THE “QUINTS” TRANSFORM A TOWN

Manawatu Times, Volume 64, Issue 96, 26 April 1939, Page 13

THE “QUINTS” TRANSFORM A TOWN

The Dionnes Bring Fame and Fortune to Their Parents and to Small Village

ONTARIO, is now the summer crossroads of America. From early morning till long after dark, cars roll through the small village at the rate of one a minute, bearing eager sightseers bound for the world's wonder children. The cavalcade numbers 3000 people on an average week day, and on week-ends, upward of 8000—70 per cent, from the United States (writes Merrill Denison in Harper’s Magazine).

four miles of tourist cabins have sprung up. Trans-contincntal express trains now stop without flagging, at the station which has replaced the former box car. A parcel of land that changed hands in 1933 at £4O is now quoted at £IOOO.

Compared with the money the Quintuplets have made for others—hotelkeepers, merchants. transportation companies—their own earnings seem modest. Officially, their gross take has so far been over £150,000. Of this sum, £120,000 is invested in Provincial and Dominion Bonds. They pay their own living expenses, contribute £SO a month to the support of their parents, and are sending three of their brothers and sisters to school.

Evidence of the Quints’ economic influence is seen on every Ontario highway leading to the north country. Accommodation is often at a premium in towns 150 miles away, and even the lordly Royal York in Toronto, the largest hotel in the British Empire, and the equally regal Chateau Laurier in Ottawa feel the quickening pull of the Quints. According to the conservative reckoning of the Dominion Government’s Travel Bureau, the five little charmers attract between 20 and 25 million dollars of U.S. tourist money yearly, and hence are one of Canada’s most important businesses.

Not including the lawyers retained from time to time to prevent' the unauthorised use of their names, there are 14 people on their payroll: two nurses, three policemen, two maids, a teacher, a housekeeper and a cook; the kindly Dr. Dafoe, whose monthly fee remains, at his own insistence, £4O, the Quints’ business manager, the secretary-trea-surer of the Board of Guardians, and Dr. Dafoe’s secretary. The total costs of caring for the five girls are running about £4OO in excess of the £4OOO income from their investments. The Movies. Their largest source of revenue has been the movies. Their first picture, 'The Country Doctor,” brought them £IO,OOO, and the same company has paid £50,000 for rights to make three more pictures. They receive £2OOO a year from newsreel rights, and many thousands from the use of still pictures in magazines and newspaper in every country in the world.

Callander was an all but abandoned lumber town at the time of the Quintublets’ birth, four years ago. There was a small country hotel, a general store, a garage or two, and a scattering of houses. Four of the town’s lumber mills had burned down; the remaining one was closed. In the surrounding township 800 people were on relief, and taxes were thousands of dollars in arrears. Taxes raid Up, To-day taxes are paid up and the only persons on relief are those unemployable because of age or sickness. Callander's hotels now have accommodations for 1500. Along the once empty highway from North Bay, more than

Another big source of revenue has been advertising. The five sisters

have endorsed corn syrup, cod liver oil, a disinfectant, diapers, milk products, toys and children’s clothing. One contract in the soap and dentifrice field will bring them £II,OOO over a threeyear period, and their public approval of a well-known breakfast food made them £SOOO. Their advertising revenues are much less than they might have been had not their guardians steadfastly refused to endorse any product not actually used by the children. The Quints’ finances have caused dramatic conflicts between those interested in their walfare and those anxious to exploit their earning powers. Three days after the babies were born the bewildered father signed a contract with one Ivan Spear to permit their exhibition at the Chicago World’s Fair. This amazing contract had no time limit and included every conceivable right of exploitation. But it did have a provision that the babies could not be moved without the consent of Dr. Dafoe. Many Feuds. A storm of disapproval broke round Dionne’s head as soon as these terms were known. Falling back on the saving clause, he repudiated the agreement. Spear sued all those connected with the incident for £200,000, but the suit was dismissed in Federal District Court. To protect the babies and Papa Dionne himself from the threat of equally dangerous commitments. Dr. Dafoe, with the help of others, induced Dionne and his wife to agree to a temporary guardianship which removed the children entirely from their parents’ control. From that time on a feud raged between the successive boards of guardians and numerous individuals who have hoped to secure the Quints’ earnings for themselves. As a result the Provincial Government has replaced the temporary guardianship with a permanent one making the five children wards of the King until their 18th birthday. The feud led also to two-well-planned attempts to kidnap the children and remove them from the jurisdiction of the Ontario courts. To-day their health

and safety make it necessary for them to live in what is virtually a concentration camp—guarded by special police and a heavy wire fence. Perhaps the most curious of the battles to profit from the Quints was the prolonged legal struggle between two manufacturers of corn syrup. The first meal served the infants was a 7.20 mixture of cow’s milk and water with a few drops of rum and corn syrup. When the news was made kown, the president of the St. Lawrence Starch Company in Canada shipped a case of their Beehive Syrup to Callander. He also sent a check to which there were no strings attached. Then advertisements appeared proclaiming that Beehive Corn Syrup had been the first food to pass the babies’ lips. Beehive’s sales immediately sky-rocketed. The Canada Starch Company, whose Crown Brand Syrup had previously been the best seller, quickly sued the Beehive people for £30,000 damages. Their contention was that there had been a can of Crown Syrup in the Dionne house during the fivefold birth —and not Beehive. The case wound through the courts for many months before judgment was given to the defendant, Beehive, on the evidence of the nurse who had served the meal. No Ballyhoo. The Quintuplets’ £120,000 nest egg would be considerably larger but for the horror their guardians, and Canadians generally, have of what they call “vulgar ballyhoo.” This attitude explains the guardians’ insistence on advertising dignity and their refusal to permit their charges to enter into the farcical game of endorsements as played on this side' of the line.

Around Callander there are none of the more gaudy manifestations of showmanship sometimes found in this country. Arriving there, one feels that Ontario is prepared to admit the existence of the Quintuplets, but nothing more. No large billboard or Neon sign proclaims their nearness. instead, there is a neat roadside route marker which points east and states simply: “The Dionne Quintuplets.” Obviously there is an effort to preserve an atmosphere less reminiscent of the Midway—an effort to give the little girls every possible opportunity to live normal lives.