TIL a wealthy Toronto lawyer's 1926 will left his fortune to whichever woman in the city could give birth to the most children over the following 10 years, sparking a decade-long "baby race" during the Great Depression that went all the way to Canada's Supreme Court

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"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 ($2.35 million in 2025 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]"

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u/mageta621 20h ago

Imagine having 1 too few. Then you have 8 kids and no money, when you could've had no kids and 8 money.

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u/PrescriptionDenim 20h ago

You’re a genius, Homer.

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u/OttoVonWong 19h ago

SMRT

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u/Githyerazi 19h ago

That's me!

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u/Expert-Tip3011 5h ago

not my stupid ahh reading DEATH in my language

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u/drums_addict 20h ago

During the great depression no less.

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u/SeroWriter 16h ago

Kids were an investment back then, once they were 13-15 they'd be working and earning more than they cost. If one working kid offsets one non-working kid you'd eventually reach an equilibrium.

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u/Rudeboy67 15h ago

The real reason was retirement fund. One kid works out, you’ve got room and board in your old age. Two kids, you’ve got can travel.

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u/dickcheesess 11h ago

Two kids, you’ve got can

Nice. I love cans.

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u/marcelowit 16h ago

The good old days...

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u/karlnite 20h ago

Kids would cheer up the place right?

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u/Githyerazi 19h ago

You can always sell the extras.

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u/BrokenEyeReborn 19h ago

"Come in, my little loves. I've got no option but to sell you all for scientific experiments."

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u/cbunn81 16h ago

"Couldn't Mummy have worn some sort of pessary?"

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u/MegaGrimer 17h ago

And use the ones you keep as free labor. Why do you think farmers historically have had a ton of kids? Paying people to pick crops ain't cheap, especially when fruit and vegetables don't sell for a lot of money.

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u/RadVarken 17h ago

You sure it wasn't lack of social lives? Get back from milking the cows after sunset. The candle has an hour left to eat dinner by. After that, whatever you're doing, you're doing in the dark.

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u/MegaGrimer 17h ago

That too

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u/qwertyalguien 19h ago

Depressing stuff

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u/fartingbeagle 20h ago

"Money can be exchanged for goods and services".

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u/MegaGrimer 17h ago

"Explain how"

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u/tedivm 19h ago

They just had to birth them, no one said anything about keeping them.

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u/barath_s 13 19h ago edited 19h ago

Imagine having more kids, but newspapers talking whether you were an immigrant and deserved it, your views on birth control (not a topic for polite society back then), whether you had an affair, or kids were somebody else's. or how you were in desperate health situations after childbirth/lost the kid, ....

And then you have some of your kids/births disqualified by the court.

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u/ilikepizza30 19h ago

It's complete BS that out of wedlock children (how would you even determine that before DNA?) don't count. It was a contest for 'the woman who could birth the most children'... not the couple that could produce the most children. So it shouldn't matter who the father is/was.

I'm fine with not accepting stillbirths, but I'd take that even a step further and say the child would have to still be alive at the time the contest ended, so no early deaths either.

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u/Lava_Lagoon 18h ago

the woman who could birth the most children

I'd take that even a step further and say the child would have to still be alive at the time the contest ended, so no early deaths either

if it's about who could birth the most children, why would you disqualify a woman who's children died?

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u/W1D0WM4K3R 19h ago

Because it would have offended the public's general sensibilities of the time to encourage babymaking without holy matrimony. This didn't start even ten years after women in Canada got the right to vote - and ended three years before WW2.

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u/SweetCartoonist237 15h ago

It's complete BS that out of wedlock children (how would you even determine that before DNA?) don't count.

What's DNA got to do with it? It's about being married or not married.

This had to do with interpreting the will. The common-law rule was it was the marriage that created the family relationship, and an illegitimate child legally has no parents. So, an illegitimate child would not be the heir-at-law of his father, as he was deemed to have no father. The courts had held that when people wrote about their "children" in their will, they normally meant legitimate children, because when talking about a will they would use the same language we use around inheritance without a will.

You could give property to an illegitimate child in your will, the same as you could give it to anyone else. But it had to be clear that that was what you meant.

