The Dionne quintuplets, on display for the public... for ptofit? Circa 1935

Back in the nineteen thirty's there were five children born at the same time. While it was a rare happening at the time, the children were not expected to survive. The five of them, all girls, were all born prematurely and together they all weighed in at fourteen pounds. The amazing thing is that they did survive, for a long time..

A short while after the infants were born and it was determined that they were healthy, they became an international sensation! There were all kinds of goods and articles produced about them and the world became perplexed by how something like this could come to be during the great depression. Some months later however their father signed an agreement to exhibit them at the worlds fair in Chicago, which he canceled some hours later. The Canadian child protective services then stepped in, repealed his decision and removed all five of them from their parents custody because of germs, potential kidnappers, and exploitation.

The girls then became (at the time) Canada's largest tourist attraction. Surrounded by glass as if in a zoo the girls were paraded in front of curious onlookers as if they were a freak of nature (which they may have been viewed as at the time). The girls fame was used by the Canadian government and eager investors to promote all kinds of things from dolls to toothpaste, their father even sold stones from the family farm as fertility supplements.

After a bitter custody battle the parents eventually won the children back from the government.. at the age of nine. Hundreds of thousands of dollars later the Dionne quintuplets lived a fairly normal life.

Basically a really f***ed up story. If you wish to read more on these poor souls please go and look it up. this is just one of those things that needs to be seen!

Wow. I was unaware that Canadians could be dicks that far back in history.

There was a movie or mini-series about them in the 90's. I remember it because Roy Dupuis played the dad (Michael from the first La Femme Nikita, not the crappy newer Maggie Q version) I vaguely remember some scenes from it, it was horribly sad. The family was indeed trampled on by the government back then

They were very much exploited by their parents, government, and everything in between. Such a sad story now that I recall.

I lived in the city that their child hood home was paraded as a museum and yes I went and saw it in the mid 80s when I was very young.

They were born near North Bay and the home was transported to north bay as a tourist attraction.

I believe at least one of them even wrote a book. Another embarrassment on Canadian history.

What do you mean? They look perfectly happy to me.




Just do an image search for Dionne quintuplets and you can see the story of their lives from the pictures. Can you imagine this today?

They made a movie about these kids. Yeah exploitation by the state. Top notch.