THE "QUINS."

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 3, 5 January 1937, Page 11

THE "QUINS."

WORLD FAMOUS CHILDREN. WEALTH PILING UP. The other day I saw the photograph of a cheque for one quarter of a million dollars ( £50,000) made out in effect to the five little Dionne children, who are known affectionately as "The Quins,' writes Howard Sharpe in a London newspaper. The cheque represented payment for tlieir service in three pictures to be made over a period of three years. Besides that they will receive 10 per cent of all net profits on the productions. This will be considerable, for the profits of the first film, "The Country Doctor," came to about £30,000. A good many people have wondered what will become of the Dionne Quintuplets when they cease to be prattling little freaks of Nature and become ordinary human beings. Well, Hollywood knows the answer. The Quins became film stars on the night "The Country Doctor'' first flashed on a pre-view screen in Hollywood last spring. They will gc on being film stars so long as they remain the world's eleventh wonder. They have already been embroiled in the endless trials and troubles that surround every film star within a month of its i arrival—adverse publicity, •trained family relations, financial difficulties. A Fascinating Story. The story of Marie, Emilie, Cecile, Annette, and Yvonne is full of fascination. It is a story of fierce and long-drawn-out battles between the greater companies of Hollywood over possession of a disputed contract; of a tremendous gamble taken against the odds by a group of shrewd executives who seldom gamble. Primarily, however, it is a story of a fortune that is building so inexorably that in a few more years the Quins will be among the richest girls in the world. They can thank the land of camera and celluloid for that. Soon after the first Board of Guardians was formed for the Quintuplets money began to dribble in from philanthropists and interested donors until just before the Canadian Government took over they "had something like £5600 in the bank. It seemed like a lot, then, but in a few months it was nothing but safety pin money. Because the new board (tiie Hon. David Croll, Ontario Minister of Public Welfare, Mr. Dionne, tha father. Dr. Dafoe, and Judge Valin) understood then more clearly the vast money-mak-ing potentialities of their charges. At least two of them did. Their father was a little vague and bewildered about the entire business—he who had never made more than £20 a year—and the benevolent country doctor wasn't interested. Mr. Croll and Judge Valin let advertising contracts to the companies whose products the Quins used and collected a fat cheque from each. The Honey Comes In. They let Pathe Pictures make two two-reel films of the babies and got about £18,000 from them; they let companies that manufactured dolls, tea sets, and toys use the Quintuplet name for such sums as £3000 a contract; they squeezed £100 from a music publisher for the "Quintuplet Lullaby." All this, brought the balance in the Quin's trust fund up to around £40,000. That was before Mary Pickford suddenly got the idea that the Unprecedented five, if they lived, might interest the public in a film. She considered this brainstorm too long for one thing, and too loudly—rrao that everyone heard about it—for another. Paramount, a little tardily, had the same idea, but in their case all tliev wanted was a quick shot of the Quins for Harold Lloyd's picture "The Milky Way." The babies were to be in a room when he opened the door to deliver his quart of milk. And Paramount decided £5000 was enough to offer for this little service. Mary Pickford sent her representative Up to the North Woods and for conferences, while at the same time an agent from Paramount, with a cheque for £5000 in his pocket, entered the building. Twentieth Cen-tury-Fox heard about the situation at 4 o'clock One afternoon. At 5 the studio executives met with a "terse, businesslike man on an urgent summons. The upshot was a miracle of energy. * Joe Moskowitz, in the New York office, received a wire some hours later and caught the first aeroplane to Ontario. Charles. E. Blake, the reporter who had sold his "Country Doctor" idea to the firm, boarded another aeroplane at midnight. They met in the office of David Croll, chairman of the board of guardians, while the agents of Mary Pickford and Paramount were pleading before Dr. Dafoe and Mr. Dionne.' For Six Honrs' Work. Moskowitz offered £10,000 for six hours of. film work, and promised to follow any conditions the board might stipulate. • Croll raised an eyebrow, mentally computed the interest on £10,000 over a period of 18 years, and reached for the contract. The score of studio people who went to CaUendar to work' on the first film, "The Country Doctor," were instructed to take every precaution so that no one might be dissatisfied. Jean Hersholt said to me: "Out of that entire company no one so much as sneezed while we were in Canada; everyone's first thoughts were for the health of the babies: "We had only one hour a day, from 11 to 12, and if the Quins didn't wake up then we just gathered our equipment and went back to the hotel rather than disturb their programme." Dr. Dafoe was entirely pleased with the result. The script for the rest of the picture, unwritten when the hospital sequence was finished, was released 1 for the board's approval—an unheardof concession—and the "rushes" of the Quins were offered for consideration at [a special showing. These were courtesies the board did not forget. | A few months later,- when "The Country Doctor" was discovered to be a sensation and every film company in Hollywood made a rush to sign the children for further pictures, Twentieth | Century-Fox quietly made its bid, and i the answer was a foregone conclusion— [£50,000 down and 10 per cent of the net 'profits for three pictures.

A Goldfish Bowl. The Quins face the life-in-a-goldfish bowl existence that tremendous fame makes necessary. They will, in a few more years, have the nuisance of the autograph eeekers to worry about. Already they are faced by the necessity for supporting their parents in a style to which they were never accustomed. The Dionnes always had lived in the little draughty shack in which the miracle happened. For years Mr. Dionne had scratched the rocky, barren fields of his farm for what meagre sustenance it had to offer. He wanted, all in all, seven children. But the seventh became five. They had nothing, this family; they were supremely unimportant, and in utter poverty. Dr. Dafoe mutters resentfully to intimates of the conditions in that tiny farmhouse in which he was expected to save the lives of five premature little mites. The eight others cooked and ate—some of them even slept —in the living room. When the Quin's personal fortune had risen to a respectable level, and the G ■vernment board was faced with the necessity .of maintaining the children, it apportioned £200 a month for their living expenses —most of which went towards the hospital—and £20 a month to Mr. Dionne. At the time of writing the Dionnes are building a new house for themselves and the other children. Contracts of one sort or another are popping up here and there, in addition to which Mr. Dionne made a deal with a New York paper, and, of course, there ia still the monthly• £20 from the trust fund. The Quins are managing quite well, but in another few years, when they are old enough to know about these things, the stew will inevitably begin to bubble. What will happen? For the most part, we can only guess. But of one tiling we can be sure—five, ten and fifteen years from now the Quins will sl'il be smiling and laughing at us from the screen. And so long as they live, the bank vaults will continue to creak uriicr the weight of Quintuplet gold.