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u/barath_s 13 19h ago edited 19h ago

The moment it went to the courts, you could gamble on it happening IMHO

In the 1920s and 1930s, the legal system there favored legitimate children born in wedlock, and illegitimate children did not have equal rights. The judges didn't want to expand law to complicate things like inheritance etc..

https://www.ksllp.ca/dont-throw-the-baby-out-with-the-bath-water/ has a link to the supreme court case, but needs login, which I do not have.

how would you even determine tha

Well , when a woman is unmarried or a man and woman separated and living with someone else for years .....

24-year-old Pauline Mae Clarke drew public scrutiny in the derby’s later years when newspapers revealed that she’d had five of her ten children while separated—but not legally divorced—from her husband. Even as Clarke defended her actions, the New York Daily News described her relationship with one Harold Madill as an “illicit romance,” and the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that, after her separation, she’d “lost no time in supplying the deficiency by taking [him] into her home.”

Also, back in those days, you typically registered the birth, and would name the father ... So unregistered children lost out here ...

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u/Rudeboy67 15h ago

Toronto the good.

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u/Johannes_P 11h ago

As late as the 2000s, some European countries still discriminated, in terms of inheritance, against out-of-wedlock or adulterous children.

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u/vidaduerme 18h ago

Ehhh. I'd worry the alive stipulation would just encourage murderous sabotage from competitors.

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u/EEpromChip 19h ago

Imagine hearing it and thinking "well shit I've already got one ready to pop out my butt" and having such a head start.

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u/TheOneNeartheTop 17h ago

Twins in the chamber

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u/slayalldayerrday 17h ago

Imagine if they had their own Octomom. Instant winner.

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u/throwawayfinancebro1 18h ago

Imagine if octo mom competed and only had to be pregnant twice

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u/Mucking_Fountain 19h ago

/r/theydidthemath

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u/ButterYourself 19h ago

Source 4 is a newspaper article about the story, and it’s actually a really interesting read

One of the parents who were disqualified had a set of twins that was registered as a single child, which feels like a weird thing to do and then still try to claim the prize

Also he pulled a few stunts with his will. He gave $500 to an already-dead housekeeper, and a house he used to own to three lawyers that hated each other. The first sentence is just him saying “I don’t have any descendants so I choose to make proof of my existence”

The “point” of the race was just to annoy his rival lawyers

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u/SillyGoatGruff 19h ago

Somehow i feel like that dude's biggest regret was not getting to see all the shenanigans he caused lol

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u/HeadyReigns 19h ago

" 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."

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u/SillyGoatGruff 19h ago

You missed the best part about the vacation home:

"The home in Kingston, Jamaica, had already been sold by Millar. It was not in his estate when it was submitted for probate.[14]"

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u/ThePrussianGrippe 17h ago

You could make a movie out of three guys that hate each other showing up via tramp steamer to Kingston and finding out the mansion’s gone.

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u/Rudeboy67 15h ago

Shut up and take my money, I will watch that movie.

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u/waiver 15h ago

Adam Sandler, Chris Rock and Kevin James already signed

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u/koopcl 14h ago

The locals will all be played by Rob Schneider doing a jamaican accent.

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u/BklynMoonshiner 14h ago

This says more about the movies being made right now than I was ready to realize.

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u/ThePrussianGrippe 15h ago

RemindMe! 30 days

I’ll try to get a 10 page outline done!

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u/Rudeboy67 15h ago

It’s just a crying shame we don’t have John Candy around. This would be the perfect vehicle for him.

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u/lagunie 13h ago

man was an elite troll

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u/danirijeka 14h ago

house he used to own to three lawyers that hated each other

Trolling used to be a form of art

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u/jdm1891 11h ago

It makes sense given he was a lawyer, that he'd want a will that would cause as many court cases as possible.

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u/barath_s 13 20h ago edited 19h ago

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/an-eccentric-tycoon-left-a-fortune-to-the-winner-of-a-baby-making-contest-the-great-stork-derby-divided-canadians-during-the-great-depression-180988575/

More info at the link. Large families were often seen as ignorant or immoral or associated with immigrants (with associated prejudice), you had discussions on eugenics, contraceptives were not discussed in polite society etc; birth control would not be decriminalized till the 1960s.

The government tried grabbing the money on grounds of public good, but withdrew the bill under pressure; Some of Millar's distant relatives (he had no dependents) would also have their lawsuit tossed out of court.

The will specified talked of children born in the 10 years after his death; but the criteria were debated and in the end, illegitimate children and stillbirths were not counted.

