Great Stork Derby
{{Short description|Contest held from 1926 to 1936}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2018}}
File:Charles_Vance_Millar.jpg, whose will sparked the Great Stork Derby]]
The Great Stork Derby was a contest held from 1926 to 1936. Female residents of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, competed to produce the most babies in order to qualify for an unusual bequest in a will.{{cite web|last1=Goldenberg|first1=David|title=How A Dead Millionaire Convinced Dozens of Women To Have As Many Babies As Possible|url=https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-a-dead-millionaire-convinced-dozens-of-women-to-have-as-many-babies-as-possible/|publisher=FiveThirtyEight Science|access-date=January 12, 2016|date=December 11, 2015|archive-date=January 13, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160113130046/http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-a-dead-millionaire-convinced-dozens-of-women-to-have-as-many-babies-as-possible/|url-status=live}}
Background
The race was the product of a scheme by Charles Vance Millar (1853–1926), a Toronto lawyer, financier, and practical joker, who bequeathed the residue of his significant estate to the woman in Toronto who could produce the most children in the decade following his death.Orkin, Mark M. [http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0005293 Millar, Charles Vance] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110608160328/http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0005293 |date=June 8, 2011 }}, The Canadian Encyclopedia online. Retrieved April 17, 2009;
It is one of many unusual bequests in his will, along with giving a vacation home in Jamaica to a group of three men who detested each other under the condition that they live in the estate together indefinitely, brewery stocks to a group of prominent teetotal Protestant ministers if they participated in its operations and collected its dividends, and jockey club stocks to a group of anti-horse-racing advocates.
Litigation over the validity of the contest was resolved when the Supreme Court of Canada upheld the clause's validity.{{Cite Canadian Court |litigants=In Re Estate of Charles Millar |decisionyear=1937 |reporteryear=1938 |vol=1 |reporter= D.L.R. |page=65 |court= Supreme Court of Canada|url=http://www.canlii.org/en/ca/scc/doc/1937/1937canlii10/1937canlii10.html }} The Court further held the clause did not encompass children born out of wedlock, or stillborn.
Competition
Eleven families competed in the "baby race."{{Cite news|url = https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=_BciAAAAIBAJ&pg=1200,4739949|title = Prim Toronto was site of baby race|last = Schwartz|first = Susan|date = December 9, 1981|work = The Gazette|location = Montreal|ref = Schwartz|access-date = September 28, 2020|archive-date = May 15, 2021|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210515235327/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=_BciAAAAIBAJ&pg=1200%2C4739949|url-status = live}} Seven of them were disqualified, but eventually Judge William Edward Middleton ruled in favour of four mothers{{Cite news|url = https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=7V4vAAAAIBAJ&pg=3909,1593281|title = Last of 'Stork Derby'?|date = May 31, 1938|work = Ottawa Citizen|ref = Ottawa|access-date = September 28, 2020|archive-date = May 15, 2021|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210515235248/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=7V4vAAAAIBAJ&pg=3909%2C1593281|url-status = live}} (Annie Katherine Smith, Kathleen Ellen Nagle, Lucy Alice Timleck{{Cite news|url = https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2479&dat=20020117&id=3Vo1AAAAIBAJ&pg=2042,18276812&hl=en|title = BIG FAMILY, BIG PRIZE|date = January 17, 2002|agency = Reuters|via = Philippine Daily Inquirer|access-date = March 8, 2021|archive-date = May 15, 2021|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210515235250/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2479&dat=20020117&id=3Vo1AAAAIBAJ&pg=2042%2C18276812&hl=en|url-status = live}}{{Failed verification|date=September 2020 }} and Isabel Mary Maclean) who each received $110,000 for their nine children (${{formatprice|{{Inflation|CA|110000|1938}}}} in {{Inflation-year|CA}} dollars){{inflation-fn|CA}}. Three of the four had to pay back relief money given to them by the City of Toronto government.{{cite news |work=The Globe and Mail |title=MOTHERS COMPETED FOR THE MILLAR PRIZE |first=J. V. |last=McAree |date=December 27, 1944 |page=6}} Two of the disqualified candidates, Lillian Kenny and Pauline Mae Clarke, each received $12,500 out of court in exchange for abandoning pending appeals.
In popular culture
The Canadian 2002 TV movie The Stork Derby, depicted the stories of Lillian Kenny, Pauline Mae Clarke and Grace Bagnato and starred Megan Follows. The film was based upon Elizabeth Wilton's book Bearing The Burden: The Great Toronto Stork Derby 1926–1938.
In February 2019, the radio program This American Life covered the story in some detail.{{cite web |last1=Foo |first1=Stephanie |title=Babies Got Bank |url=https://www.thisamericanlife.org/668/the-long-fuse/act-two-0 |website=This American Life |access-date=17 February 2019 |date=15 February 2019 |language=en |format=Audio podcast with transcript |archive-date=May 15, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210515235250/https://www.thisamericanlife.org/668/the-long-fuse/act-two-18 |url-status=live }}
In 2016, Toronto's Muddy York Brewing Company produced a Stork Derby Stout as a nod to the unusual event.
The 2023 novel Prize Women by Caroline Lea is a fictionalized account of the Stork Derby, and includes several real-life figures as characters.
References
{{reflist}}{{Wikisource|Last Will and Testament of Charles Vance Millar}}{{Portal bar|History|Law|Canada}}
External links
- [http://www.snopes.com/pregnant/babyrace.asp Snopes.com summary of the event]
- {{IMDb title|qid=Q123616249|title=The Stork Derby}}