Dow to illustrate pin-up calendars so Brown and Bigelow hired the illustrator and art instructor Andrew Loomis to continue the quints calendar. The Dionne Quintuplets, 1937 calendar, Gil Elvgrenįive Little Sweethearts of the World, 1938 calendar, Gil Elvgrenįive Little Sweethearts, 1939 calendar, Gil ElvgrenĮlvgren was lured away by cross-town rival Louis F. Image and commissioned the young artist Gil Elvgren to supply the yearly illustrations: Paul, MN-based Brown and Bigelow, then the largest calendar company in the world, licensed their Of all their merchandise, however, it was their calendar that became the most ubiquitous. They starred in several 20th-Century Fox films: They endorsed Karo (the energy syrup), Baby Ruth, Palmolive and even Fisher Auto Body. Their likeness was licensed for everything fromīooks and postcards to collectable spoons and Madame Alexander dolls. Their photos appeared in thousands of magazine articles. The quints were a symbol of hope during the Great Depression and, perhaps not surprisingly, became a marketing juggernaut. “Money was the monster,” they wrote, “So many around us were unable to resist the temptation.” The girls had been turned into a freak show and anyone even remotelyĬonnected to them began to cash in on their popularity. Souvenir stands soon lined the street selling everything from postcards and tinted pictures to fertility stones from theįamily farm. At the height of the Depression as many as 6000 visitors a day came to see “Canada’s greatest natural wonder.” While the good doctor was busy using the quints as medical test subjects the the provincial government was busy turning them into a touristĪttraction. In nearly sterile isolation under the custody of Dr Dafoe, the girls were observed, measured, analyzed and recorded in minute detail. (AKA Quintland), directly across the street from their parents farmhouse. The girls were removed from their home and placed in the newly-built Dafoe Hospital and Nursery In an unprecedented move the parents were found to be “unfit” (i.e., they were too poor) and the quints were made special wards of the province under theĭionne Quints Guardianship Act of 1935. They were the world’s first surviving quintuplets. 1 They would turn out to be about 40% right: on, with the help of the local doctor Allan Roy Dafoe and two midwives,Įlzire gave birth to five girls: Yvonne, Annette, Cécile, Émilie and Marie. They were fairly certain that Elzire was carrying twins. When Oliva and Elzire Dionne of Corbeil, Ontario were expecting their sixth child Or laundry – or perhaps your insurance company, funeral home or farm bureau gave you one of these at Christmas in 1943. If you were around at the time it was likely that your bakery, dairy, florist This 30 × 40" oil painting by Andrew Loomis, titled Maytime, was the illustration for the 1944 Brown and Bigelow Dionne Quintuplets promotional calendar. To view the latest edition, or to sign up, visit The Scoop online by at. Produced for the benefit of all who enjoy the hobby of collecting, Gemstone Publishing's The Scoop is available free of charge to anyone who wishes to receive it.Annette and Cecile are the two surviving sisters. Yvonne passed away just three years ago in 2001. Emilie and Marie died in 19, respectively. In 1978, three of the sisters appeared in a reunion special on Canadian television. They also appeared with Shirley Temple on the cover of a 1937 Modern Screen magazine and starred in four films, including The Dionne Quintuplets - Five of a Kind in 1938. During the first ten years of their lives, they were used to advertise Quaker Oats, Vitamin Candy, Curtiss Candy, Lysol and Palmolive Soap. They were the first documented quintuplets to ever survive beyond a few days.īorn in Callander, Ontario, the girls became immediate Canadian tourist attractions, and it wasn't long before their visages were sought for endorsement deals. With the advent of fertility drugs and other modern medical advancements, a set of triples here or quads there are greeted with a bit of human interest media coverage and a smile.īut in 1934, when Annette, Cecile, Emilie, Marie and Yvonne Dionne were born, the five infants with a combined birth weight in the single digits were an instant revelation. These days, it's not terribly uncommon to hear tell of multiple-birth deliveries. From the July 28 issue of Gemstone Publishing's The Scoop:
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