'Rare Baby' dwarf disappoints by choosing life of crime

   Philippe Nicol was born into stardom on September 19, 1926, as The Rare Baby, son of the self-declared Count and Countess Nicol, inhabitants of the Midgets Palace at 961 Rachel E.
   His dad, aged 45, was a marketing genius who made enough dosh in the circus to return as a star and establish a lucrative tourist museum in his home.
   When the lad's mom Rose Dufresne from Lowell, Mass. gave birth at the Mercy Hospital at St. Hubert and Dorchester, the event lit the public imagination.
    The newborn was a sort of forerunner for the Dionne Quintuplets deal, as people were fascinated that what was billed as the world's smallest couple could pull off parenthood.
   Of course Philippe Nicol II was a dwarf and great things were expected of him, with dad musing that he could one day be Prime Minister.

The five physicians who attended at his birth are of the opinion that he will never be taller than his father (he is now 25 inches high); but he will have a real man’s head, his father promises, and he shall be charitable and courageous.

     The parents doted over their child and even had a full time nurse named Victoria Tanguay watch over the little guy. (Tanguay was fired when mom got jealous that dad bought her a fur hat). 

   Little Philippe would play a little piano for his parents and onlookers as part of their reality-reality show.

    Alas the 41-inch-tall Nicol could not effectively follow his unlikely career path: badass gangster.

(Kate McDonnell shot the pic on the right)

   In his first big bust, Philippe Nicol, 20, was charged in court after being caught trying with burglar's tools.
   He had broken into a store at 970 Rachel  - literally across the street from his home at the Midgets Palace - and stole an electric drill and hunter's knife, for a value of $43.

Once glorious palace later became a gay massage parlour

  On October 3, 1951 Nicol, then 25, robbed a tobacco store and taxi driver with a nickel-plated toy gun.
   After his arrest, he insisted that reporters get the full story of his life. He made such a nuisance of himself that it took Det Sgt Rod Perron twice as long to make out his report for robbing the corner store at 427 Mount Royal E. corner St. Denis. The owner ran away to the basement.
   Nicol fled and hopped a cab and held the gun to the cabbies' head. He ordered the driver to give his money and smokes.
   Cops, on a tip, pulled the cab over at St. Lawrence and St. Joseph. Tiny Nicol dropped his little gun into the cabbie's coat pocket and attempted to flee.
   He was sentenced to 28 months in prison. His own lawyer JP Guilbaut said it was time that Nicol learned a trade.

  It's possible that young Nicol was a veteran of other crimes. For example, a crew of masked thieves robbed the Palace Theatre, with a dwarf dealing with the safe, so he might have been involved in that crime, the Gazette reported on 8 Jan. 1946.
  That's where we lose track of Nicol and nobody seems to have mentioned him much again, although he was described as the boss at the Midgets Palace in 1971.
 One account said that he became a midget wrestler and could conceivably still be alive in his late 80s.
   Philippe Nicol Sr., died when his son was 13 so he didn't live long enough to be disappointed in his son's fate.
    Nicol Sr., who grew to a mere 36 inches, was born in 1881 near Quebec City, the seventh son of a seventh son whose father stood 6'3."
   He met Rose Dufresne on the circus circuit in 1906 and married in 1913 and moved to Montreal that same year.  
 . Philippe Nicol Sr. - dubbed the "richest dwarf in the world" died on May 27, 1940 and Dufresne died in 1961.
   The Midgets Palace was taken over by other small people  in 1972 and closed for good in March 1990.