This ongoing series from Barrie Historical Archive curator Deb Exel shows old photos from the collection and one from the present day, as well as the story behind them.
In 1934, something occurred that would animate people across North America: the birth of quintuplets to Oliva and Elzire Dionne in a small village near Callander, Ont.
It was a remarkable thing, the birth of five babies — Yvonne, Annette, Cecile, Emilie and Marie — delivered by country doctor Dr. Allen Roy Dafoe, with the help of two midwives.
It was particularly astounding as they were the first set of quintuplets known to survive infancy. News of the astonishing births quickly became a local and international sensation.
An outpouring of support for the babies came in many forms and from many sources. As the girls were born premature, weighing a total of 13 pounds, six ounces for all five, an incubator was needed to help sustain them – a challenge since the Dionne family did not have electricity in their home.
Fortunately, a newspaper reporter in Chicago located an 1895 (pre-electrical) incubator for the family, and the Toronto Star found another antique device, while having three more built with the help of vintage blueprints.
At an even more basic level, nursing mothers were paid to provide supplemental breast milk, which was preserved then delivered daily by train to Callander, co-ordinated by Toronto Hospital for Sick Children.
Barrie’s own Hurliburt Shoes would send five pairs of baby shoes to the little Dionne quints.
It was a truly inspiring event that rallied hope and help during the Great Depression.
The excitement and rarity of the quintuplets would trigger interest and offers of all types.
When the girls were four months old, their parents signed over custody to the Red Cross for a period of two years. In exchange, all medical costs, nursing staff, supplies and breast milk for the quintuplets would be covered by the agency. A hospital and nursery was built across the road from the family farmhouse, and the girls and their caregivers moved in.
Very early on, the sisters’ celebrity seemed secured. Within days of their birth, the quints’ father was contacted by Chicago's Century of Progress exhibition, who were hoping to put the “incubator babies” on display. (This was not an uncommon practice at fairs in those days.)
Dr. Dafoe and the Dionne’s family priest, Daniel Routhier, convinced the parents to agree. In spite of an attempt to back out of the commitment, in February 1935, the Dionne’s, “Parents of the World Famous Babies,” were off the Chicago for their public appearances.
On the heels of the Chicago trip, Mitchell Hepburn, the premier of Ontario, extended oversight of the sisters by passing the Dionne Quintuplets Guardianship Act of 1935, making the girls wards of the Crown until they were 18.
This piece of legislation was invoked before the Red Cross contract was even a year old, and removed the parents’ legal custody. It was designed to prevent and protect the girls from any further exploitation. The government recognized the tremendous public interest in the quintuplets and began to develop a tourist industry around them.
The new guardians would control the finances, care of the girls and all contracts for business opportunities such as appearing in commercials and movies.
Several Dionne quintuplet films and newsreels were shown in local Barrie theatres, the Capitol frequently advertised the quints in their coming attractions, Going On Two (1935), Reunion (1936,) and Five Times Five (1939).
In 1937, the City of Toronto suggested that the little girls live at Casa Loma for eight months of the year, where they could be the centre of attraction. Dr. Dafoe, one of the four guardians, killed the proposition, stating that Callander was entitled to all the benefits that the quintuplets could provide.
On Dominion (Canada) Day 1936, an observation gallery opened in the quintuplet’s Callander compound. It’s estimated that more than three million visitors came to see the Dionnes between 1936 and 1943. The attraction to the five sisters continued to draw people from around Ontario and the United States. Labour Day weekend 1936 recorded 5,000 visitors on the Saturday and 7,000 on the Sunday.
One family had made the trip from Portland, Ore., "just to see the 'show' and five minutes later be on their way home."
Such was the lure of the miraculous babies.
The following summer, over the Dominion Day holiday, hundreds of American cars were reportedly seen on the streets of Barrie, headed northward. In 1939, Grey Coach Lines offered excursions featuring a Dionne Quints Cruise on Lake Nippissing.
The Canadian National Railroad advertisements listed round trip fares to several points including Callander “(Home of the Famous Dionne Quintuplets)”, as if the destination needed any explanation at that point!
The society pages of the Barrie Examiner routinely noted who had visited the Dionne quintuplets as part of their summer holidays or motor trips.
On May 21, 1939, just six days before their fifth birthday, the Dionne quintuplets boarded a special Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway train in Callander, headed for Toronto.
The following day the sisters would be presented to King George and Queen Elizabeth who were touring Canada for the first time.
At the private Queen’s Park meeting with the King and Queen on May 22, 1939, the girls reportedly threw their arms around Queen Elizabeth … who returned their embraces.
One family took this photo of the train as it passed through the Barrie station, where an enthusiastic crowd waited to get a glimpse of the five famous girls who were on their way to meet the king and queen.
The Barrie station, built on the waterfront in 1865, near the end of the Nine Mile Portage was called Station Gore, we know the space now as Memorial Square. The quaint Barrie station, a place of homecomings, farewells, gatherings and occasional sightings of well-known travelers passing through town, was demolished in 1963.
The story of the Dionne quintuplets, their complex lives and experiences, genuinely extraordinary circumstances, family saga and the controversial management of their trust, is well documented for those who want to know more about this unique time in Canadian history.
