THE GREAT STORK DERBY

Video Releasing: Autumn 2025

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When millionaire lawyer Charles Vance Millar died in 1926, he left behind one final joke – a will so bizarre it sparked the world’s most unusual competition. His fortune would go to the woman who gave birth to the most children in Toronto over the next ten years…

What started as a strange legal clause soon turned into a media frenzy, with families competing fiercely for the ultimate prize. But was this just a prank, intended never to see the light of day, or was Millar conducting a bizarre social experiment, exposing human greed, or just setting a trap to cause legal chaos in the Court systems he had once worked for? 

Find out in the ‘Bizarre But True!’ story behind ‘The Great Stork Derby.’

Charles Vance Millar was no ordinary millionaire. A Toronto-based lawyer and financier, he was known for a wicked sense of humour and his curious fascination with human nature. In particular, he loved testing people’s greed, once dropping dollar bills on the pavements just to watch how quickly people would pocket them if they thought no one was looking.

When he died suddenly at his desk in 1926, no one expected his final joke to live on for another decade. But when his will was read, it became clear that Millar had planned one last spectacle. The document was packed with legal pranks designed to provoke and confuse the unlucky legal team tasked with seeing through his final wishes. 

He left his race track shares to a group of ministers who fiercely opposed gambling. After much public soul searching and embarrassment did it become apparent his bequests were worth only half a cent each much to the embarrassment of their recipients!  He willed a vacation home to three lawyers who were known to despised each other. He even bequeathed money to a housekeeper who had already died… just to ensure legal chaos.

But it was ‘Clause 9’ of his will that captivated the world. Millar declared that the remainder of his entire fortune, worth well over $10 million in today’s money, would be awarded to the Toronto mother who gave birth to the most children in the ten years following his death. If there was a tie, the money would be split.

At first, people dismissed it as a legal oddity, but as the Great Depression took hold and many families struggled to put food on the table, the contest suddenly became very real. For many poorer families, Millar’s fortune offered the chance to escape poverty, and soon, newspapers across Canada and the U.S. were tracking what became known as ‘The Great Stork Derby’.

The Toronto Daily Star even assigned a dedicated reporter to chase pregnant women for exclusive interviews. Expectant mothers were suddenly household names and debates erupted over who really qualified.

By the time the contest reached its final years, eleven families were officially competing. But the legal battles were just beginning…

Could stillborn children be counted? What about babies born just outside Toronto’s city limits? And what if the children had different fathers?

As the 10-year deadline loomed, the courts became overwhelmed with challenges, counter challenges and legal chaos. Millar’s distant relatives suddenly appeared, trying to invalidate the will and claim the money for themselves. Even the Canadian government attempted to seize the funds, arguing the contest was immoral.

But Millar had anticipated every challenge. His will had been written with the ironclad precision only possible from someone who had spent his life handling complex legal cases.  After a decade of legal disputes, the baby race finally came to an end.

On October 31, 1936, exactly ten years after Millar’s death, the contest officially closed.

The ‘lucky’ winners were finally revealed: Annie Katherine Smith, Kathleen Ellen Nagle, Lucy Alice Timleck, and Isabel Mary Maclean had each given birth to nine qualifying children. They were awarded $125,000 each, the equivalent of over $2 million in today’s money.

Two other women, Lillian Kenny and Pauline Mae Clarke, had given birth to ten children each, but were disqualified.  Kenny had two stillborns and Clarke’s children were illegitimate under the law at the time. To avoid further legal battles, they were still given smaller payouts of $12,500 each.

Despite the media circus, the winners used their money wisely – buying homes, securing their children’s education and disappearing from public attention. The Maclean family even vanished entirely, shielding themselves from further scrutiny.

In the end, Charles Millar got exactly what he wanted: a decade of legal mayhem, public spectacle, and proof that greed could be manipulated. But what was his true motive?

Some say it was to make a complete mockery of the legal system and a way for Millar to tie up the courts for years after his death. Others believe it was to make a very public spectacle on reckless reproduction whilst subtly advocating for birth control at a time when contraception was illegal in Canada.

Whatever the reason, his final joke became legend. By 1938, The Great Stork Derby had become one of the most bizarre and publicised legal contests in history, watched by millions and studied for decades afterwards.

And in the end, the childless millionaire had somehow become the unexpected benefactor of 36 children, all of whom had grown up knowing their families had won a race that no one had ever expected to happen.

So, was Millar a brilliant social engineer? A master prankster, or simply a wealthy man with too much time on his hands? Whatever the truth, his strange legacy still lingers today, proving once again that, sometimes, fact really is stranger than fiction!

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