The Dionne Quintuplets Legacy: Establishing the "Good Doctor and His Loyal Nurse" Image in American Culture
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The Dionne Quintuplets Legacy: Establishing the "Good Doctor and His Loyal Nurse" Image in American Culture ifty years ago, on May 28, 1934, in a poor farmhouse in rural Canada F in the wilds of rural :'-lorthern BEATRICE J. KALISCH and were kept alive by a modest Ontario, Canada, the miraculous physician uSing rather primitive & PHILIP A. KALISCH birth of five identical baby girls had measures [2]. • world-wide repe rcussions for the im T he press hastened to brighten the ·• age of physicians and nurses. It also gloo my Depression timu with this affected the economy of Canada; it physician is nearly standard now, cheery bit of news, and the public affected the way people raised their such was not always the case. In mo responded with almost unprece children; it even affected, to Ih is very tion pictures of the 1920s, for in dented enthusiasm. Nearly 3 m ill ion day, the nature of the physician· stance, physicians were frequently people drove the long trek north to heroes portrayed in movies and pori rayed negatively, as criminal, "Quintland" to see the babies, their tdcvision series. avaricious, promISCUOUS, and/or tourist expenditures helping rescue Viewers growing up in the 19605, foolish. But news of the birth of the the depressed economy of the Pro '70s, and '80s probably take for Dionne quintuple Is, and most vince of Ontario. Newspapers found granted the al most a rchetypal ~good especially of the modest country doc an almost insatiable audience for a ny doctor,~ as represented by such me n tor who delivered them, changed that mention of the quints, and they kepI as Drs. K ildare, 'Welby, and Gannoll, bad image and set in its place an ex up a stead y Aow of articles about and their current counterparts on ample of a physician so good that he every aspect of their growth, develop such television series as Trappu John, approached saintliness IlJ. ment, and upbringing; their family MD and 51. Eluwh(Tt. These physi background; their physicians and cians know all of their patients by Backgrou nd their nurses; their prospects for the name, recog nize and solve all of the future. Businesses by the dozens patienl's problems- both physical The birth of the five Dionne girls sought endorsements from the quints and psychosocial-and charge little Yvonne, Annetle, Cecil e, Emilie, or the quints' physician, knowing that or nothing for their servIces. and ~1arie- had a staggering impact their products' success was assured by Although this media image of the on the public. T he chances of even such sponsorship, Everyone who fraternal quintuplcts being born are knew the quints, or knew someone only one in 54 million to begin with; who knew the quints, sold their B~atrice J. Kali sc h. RN. EdD. FAAN . •, the odds of five paternal (identical) stories or mementos to the public, Titus profeilor of nursmg and chairpuso n of babies developing from one egg are Journalists, photographers, business parem-child nursing; Ph ili p A. KaliKh. PhD, incalculable, as it has happened only men, government, and family all is professor of hi.tory . politics. and ",onomies twice before in history and there was squabbled (often in court) over their of nurstng at ""II as imuim <iirO'C!Or of the Center for Nursing Research; both at lht no past record of surv ival beyond a rig hts to various parts of the quints' University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. Thi. few days of either fraternal or iden lives [3]. ",.dy ... a. ,uppOrt""! by rn"Mrh gram NU tical quints. T hus, Ihe chances of su r The American public somehow felt 00579. U.S. I'ublic Health Str-.ice, Htallh vival for all fiv e of the Dionne quints th at the babies belonged to everyone; Resourct. Adminiscralion, Dj,·iSlon of Nurs· were even slimmer. Aside from the ing. they fell free to advise and criticize The photograph. in this artide arc credited miracle of their very existence, these about the children's upbringing, and to T",cnlicth·Ctnlury·t·o;< films . identical, premature mi les were born they approved when the Ontario 242/NURSI1'\G & H EA LTH CARE t i, I ~ f y \ go\"(~rnmC'nt stepped In and an ~ecms outrageous, but SUdl an aC!lo n heard about the quints, thei r every nounu:d that it wa~ making the "as hil!:hl~ <Ippro\ed of at the time need was fitted. Refrigerated loads of Dionne babies ..... ard~ of the Province becau~e of the way that th\."" media mother's mi lk