The picture above is titled “First Dates.” There probably had been no “first dates” for any of the Dionne Quintuplets at the time it was painted. The artist has taken certain small liberties in his rendition, one of which was the decision to ignore reality, not only in what the sisters were doing, but also what they looked like.
Search the web, search the collectible market, and you’ll find baby pictures galore, adolescent pictures a-plenty, but very few photos of the sisters when they were in their teens. It’s a shame, in both senses of that word.
I’m in the process of pulling together Dionne video clips, and with any luck at all, I’ll post them tomorrow.
Meantime, lest you think that the Dionne Quintuplets were exploited exclusively by Dr. Dafoe, the Canadian government and the general public (hundreds of whom appear in the clip tape; an estimated 3 million people traveled to “Quintland” in Ontario to see the Quints in person at one of the daily showings) let me point out that the medical community turned their childhoods into one long observation period. An adoring public wanted to know everything about “their quints;” the medical community did, in fact, know everything about them. A few exhibits will suffice. The only two-year-olds who need a Dayplanner:
Those watching even watched what each quint watched:
Click Here for Part 3 – some truly astounding clips, including footage of three of the sisters coming back to look over the “hospital” where they were incarcerated for nearly ten years.
