Directed by Joyce Chopra and Richard Leacock • 1963 • United States

September 23, 1963, was a happy mother’s day for Mary Ann Fischer when she gave birth to quintuplets in Aberdeen, South Dakota. Only the third such delivery, five babies all at once, medical history in America’s heartland—what better ingredients for a great story? Filmmakers Richard Leacock and Joyce Chopra head to Aberdeen to document, with vérité immediacy, the impact of the birth on a small town and on a newly expanded family thrust, whether they like it or not, into the media spotlight.