Debut of Five

The Dionne quintuplets of Callander, Ontario, last week began what is likely to prove a long and eventful series of screen appearances. Perhaps the day will come when newsreel accounts of the daily doings of these five sisters will be as tiresomely commonplace as diving girls at Miami, Fascist youth on parade and rodeos are today. But last week there was no boredom in U. S. cinemansions as Pathe flashed on the screen what it proudly advertised as "Extra! World Scoop! Newsreel Sensation of the Year!" To get these first films of the Dionne quintuplets required bullying by Pathe President Courtland Smith, cajoling by Pathe News Editor Claude R. Collins, many a thousand Pathe dollars, a high and mighty appeal in the name of Science and History, and, most important of all, the courtesy of the Canadian Government.

The babies first appear yelling lustily as Dr. Allan Roy Dafoe lifts them from their incubators. He recognizes each one by weight and appearance as he calls out her name: Yvonne, Annette, Marie (in a bonnet), Cecile, Emilie. A nurse places them in a row on a table. Only Yvonne ceases squalling to yawn during the 30 seconds all five are in view.

In another scene Emilie gets an olive-oil bath, accepts her underwear and dress silently as she looks with shoe-button eyes into the camera. Last sight of the quintuplets in this first section of their cinema biography shows them being popped into their incubators which resemble a row of chicken coops.

By this week the Dionne quintuplets were three months old. All of them were ready to change their diet from "mother's milk," shipped from Montreal and Toronto, to modified cow's milk. Only Emilie and Marie, the two smallest, remained in incubators. All five totaled 31 Ib. 8-oz., more than three times the 10 Ib. 1/2-oz. of their first official weight. Almost finished was the special house, opposite the Dionne homestead, in which they will spend their first icy winter as guests of the Canadian Government.

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