About this episode

This episode explores the lives of the Dionne Quintuplets, the first quintuplets known to survive infancy, and the exploitation they faced after being taken from their parents.

Episode 425: In May 1934, five identical girls were born in a farmhouse outside Corbeil, Ontario. They were the first quintuplets known to survive infancy anywhere in the world. Within weeks, the Province of Ontario had taken them from their parents. What followed was nine years inside a government-run compound called Quintland, where millions of tourists paid to watch the Dionne sisters play through one-way glass, twice a day, while their faces sold soap, cereal, and corn syrup across North America. The girls went home in 1943. The horror of what happened next took decades to come to light. Sources: The Canadian Encyclopedia — Dionne Quintuplets | (Canadian Encyclopedia) Dionne Quintuplets: The Miracle Babies | (Canadian Encyclopedia) Dionne quintuplets | (Wikipedia) Dionne quintuplets | Deaths, Parents, Names, & Facts | (Britannica) The Birth of the Dionne Quintuplets | (Government of Canada) The Dionne Quintuplets National Historic Event | (Parks Canada) Dionne Quintuplets (1934—) | (Encyclopedia.com) Dionne Quintuplets (b. 1934) | (Encyclopedia.com) The Miracle and Tragedy of the Dionne Quintuplets by Sarah Miller (Scholastic Focus, 2017) | (Book) We Were Five: The Dionne…

People in this episode

Host: Dark Poutine

Topics covered

• Dionne Quintuplets
• true crime
• government control
• child exploitation
• historical events
• tourism
• media

Keywords

• Dionne Quintuplets
• true crime
• Ontario
• child exploitation
• historical events
• Quintland
• tourism
• media

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Province of Ontario

Books & works: The Miracle and Tragedy of the Dionne Quintuplets, We Were Five: The Dionne Quintuplets' Story from Birth through Girlhood to Womanhood, Family Secrets: The Dionne Quintuplets' Own Story, The Dionne Years: A Thirties Melodrama

Places: Corbeil, Ontario

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