Comments on: He'll be back next year.

He'll be back next year.

HuronBob — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 22:11:30 -0800

Heliodore Cyr a Canadian potato farmer (and god knows how he had time) appeared on "I've Got a Secret" three times. His wife should have been the guest. Whatever you do, read the comments.

By: Mrs. Pterodactyl

Mrs. Pterodactyl — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 22:23:23 -0800

Wow, all that cigarette stuff was weird.

By: weapons-grade pandemonium

weapons-grade pandemonium — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 22:30:43 -0800

Wow, all that 27 kids stuff was weird.

By: dual_action

dual_action — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 23:03:58 -0800

Electric refrigerator! Oui? Oui!

By: etherist

etherist — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 23:41:32 -0800

Normally, we are admonished not to read the comments (for our own good, and to preserve our faith in humanity)

By: growabrain

growabrain — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 23:48:11 -0800

what great comments!

By: mannequito

mannequito — Sun, 14 Oct 2012 00:16:14 -0800

Good friend of mine is Acadian from New Brunswick. First thing in the morning I'm hitting him with a two word text - Heliodore Cyr? That whole video was great fun!

By: koeselitz

koeselitz — Sun, 14 Oct 2012 00:31:20 -0800

Read the... read the comments? On... Youtube? I'm not really... I mean, I don't...

By: hurdy gurdy girl

hurdy gurdy girl — Sun, 14 Oct 2012 00:41:22 -0800

I liked the expression on the final female panelist's face when the host said how many children Mr. Cyr and his wife had had. Those were the most adorable YouTube comments I've ever read--not that that's a high bar. My favourite: "My goodness, do all the people commenting on the video know each other?"

By: atrazine

atrazine — Sun, 14 Oct 2012 01:25:59 -0800

Normally, we are admonished not to read the comments (for our own good, and to preserve our faith in humanity) Yeah, I had to switch them back on because I have a plugin that keeps all YT comments hidden by default.

By: stupidsexyFlanders

stupidsexyFlanders — Sun, 14 Oct 2012 02:04:55 -0800

Comments were great."Suggested Videos," for some reason, offered Debralee Scott exposing her breasts on Password Plus in 1979, which was also great in a very different way. You can skip those comments.

By: Malice

Malice — Sun, 14 Oct 2012 02:16:35 -0800

In a few hundred years everyone will be a descendant of this man at this rate.

By: Malor

Malor — Sun, 14 Oct 2012 02:38:04 -0800

Yeah, I'd say the man has populated a good chunk of his province. :)

By: MartinWisse

MartinWisse — Sun, 14 Oct 2012 02:51:34 -0800

His poor wife though. A baby a year for almost thirty years?

By: likeso

likeso — Sun, 14 Oct 2012 03:32:36 -0800

Whoa, yeah. Body either pregnant or recovering from delivery for nigh on 30 years, meanwhile handwashing all of the laundry of a family of now 29 people - and cooking all meals on a wood fire... Never mind the sperm donor, I'd have liked to have seen this superwoman. I'm sure Mr. Cyr was a lovely man, his relatives in the YT comments seem to hold him in high esteem and he must have worked very hard as a potato farmer to support his large family, but yikes.

By: Twang

Twang — Sun, 14 Oct 2012 04:30:33 -0800

I think we've finally found a proper name for Mr. Potato Head. (That's Head of family of course.)

By: DU

DU — Sun, 14 Oct 2012 05:05:44 -0800

meanwhile handwashing all of the laundry of a family of now 29 people - and cooking all meals on a wood fire. Or at least presiding over the children who are doing all that work. Or presiding over the late-teens who are presiding over the younger teens who are doing all that work.

By: likeso

likeso — Sun, 14 Oct 2012 05:13:38 -0800

Fair point; same for the father's farming work - true auld skool. Still, 27 full-term pregnancies? Yikes.

By: hal9k

hal9k — Sun, 14 Oct 2012 06:40:14 -0800

Groucho: "I like my cigar, too, but I take it out of my mouth once in a while."

By: item

item — Sun, 14 Oct 2012 06:50:58 -0800

According to this bit in a 1954 Time magazine, at the time the 25th child was born only 18 of the offspring were living. Would've made for an interesting turn had the game show host asked about the 7 dead kids.

By: saucysault

saucysault — Sun, 14 Oct 2012 07:01:26 -0800

Oh that was adorable. Not that unusual though, I have easily ten or so friends from rural Quebec, NB, PEI and Newfoundlad that were raised in families of twenty or so with no electricity (yeah, that's right, none from Nova Scotia - is it just not "done" there?). Catholicism is a powerful faith. I was sad to see that seven of the children died in childhood and apparently another five (not counted as part of the 27) were stillborn. She lived till her eighties so all that birthing did her no harm (although I hate to think what her bladder muscles were like).

By: Hazelsmrf

Hazelsmrf — Sun, 14 Oct 2012 07:15:54 -0800

Found this written by his great grandaughter: Marie-Élise Cyr (St-François de Madawaska, NB, Canada), gave birth 33 times between1937 and 1960. These were single births from which 27 children lived to see the day and sebsequently baptised. These children were conceived from the union of Marie-Élise Chamberland & Héliodore Cyr. Today (Oct 22nd 2010) there are 15 living siblings. Kelly Ann Albert LeVasseur (grand daughter of Marie-Élise & Héliodore Cyr)

By: maryrussell

maryrussell — Sun, 14 Oct 2012 07:51:14 -0800

That was great! Would they have electricity for those appliances though? (or running water)?

By: saucysault

saucysault — Sun, 14 Oct 2012 08:28:01 -0800

In the forties most towns in NB had electricity but almost none of the rural areas did. There was a push for electrification in the fifties but their farm was in a really rural area in the far northwest of the province so I would not be surprised if they had no electricity at the time of this show. The running water even today would be well water, so yeah, good point, those "free appliances" would have cost them thousands to install.

By: Wordshore

Wordshore — Sun, 14 Oct 2012 08:32:51 -0800

... gave birth 33 times between 1937 and 1960. These were single births ... Wait - is this right? Assuming all of 1937 and 1960 gives 24 years. 33 births in 24 years is one every 0.727 years, or one every 8 months and 3 weeks, on average.

By: NorthernLite

NorthernLite — Sun, 14 Oct 2012 08:36:57 -0800

Happy for the folks who get to see a bit of their family history. But also in the yikes column at women who had so many kids. I recently watched a bunch of celebrity appearances on the original "What's My Line?" on YT. The comments on those then led me to (re-)reading about the whole Dorothy Kilgallen conspiracy theory. There's such a wonderful repository of these old TV moments on YT.

By: Malor

Malor — Sun, 14 Oct 2012 08:38:31 -0800

Some of them were stillbirths, so it doesn't mean they ran to full term. She might have just gotten slightly confused; after the first fifteen children, I imagine the individual pregnancies start to run together a mite. If she was off by a couple, it wouldn't be that surprising.

By: CCBC

CCBC — Sun, 14 Oct 2012 15:08:53 -0800

You may have noticed that Henry Morgan did not applaud. Once, on this show he berated some poor woman who was on for having birthed a large number of children; he lectured her on population control and so on. I expect he was ordered to shut up after that.