arrived daily by train. because it did not (.onsidn the presented the story to the public. doctors olfe n:d their s~ r vices, and in natur,d parCIlIS fit to nt l5e these T hi~ tOmtituted a !rightening object cubators. food . clothi ng. and mane} I1li r"clc babies. :'-10 one St'emnl con lesson about thr power of the prt'ss to fo r the babies poured in. T he best 01 ccrned about the five I;hildn;n the ,hape tilt' publi(.'s i1Jla,~e of Cyt'nls. expert s irtll lledidtely rall ied al'ount! to Diollncs had already had bdore tilt' One should not undercst iuutc the help keep th e babies ahc, but Dr. qumts "ere born, nor about 1Il{'- two greed that surro un d~'d tltt' b"bles btu. Dafoe recei\"Cd all of the credit Ill. born hllcr: those children II en: on the other hand. no one wished T he public adored him. As the fUft-ver to be Jeft out of the publiC's them ill. either: everyone intended newspapers p r e~entedhim, Dr. Dafoe concern. ge nerosity, and adulation only the best for them Howevcr, was a man of unlimited medical 1'1· even "ith the: he~( of intentions, this skills, a modest and altruistic mall For the adorable quintuplets, inte rference alrn os t ruined the quints' who lovingly tl't'ated the fam il ies III huwc'cr. the gOI'unment built ,1 lives, a~ the authorities made dec i his neighborhood without regard for private hospital up Ihe road from sions about them according to ",hat money and "ho remained untouched their parents' house; Ihne, the little they knew. Cnfortundtely, what they by sudden famt' People Hocked to girls were raised by a group of "knew~ was ofl en j ust what the hear the speeches he \~as frequently nurses, in ste rik surroundings, and nev.·spapers IOld them. and the press invited to give, dnd they avidly read in a(.cordance ..... ith the latest scientific offered a highly slanted vie",. J our the syndicated column th"t regululy thcories of child rea ring. T he Dionne nalists pictured the quiec . rcspcctahle appeared under his byline. I n actu· p<lrents were pe rmitted only li mited Dionne couple as laughably ignor;ulI ali t}', Dafoe was a man of quite or visiting privileges, and the other peasants who suught only to exploit dinary, even mediocre, skills- both Dionne chIldren were not allowed to their miracle habies for money. For med ica l a nd social. He had see them at all. A special committee ~e"rs, Iheir articles about \tr. delibera tely sought out a small, was set up to determine the quints' Dionne (in particular) were marked remote community in which to prac upbringing and to manage thei r with hos tility to\, ard the poor, tice medicine, at leaSE partly to escape ~n a nces. T he poor Dionnes fought beleaguered man [61. comparison with his more brilliant the decision in va in, whi le the press T he press's vicw of the phYSician, and more famous younger brother, a made them look like foo ls no maner ho'\e\'er, approached adulation promi ne n t Toron to physician. what they did. Hence, before the also a highly biased view . D r. All an T here, he re mained rather rcdusive, b"bies "ere e"en a year old, the stage Roy Dafoe. a rather odd man, had treating pa tients any time they was set for acrimonious battles about fame thrust upon hi m , and he needed him but never really becom how they should bc raised and by thoroughly enjoyed it. W hen the five ing part of thc community and never whom, and abOUI Ihe maHlve tin y babies "ere born tw o months bot h ~r in g to learn french. the amounts of money that began 10 pour prematurely. he did not expect them primary language of the area. The in. For the first nine years of the to li \'e, but he se nsibly kept them press co nsis tently pictured him as in quintuplets' 1i\'es, the government warm . did not handle them much, different to money (and, indeed, he won the battles [jJ. and - in the absence of enough often did refuse to accept a fee frolll In retrospect, the Ontario govern mother's milk - fed them small poor patients), but Dr. Dafoe, in ment's usurpation of the parents' amountS of warm wate- r laced wi th fact, became as rich as the quints right 10 raise their own children sugar or rum . S honly after the ", orld themselves (and, unlike thcm, he . ...,.... y~)I----- ~ managed 10 hold on to his wealth), about nursing and about the nurse Holl ywood movies featuring the and he collected fees from his syn· physician relationship [91. quints, was a box office hit for 1936 dicated columns while paymg The three films had certain com and set the tone for the films that another physician a pittance to write mon elements.