Dionne Quintuplets

Annette, Emilie, Yvonne, Cecile and Marie aroused worldwide attention after their birth at Corbeil, Ontario, to Oliva and Elzire Dionne on 28 May 1934. With only 2 previous cases on record, they were the only quintuplets to survive for more than a few days. This miracle, plus their baby cuteness, the poverty of their French Canadian parents and the controversy over their guardianship, made them the sensation of the 1930s.

A Grade 10 "Heritage Minute" project by Safiya N and Natalie B. From YouTube.

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Fearing private exploitation, the Ontario government removed them from their parents and placed them in a specially built hospital under the care of Dr Allan Roy DAFOE, who had delivered them. Oliva Dionne fought a 9-year battle to regain them. In the interval, they became the country's biggest tourist attraction and a $500 million asset to the province. Three million people trekked to "Quintland" to watch the babies at play behind a one-way screen.

A video about the production of a documentary film on the lives of the Dionne quintuplets. From YouTube.

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Hollywood fictionalized their story in 3 movies. Dozens of commercial endorsements swelled their trust fund to nearly $1 million. A reunion with the family in November 1943 was not successful. Eventually the quintuplets moved to Montréal. Three, Annette, Cecile and Marie, took husbands but the marriages failed. Emilie, an epileptic, entered a convent and died in August 1954 during a seizure. The 4 survivors told their own often bitter story in We Were Five, published in 1965. Marie, the weakest, died in February 1970. The remaining 3 shared the final instalment of the much depleted trust fund in 1979. In March 1998 the Ontario government announced that it would pay the 3 surviving quints $4 million in compensation for the 9 years they spent on display at a tourist theme park. Not until September 1987 was another set of quints, this time 2 boys and 3 girls, born in Canada.

Author PIERRE BERTON

Links to Other Sites
Dionne Quintuplets Museum
The Dionnne Quints museum features digitalized images and documents that tell the story of the famous Dionne Quintuplets.

The Dionne Quintuplets
About the documentary film "The Dionne Quintuplets." From the website for the National Film Board.