The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-02-11
BY FRED DAVIS
NEA Service staff Photographer

My reasons are highly
mercenary. Yvonne gives
the best pictures. 1t was
Yvonne / got, so beautifully
asleep in her little chair. 1t
was Yvonne | got with the
straw hat on, and the flower
in her hand.
Yvonne is the one who
greets me the most gaily
when | GO into their sane
tum in my white surgeons
gown.
And in the groups, Yvonne is
the one who claps, who crows.
who opens her eyes widest, shows
her tiny teeth best, sticks one
ridiculous little foot up in the air.
Emile, however, is the nosey
one. Emile wants to know what
is in my camera. Never mind the
outside. What's inside?
What is it that l keep looking
into, down the hood? If l left my
camera on the ground half Sec
ond, it would be Emile who would
take it apart to see the wheels go
round.
DUT, now, Annette; there's An
ID net6e, for instance. 1t is
Annette who reaches me first,
whether crawling or staggering,
and tries to climb up me.
And Annette, with her large,
speculatives eyes, has yet to figure
out who am and what l am do
ing in her curious world, SO filled
with nurses and doctors, and
crowds milling around at polite
distance
Who am I, to be admitted, peri
odically, into her presence? All,
III about l8 years. Annette, when
you see the family album, you
will understand.
Cecile. the favorite of the par
iSh priest, has a devout look.
Marie, the little one, has given us
all the filters we ever had. and
no doubt that is why she is DR..
Dafoes favorite.
The more trouble, the better
they like them. Doctors are fun
ny that way. And mothers.
MAMA DIONNE, despite any
N1 thing that has been written
or said, has exhibited the greatest
delight and excitement whenever
5 have given her--as 1 invariably
do-copies of the choicest pictures
l shoot.
She likes groups best. And it
Is uncanny the way she Identifies
her babies. It is the mother in
Stinct.
From the start, and no matter
how they were arranged in the
picture, Mrs. Dionne names them,
and names them exactly.
This is more than 1 can do with
certainty. DR.. Dafoe, who ad-
mits it's hard to tell the quins
apart in the nursery, has said he
doesn't see how any one can iden-
tify them in a photograph.
The nurses, of course. can tell
them perfectly. But why not?
They are with them daily, hourly.
=
THE people who have actually
L. touched the Dionne quins are
few and far between, the parents,
the doctor. and the midwives.
during those first weird hours of
May, 1884, when the stork alighted
five times on the Dionne stove
pipe. Maybe few neighbors also
picked them up. l don't know.
But since that morning. 20
months ago, when the lid came
down with bang on that sud-
denly world-famous little home
i'll the backwoods, the nurses, the
doctor and l, and the parents on
their visits, are the sole contacts.
In making the pictures, the
nurses do most of the posing for
me. Until couple of months
ago, it was not so great trick to
pose the babies. Set them on a
table and dingle little bell. That
was my act.
A ND mark you, ladies and gen.
4 n gentlemen, that look of Won
der and interest in those wide
eyes is not for you. 1t is for me.
Yesm. I'm the guy. Dingling
little bell with one hand and
trying to focus big press camera
with the other. Standing on my
head, lying on the floor, looking
through my legs. balancing on
one ear.
hate to tell how many thou
sand Photographic plates 1 have
fired at those babies. It would
make all the regular cameramen
snort with derision.
But am only a poor wandering
minstrel. With little bell. Or
bright ribbon. Or a snap of the
fingers.
am goggle-eyed from trying
to focus on five pairs of eyes at
once, trying to watch so toes, so