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. [1]
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. [1]
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. [2]
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. [3] The Court further held the clause did not encompass children born out of wedlock, or stillborn. [3]
Eleven families competed in the "baby race." [4] Seven of them were disqualified, [4] but eventually Judge William Edward Middleton ruled in favour of four mothers [4] [5] (Annie Katherine Smith, Kathleen Ellen Nagle, Lucy Alice Timleck [6] [ failed verification ] and Isabel Mary Maclean) who each received $110,000 for their nine children ($2.02 million in 2021 dollars) [7] . Three of the four had to pay back relief money given to them by the City of Toronto government. [8] Two of the disqualified candidates, Lillian Kenny and Pauline Mae Clarke, each received $12,500 out of court in exchange for abandoning pending appeals. [5]
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. [9]
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.
A will and testament is a legal document that expresses a person's (testator) wishes as to how their property (estate) is to be distributed after their death and as to which person (executor) is to manage the property until its final distribution. For the distribution (devolution) of property not determined by a will, see inheritance and intestacy.
This aims to be a complete list of the articles on real estate.
The O'Brien Trophy, or O'Brien Cup, as labelled on the trophy itself, is a retired trophy that was awarded in the National Hockey Association (NHA) and the National Hockey League (NHL) ice hockey leagues of North America from 1910 to 1950. It was originally donated to the NHA by Canadian Senator M. J. O'Brien in honour of his son, Ambrose O'Brien. The Cup was fabricated using silver from an O'Brien mine.
The Paramount Fine Foods Centre, formerly the Hershey Centre, is a multi-purpose sports and entertainment complex located in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. Its current name was adopted on July 1, 2018, following a new naming rights agreement with Mississauga-based restaurant chain Paramount Fine Foods.
Maple Leaf Stadium was a jewel box-style baseball stadium in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located at the foot of Bathurst Street on the south side of Lake Shore Boulevard. It was built in 1926 by Lol Solman for his Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team of the International League. Previously, the Maple Leafs had played at Hanlan's Point Stadium. It continued to be the home of the Leafs for 42 seasons, until the team left town following the 1967 season. The stadium was demolished in 1968. Fans often referred to the stadium as the "Fleet Street Flats".
Charles Vance Millar 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 horse Tartarean. However, he is now best known for his unusual will which touched off the Great Stork Derby.
Mary Brown's Centre is an indoor arena and entertainment venue located in downtown St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. The arena opened in May 2001, replacing Memorial Stadium. At full capacity the arena can seat 7,000 people.
The Sleeman Centre is a 4,715 seat multi-purpose facility in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. The Sleeman Centre has hosted concerts, sporting and family events as well as trade shows and conferences. It is home to the Guelph Storm of the major junior Ontario Hockey League. The arena hosted the 2002 Memorial Cup and the 2008 Founders Cup tournament.
Government House was the official residence of the lieutenant governor of Upper Canada and Ontario, Canada. Four buildings were used for this purpose, none of which exist today, making Ontario one of four provinces not to have an official vice-regal residence.
Lita Grey, who was known for most of her life as Lita Grey Chaplin, was an American actress. She was the second wife of Charlie Chaplin, and appeared in his films The Kid, The Idle Class, and The Gold Rush.
Queen's Quay Terminal is a condominium apartment, office and retail complex in the Harbourfront neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was originally built in 1927 as a marine terminal with office, warehouse and cold-storage facilities. When shipping to Toronto declined in the 1960s and 1970s, the building was bought by the Government of Canada to be repurposed along with a section of the industrial waterfront. The Terminal Building itself was rebuilt in the 1980s with the addition of four floors of residential above the original facility, which was converted into retail and office uses. The cold storage wing was demolished and its plant building became The Power Plant gallery and Harbourfront Centre Theatre.
Rochelle Hudson was an American film actress from the 1930s through the 1960s. Hudson was a WAMPAS Baby Star in 1931.
William "Billy" Charles de Meuron Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, 7th Earl Fitzwilliam,, styled Viscount Milton from 1877 to 1902, was a British Army officer, nobleman, politician, and aristocrat.
