User reviews

James A. Fitzpatrick sends the Technicolor cameras under the supervision of William Steiner to Callendar in Ontario to shoot this short about the Dionne Quintuplets, the first set of quintuplets to survive and catalogue the small but steady stream of tourists who came to gawk at them.

Hollywood made a minor industry of them. Jean Hersholt played their doctor in a feature, which became a series of B pictures as Doctor Christian, a role which he also played on the radio and television until his death in 1956.

Two of the quntuplets, Annette and Cecile, are still alive at the time I write this. The copy of this Traveltalk which plays occasionally on Turner Classic Movies is in very good condition.

TravelTalks visits the Dionne Quintuplets born in 1934 in a small Canadian town. The five little girls are put in a nursery that is open to tourist observation. The James A. FitzPatrick narration declares the generosity of the government in setting up the nursery and praising the efforts of the small town doctor. With modern eyes, one can see that this is more than a little creepy. Back in the day, there would be sometimes human zoo. It could be observing native cultures or it could be geek shows in traveling circuses. This is a government-run human zoo. That does make this an unique TravelTalks episode.

It's unbelievable today to believe something like this actually happened. As the narrator states, quintuplets were one in 57 million at this time long before fertility drugs and IPV treatments. They were so rare, that they were put on display in a zoo-like compound called "Quintland", where people could watch there every move (hence, the Truman Show reference.) Apart from the annoying way James FitzPatrick kept saying "quintuplets" (like "quintellpets") the shirt is distasteful in this day. I feel bad for the hand that life dealt these girls, who were finally freed from their "zoo", they were physically abused by their siblings and parents, treated like slaves in the home their "Truman Show" built and allegedly sexually abused. When they went to their parish priest about the abuse, they were told to "wear coats to bed". Everyone made money off of these girls except them. Canada eventually paid them for placing them in Quintland, but it was too little, too late. This short makes it like it was all roses and sunshine, but it wasn't by a long shot.

Land of the Quintuplets (1942)

*** (out of 4)

I've seen the majority of James A. FitzPatrick's TravelTalks series but this one here is something a tad bit different. The Dionne Quintuplets were a major story back in the day and this episode of the series travels to their hometown where we meet the five kids as well as the doctor who delivered them. We see various other parts of the town including the house that the children are living in as well as local stores. Usually this series took a look at entire towns, countries or states so this one here is obviously a tad bit different but there's no question that it's very entertaining and like others in the series it features some beautiful colors.