughter’s, Annette and Cecile. Email: MarkEAllen63@yahoo.com
bailey
On July 26, 2009 at 4:12 pm
the movie was awsome i miss the qwintuplits