Enercare Centre, formerly known as the Direct Energy Centre and originally the National Trade Centre, is an exhibition complex located at Exhibition Place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is used by the Canadian National Exhibition and the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair, as well as by various trade shows. In 2015, it hosted several sport competitions and the broadcasting centre for the 2015 Pan American Games.
The Millar Addition is a suburb of Prince George, British Columbia, Canada. It is named in honor of its developer, Charles Vance Millar, who later became famous for leaving behind the most notorious will in Canadian history, which was the catalyst for the Stork Derby.
Sunnyside Bathing Pavilion is a landmark public pavilion in the Sunnyside lakefront area of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Built in 1922, its original function was to provide changing facilities for swimming in Lake Ontario, however lake conditions were often too cold and an adjoining public swimming pool was built in 1925. The Pavilion was renovated in 1980 to provide updated changing facilities and a café along the beach and a garden.
Storks is a 2016 American animated buddy slapstick adventure comedy film co-produced by Warner Bros. Pictures Animation, RatPac-Dune Entertainment and Stoller Global Solutions, and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. It was directed by Nicholas Stoller and Doug Sweetland, and written by Stoller, who also produced the film with Brad Lewis. The film stars the voices of Andy Samberg, Katie Crown, Kelsey Grammer, Jennifer Aniston, Ty Burrell, Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele and Danny Trejo. The film follows a hotshot package delivering stork Junior (Samberg) and his female human partner Tulip (Crown), working at the distribution center of an enormous online store, Cornerstore.com, situated high in the mountains. After a boy named Nate Gardner sends a letter to the company, the two accidentally create a female baby using the defunct baby factory the storks had formerly used in their original business of making and delivering babies. In order to protect the baby from the company's manager and ensure Junior's promotion to succeed him, the two set off on a journey to deliver the baby to the boy's family.
The Canadian property bubble refers to a significant rise in Canadian real estate prices from 2002 to present which some observers have called a real estate bubble. The Dallas Federal reserve rated Canadian real estate as "exuberant" beginning in 2003. From 2003 to 2018, Canada saw an increase in home and property prices of up to 337% in some cities. In 2016, the OECD warned that Canada's financial stability was at risk due to elevated housing prices, investment and household debt. By 2018, home-owning costs were above 1990 levels when Canada saw its last housing bubble burst. Bloomberg Economics ranked Canada as the second largest housing bubble across the OECD in 2019 and 2021. Toronto scored the highest in the world in Swiss bank UBS' real estate bubble index in 2022, with Vancouver also scoring among the 10 riskiest cities in the world. By 2023 Canada’s nonfinancial debt exceeded 300% of GDP and household debt surpassed 100% of GDP, both higher than the levels seen in the United States before the 2008 global financial crisis.
Coronation Park is a park and veteran's memorial in Toronto, Ontario, built to mark the coronation of King George VI in 1937. Most trees are planted to honour the Canadian men and women who participated in the First World War and earlier wars, while others commemorate subsequent coronations of Canadian monarchs. Constructed on landfill on the shore of Lake Ontario during the Great Depression, many workers on relief were used. The park also has the Victory-Peace monument, located at the water's edge. To the east is HMCS York, the naval barracks; to the north is Fort York and the Fort York Armoury; and, to the west, is Exhibition Place, once the site of New Fort York.
Kenilworth Park Racetrack was a horse racing racetrack just outside Windsor, Ontario, Canada. It was owned by Toronto businessmen Abe Orpen, Charles Vance Millar, H. D. Brown and Thomas Hare. Orpen also owned Dufferin Park Racetrack and Long Branch Racetrack. It was notable for a match race between horses Man o' War and Triple Crown winner Sir Barton in 1920. The track operated from September 1916 to 1935. It was one of three racetracks that operated in the Windsor area while horse racing in Michigan, specifically Detroit, was banned. The track operated for only two years after horse race betting in Michigan was legalized in 1933.