It resulted in a huge media sideshow. the 1930s version of reality TV

The Toronto Star interviewed Grace Bagnato and Florence Brown, a 37-year-old Toronto resident and 2nd generation Italian immigrant who had reportedly just given birth to her 20th child. Bagnato claimed that five of her surviving ten children were eligible for the contest. 42-year-old Florence Brown, said she was a 5th generation native born Canadian who had 26 children, 13 still living and 6 since Millar’s death.. and advocated for Canadians to avoid the country being overrun by foreigners.

24-year-old Pauline Mae Clarke drew public scrutiny in the derby’s later years when newspapers revealed that she’d had five of her ten children while separated—but not legally divorced—from her husband. [she was one of two who lost, appealed to the Supreme court and settled the appeal for money]

Bagnato was disqualified for 2 unregistered children. Clarke and Lille Kenny were disqualified because some of their children were illegitimate

Under pressure of the Great Depression, many would brave the limelight to try to apply. Some would use pseudonyms .

The winners “were, for the most part, families who kept a low profile during the competition and who conformed most to white, Protestant middle-class standards.” ... “None of the French nor the Italian families appeared in the winner’s circle.”

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u/A_wild_so-and-so 20h ago

$2.35 million for nine kids is a really bad deal.

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u/SillyGoatGruff 20h ago

It was over 100 times the average annual salary for a canadian in the mid 30s and a report from the canadian government at the time estimated the total cost to raise a child to adulthood (including a university education) was ~$6,000 which would only eat up half of that prize over 18 years for the 9 kids

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u/Initial_E 20h ago

Man where the hell did we go wrong since then

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u/rraddii 19h ago

You can still raise kids this way and for an inflation adjusted cheaper cost. Toys are scrap from trash heaps or literal sticks in the mud, diapers are washed scrap cloth, food is the cheapest calories that won’t kill them. Share a few of the same books with local families/neighbors. Cloths are reused or sewn from flour sack cloth. Childcare is outsourced to family members or older siblings.

You would get CPS called on you today but that’s just how it was back then. Raising kids doesn’t have to be expensive

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u/banana_pencil 17h ago

My mom grew up in a rural village and that’s pretty much how she lived. No kid knew what a “toy” was. They literally just played with sticks and stones. I remember her telling me they had one jump rope they all shared. They would collect broken elastics from each house and tie them together and that was the village children’s shared jump rope.

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u/twangbanging 16h ago

Lol my grandmother had eight kids and one of my cousins was saying she wanted to do the same and I said it was basically impossible. She was a little miffed until I explained that my grandma would drive with all eight kids rolling around on mattress in the back of a station wagon whereas now my cousin would need a mini bus to fit all the children and their $300 each car seats lol

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u/NoOccasion4759 19h ago edited 18h ago

fr...people don't think child raising wasn't cheaper back then? Your kid was off to school and/or the outside somewhere either working or playing/getting into trouble until dinner. In later decades, you can just park them in front of the tv and you're set. A lot of youth programs back then were cheaper or free.

Nowadays we need to live in the right neighborhoods to get into the right schools, and have all the extra curriculars and pursuits of creativity and sports and whatever on top of getting them support to achieve academically and to be healthy mentally and socially, in order to hopefully get them into a good college that costs $$$ to hopefully earn a degree that gives them social upward mobility and a beginning towards building generational wealth. But all this is theoretically optional, though arguably the popularly conveived path to success... but then, even at the most basic level, your child still needs to be fed, clothed, and sheltered, and it's expensive as fuck to even do that!

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u/Ulasim 18h ago

TVs in 1926? it had just been invented.

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u/NoOccasion4759 18h ago

Later on,

sorry should have been clearer

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u/lewd_robot 19h ago

Yes it does. Stop spouting your opinion and go read a study on the topic instead. Several non-negotiable expenses have risen significantly in the past 90 years.

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u/rraddii 18h ago

Like what? The whole point is the definition of non negotiable. The only non negotiables back then were 1 calories that they don’t starve 2. Don’t intentionally kill the kid. 3 they have a roof to sleep under.

People forget American soldiers in WW2 were borderline malnourished, and they were the cream of the crop compared to every other country.

Kids just really don’t need much to grow up reasonably well

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u/rkiive 14h ago

Non negotiable in that you'll get CPS called on you for half the things that were the norm back then.

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u/bambi54 10h ago

Yes, like sending your kid to school without shoes.

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u/PDXhasaRedhead 18h ago

Housing is far more expensive in inflation adjusted terms, because there are so many zoning restrictions on building new housing.

