The Great Stork Derby was a contest held from 1926 to 1936. Female residents of

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

, Ontario, Canada, competed to produce the most babies in order to qualify for an unusual bequest in a will.

Background

The race was the product of a scheme by

Charles Vance Millar Charles Vance Millar (June 28, 1854 – October 31, 1926) was a Canadian lawyer and financier. He was the president and part-owner of the Toronto brewery of O'Keefe Brewery. He also owned racehorses, including the 1915 King's Plate–winning ...

(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
Millar, Charles Vance
, 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 Teetotalism is the practice of voluntarily abstaining from the consumption of alcohol, specifically in alcoholic drinks. A person who practices (and possibly advocates) teetotalism is called a teetotaler (US) or teetotaller (UK), or said to be ...

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 The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC; , ) is the highest court in the judicial system of Canada. It comprises nine justices, whose decisions are the ultimate application of Canadian law, and grants permission to between 40 and 75 litigants eac ...

upheld the clause's validity. The Court further held the clause did not encompass children born out of wedlock, or stillborn.

Competition

Eleven families competed in the "baby race." Seven of them were disqualified, but eventually Judge William Edward Middleton ruled in favour of four mothers (Annie Katherine Smith, Kathleen Ellen Nagle, Lucy Alice Timleck and Isabel Mary Maclean) who each received $110,000 for their nine children ($ in dollars). Three of the four had to pay back relief money given to them by the

City of Toronto government The municipal government of Toronto ( incorporated as the City of Toronto) is the local government responsible for administering the city of Toronto in the Canadian province of Ontario. Its structure and powers are set out in the ''City of Toron ...

. 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 Megan Elizabeth Laura Diana Follows ( ; born March 14, 1968) is a Canadian actress and director. She is known for her role as Anne Shirley in the 1985 Canadian television miniseries ''Anne of Green Gables'' and its two sequels. From 2013 to 2017 ...

. The film was based upon

Elizabeth Wilton Elizabeth or Elisabeth may refer to: People * Elizabeth (given name), a female given name (including people with that name) * Empress Elisabeth (disambiguation), lists various empresses named ''Elisabeth'' or ''Elizabeth'' * Princess Elizabeth ...

's book ''Bearing The Burden: The Great Toronto Stork Derby 1926–1938''. In February 2019, the radio program ''

This American Life ''This American Life'' is a weekly hour-long American radio program produced in collaboration with Chicago Public Media and hosted by Ira Glass. It is broadcast on numerous public radio stations in the United States and internationally, and is ...

'' covered the story in some detail. In 2016, Toronto's Muddy York Brewing Company produced a ''Stork Derby

Stout Stout is a type of dark beer that is generally warm fermented, such as dry stout, oatmeal stout, milk stout and imperial stout. Stout is a type of ale. The first known use of the word "stout" for beer is in a document dated 1677 in the E ...

'' as a nod to the unusual event. The 2023 novel ''Prize Women'' by

Caroline Lea Caroline may refer to: People * Caroline (singer) (born 1981), Japanese glitch pop musician * Caroline (given name), a feminine given name * J. C. Caroline (1933–2017), American football player * Jamie Caroline (born 1999), British racing driv ...

is a fictionalized account of the Stork Derby, and includes several real-life figures as characters.

References

External links

Snopes.com summary of the event
* {{IMDb title, qid=Q123616249, title=The Stork Derby History of Toronto Practical jokes Natalism Maternity in Canada