Dr. Allan Roy Dafoe: at one time the “world’s most famous doctor”
On my visit to Park Lawn Cemetery in Toronto’s west end, I visited the grave of the country doctor best known for delivering and caring for the Dionne quintuplets — the first quintuplets known to survive early infancy anywhere in the world.
On May 28, 1934, Dr. Dafoe, who ran a medical practice in Callander, Ontario, near North Bay, was called to the Dionne farmhouse. What he didn’t know was that this phone call would change his life forever.
When he arrived at Oliva and Elzire Dionne’s farmhouse, Elzire — who had suspected she was carrying twins, and was two months early — started having baby after baby until the fifth came into the world. She reportedly cried out, “What will I do with all them babies?” The press headlined them as “miracle babies.”
Quintuplet births at the time had no medical precedent for survival. Nothing in recorded history told of surviving quints, so there was simply no framework for anyone — doctor included — to have anticipated it.
In 1935, the government made the quintuplets wards of the state, stripping the parents of full custody and placing the girls under a state-appointed board of guardians, with Dr. Dafoe as their primary caretaker.
Fame came fast for the country doctor. Overnight, reporters and photographers descended on the tiny town, and the “miracle babies” became one of the biggest news stories of the Depression era. A barbed-wire-fenced viewing gallery let tourists watch the girls at “Quintland” at no charge — though surrounding souvenir stands and concessions turned the whole area into a tourism boom, an arrangement widely criticized in later years as exploitative. Dafoe reaped a tremendous amount of money from endorsement deals tied to the quints. His name and image were used to sell products, and he cashed in directly on the association. He authored books and was portrayed in Hollywood films (played by Jean Hersholt), which only fed more public interest and paid appearances.
In conclusion, he made a fortune, and very little was left in trust for the quints later in life even though they were “the stars of the show.” The girls themselves saw comparatively little, and later sued the Ontario government, seeking an apology and compensation. In March 1998, they reportedly settled for several million dollars, along with a formal apology from then Ontario Premier, Mike Harris.
Dr. Allan Roy Dafoe, OBE, died on June 2, 1943, in North Bay, Ontario. He was 60.
1883–1943