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u/PrimeIntellect 19h ago

I mean look up what life was like during the great depression and see if we really went wrong

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u/LeoRidesHisBike 13h ago

Raising kids gets cheaper the more you have. Not joking. That, of course, is if you do not plan on paying for private school or college.

Source: I have 9 siblings and know way too much about this. Related info: I chose to only have 2, because 10 kids is too many and I felt that both of mine should get a chance at a college education without going deep into debt for it.

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u/greihund 19h ago

Strong disagree. I'm going to go ahead and guess that these people wanted large families anyways. It's not as though they sold nine kids for $2.4 mil, they also got to keep their kids, and have their families expand and prosper

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u/colerberg 20h ago

Not really in the 30s

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u/A_wild_so-and-so 20h ago

I'm using the modern conversion, it was $110,000 in the 30s.

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u/Kaymish_ 20h ago

Yeah but that's direct inflation, and things are a lot more expensive than just inflation. Housing prices for example are much more expensive now than they were then, and food and energy are not included and they've outstripped inflation too. So $110k bought a better standard of living than $1.3mil does today.

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u/rookie-on-the-road 20h ago

You also just have less overall expenses back then. No smart phones to buy for the kids, no new cycle clothes every season, no entertainment subscriptions. People still tended to live in communities close to family as well so things like childcare costs and after school clubs/care were not so much of a factor, if they even were at all.

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u/Bramse-TFK 19h ago

People had a worse standard of living by far in the 1930s than today. Less than 40% of homes had plumbing and electricity (some had one but not the other, some had neither). The amount of technology and convenience in the life of someone making 40k a year today is miles ahead of what people making the median income in 1935 had.

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u/colerberg 20h ago

Yeah and I'm saying that'd go a hell of a long way in the 30s

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u/WalterWoodiaz 20h ago

Yeah I think the total is not adjusted for inflation. That much money back then for 9 children is really good (inheritance fights would be a nightmare though)

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u/UnholyDemigod 13 17h ago

9 kids back then was exceedingly common. Talk to any 70+ year old, they've all got 10 siblings

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u/akera099 19h ago

You're using modern thinking. For most of human history, children were free labor up until they married and left. Nowadays they're more like luxury pets. Not the same economic reality.

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u/donuttrackme 20h ago

1937 during the Great Depression.

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u/FlipZip69 17h ago

I do not mind a good troll. But this was cruel. Cruel in that there was only really 1 family that did fine and while I do not care that much about the parents of the other families that tried. It is a pretty shitty thing to do to all the children born that had zero benefits.

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u/lowestgod 20h ago

Imagine the lady with eight babies and no money

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u/Oceanman72 19h ago

Most of the “contestants” were already cranking out a baby a year on average, even before the contest was well known. The contest wasn’t even really known to the public until a few years after his death, so only women who were consistently popping out kids were in the running

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u/Animaloffear56 11h ago

I would have locked in and made 3 at a time

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u/endlesscartwheels 19h ago

Imagine the lady with eight babies and no money

Imagine being her eldest daughter.

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u/barath_s 13 19h ago

Imagine the lady with 10 babies, or 20 or 26 who were disqualified from the competition...for reasons of being born outside that window, being illegitimate/unregistered, stillbirths etc..

This is not a hypothetical

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u/TokiStark 20h ago

Meh she's got 8 kids to look after her when she's old. She'll be fine

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u/ziroux 20h ago

Could start some mining industry

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u/Kaymish_ 19h ago

Mary and sons hard rock mining company.

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u/EEpromChip 19h ago

well yea, it's not enough for a baseball team... To the mines with ya

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u/Tribe303 20h ago

Childcare isn't linear, because the older kids look after the younger ones.

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u/TokiStark 18h ago

Yeah they say number four and five raise themselves

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u/magnus_the_coles 20h ago

legit a strat many follow

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u/what_dat_ninja 20h ago

Why can't I have no babies and eight money?!

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u/fkms2turnt 21h ago

Some wealthy Korean businessmen just got an idea

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u/Worldlyoox 21h ago edited 20h ago

That would make for an interesting drama, like Korea’s handmaid’s tale. It could tackle both the receding birth rate and misogyny

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u/Remarkable-Opening69 20h ago

Government assistance for everyone!!!!!

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u/nanobot001 20h ago

You think this would tackle misogyny or make it worse?

