Unearth the Capsule: The First Five - How a Miracle Turned into Misfortune
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The sisters when they were four years old, Image courtesy of https://time.com/5555131/dionne-quintuplets-kidfluencers/
The Miracle
In 1934, Oliva and Elzire Dionne, already parents to five children, became parents of five more when Elzire gave birth to Yvonne, Cecile, Emilie, Marie and Annette in Corbeil, Ontario. They were born two months premature with one of them weighing nearly two pounds. The five sisters were delivered with the help of midwives Benoit Lebel and Donalda Legros, along with Dr. Allan Dafoe. All five girls and Elzire surviving childbirth in a barn with no electricity was a miracle in itself considering the circumstances, the Dionne sisters were the first quintuplets recorded in history to ever grow up and live past infancy. Due to this, the situation was also considered to be a miracle.
However, as it always does, word got around.
Immediately after their birth, journalists and reporters flooded the family to capture this first in history occurence of identical quintuplets. These curious folk didn’t leave them alone for years.
The Misfortune
When the sisters were only a few months old, the Ontario Government took the quintuplets away from their family in order to “avoid exploitation” only to turn around and go against their word, which isn’t unusual for a government to do. The quintuplets, now made wards of the province, were raised in a nursery near the home and barn in which they were born and put under the care of Dr. Allan Dafoe and nurses. Their parents could only see them for a limited amount of time when they were in there. While the nursery was where they played, were taught and grew up together, there was another room in the nursery that shouldn’t have been there.
With two-way mirrors, the sisters were put on display for a total of three millions tourists to come and watch them play in what was nicknamed “Quintland”. Although they were unable to see the tourists, they were very well aware that they were being watched. They grew up there for nine years under the control of the Ontario governent. It is believed that the Ontario government brought in an estimated $500 million in its economy, a major financial boost for the Great Depression era. Their father was also able to make some profit from this as he ran a souvenir shop nearby.
SIGN OUTSIDE OF “QUINTLAND,” IMAGE COURTESY OF https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/02/world/canada/ontario-dionne-quintuplets.html
They were also used in commercials and three Hollywood films were made about them. The sisters would occasionally leave to go on tours around the country, photoshoots and even to meet the Queen in 1939. In 1947, after years of Elzire fighting to get her children back, the quintuplets were finally released and their parents received custody of them again.
However, their reunion did not turn out to be a happy one. Sources say that their mother would verbally abuse and hit them. Three of the quintuplets also mentioned that their father would sexually abuse them while their five other siblings denied that their father would do anything of the sort.
The hospital in which they were raised and put on display was later turned into a school where the girls went to with other girls as classmates. The fame surrounding them began to die down as they grew up. When they were older, they all moved to Montreal. Emilie went on to be a nun, but died at the age of 20 due to a seizure. Marie, Annette and Cecile had marriages later on but all three ended in divorces. At the age of 35, Marie passed away due to a brain tumor and Yvonne died when she was 67 in 2001 after battling cancer.
Modern Day
Annette and Cecile are currently living in Montreal, however their financial situation is rough. Despite the Ontario Government having made a trust fund for them during their time in “Quintland”, most of their money had been taken to pay bills during that time. A $4 million settlement by the government was given to Annette, Yvonne and Cecile in 1998 for compensation of their exploitation growing up. They received $1 million each, with the final calculations of the payments resulting in an estimated $750 000 after they paid lawyers and public relations consultants. The fourth $1 million was given to Marie’s children.
A few years following the settlement, Cecile’s payments from the bank which were used to cover her monthly fees, suddenly stopped. She tried to contact her son Bernard who used $195 000 of his mothers settlement money to buy them a duplex, however, was unable to contact him as he seemingly disappeared along with the rest of her money from the settlement.
Today Annette and Cecile talk together on the phone from their senior’s residences. At age 85, Annette and Cecile want to make sure that people are aware of the dangers of child exploitation in the media, especially for financial gain, and that what happened to them never happens again.
Read here to learn more about their thoughts on being child celebrities: https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/as-they-turn-85-dionne-sisters-caution-about-the-perils-of-childhood-celebrity-1.4439043
Marie-Chantal Chamberland
Marie-Chantal/Marie/M-C is a reader, writer, Marvel fan, and is currently studying Professional Writing. Some of her interests include traveling, skating. learning about the past, baking, and hanging out with her dog.