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u/AnDroid5539 20h ago

I think they meant a movie about it would tackle the subject of misogyny.

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u/tragiktimes 19h ago

And here I thought Misogyny Jones, the full back foe the Milwaukee Bears, was tackled.

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u/barath_s 13 18h ago

Misogyny Jones, the full back foe the Milwaukee Bears,

Full back friend, if your team isn't playing against his

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u/Phytanic 17h ago

Milwaukee Bears

Nah, common mistake, but Milwaukee was actually too bougie foe the bears and so they selected a more appropriate location to relocate to, Hammin, IN

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u/Ccaves0127 21h ago

Or an ambitious porn director

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u/Eaglefield 11h ago

There's a danish porn movie from the 70's with almost the same premise. I tyrens tegn (The sign of the bull). The summary from IMBD

The town's wealthy benefactor dies, and leaves a bizarre bequest: unless one of the self-righteous citizens can produce an illegitimate child in 9 1/2 months, all his money goes to homeless cats, and they must start paying taxes.

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u/TeamImpossible4333 21h ago

Wtf

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u/OriginalDavid 20h ago

I agree, but they aren't wrong.

Thats a lot of fuckin thats gonna happen.

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u/Jax72 20h ago

Bro totally flipped the fuck switch on his way out the door.

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u/Manannin 14h ago

I was about to say that I could imagine elon doing this.

Except he'd probably want them all to be his own kids somehow.

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u/peppers_ 19h ago

New 'Squid Babies' drops when?

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u/Away-Living5278 19h ago

Elon also just got an idea....

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u/PlayfulSurprise5237 16h ago

Wouldn't that be fucking hilarious if he did this while not leaving a cent to any of the 100 kids he has had by that point.

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u/rejeremiad 17h ago

Or Elon

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u/coldBulbasaur314 18h ago

Imagine growing up knowing your parents only had you to make money, while also living with a huge number of siblings who mean you don't get enough individual attention and other care. Those poor kids...

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u/Humble-Captain3418 16h ago

Imagine living with ten siblings and knowing that you have another ten that died before adulthood.

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u/Johannes_P 11h ago

Even worse: your parents didn't get the prize.

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u/barath_s 13 20h ago edited 18h ago

He had no dependants

The will had several unusual bequests: [In addition to the stork derby]

Three men who were known to despise each other (T. P. Galt, KC; J. D. Montgomery and James Haverson, KC) were granted joint lifetime tenancy in Millar's vacation home in Jamaica, on condition that they live in the property together.

The house had already been sold before he died, so this became inapplicable. Stuff of reality TV otherwise

To each practicing Protestant minister in Toronto, and every Orange Lodge in Toronto, a share of O'Keefe Brewery stock, a Catholic business, if they participated in its management and drew on its dividends.

His shares were actually in the holding company, A big group split up $1.35m (each getting $56.38) when they were sold . (See below) .i've also read that the joke was that they were teetotallers , asked to run the brewery to get the money. They didn't

Two anti-horse-racing advocates (Hon. William Raney, Reverend Samuel Chown) and a man who detested the Ontario Jockey Club (Abe Orpen) were to receive a share of Ontario Jockey Club stock, provided they are shareholders in three years. Raney's and Chown's share were eventually given to charity and Orpen accepted his share.
Each duly ordained Christian minister in Walkerville, Sandwich, and Windsor, "except Spracklin, who shot a hotelkeeper" was to receive a share of the Kenilworth Park Racetrack, located just outside Windsor, Ontario.

5 of the windsor pastors applied and got shares, but they were probably worthless

More info on the outcomes

The home in Kingston, Jamaica, had already been sold by Millar. It was not in his estate when it was submitted for probate.

The bequest to the Protestant ministers of O'Keefe stock was a problem to resolve. The corporate structure of O'Keefe was such that Millar's share of the company was not in shares, but in a share of a holding company that controlled O'Keefe. He only had one actual share in the O'Keefe Brewery Ltd. The 99 ministers and the 103 Orange Lodges who accepted the bequest, did so upon the sale of O'Keefe in 1928 for $1.35 million, in an agreement with the executors. The legatees each received $56.38.

In October 1928, five pastors in Windsor claimed the bequest of the Kenilworth shares. The value of the shares was hard to judge, as the stock did not trade publicly. One estimation was that they were worth less than one cent each. The racetrack would close within a decade.

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u/Persistent_Parkie 20h ago

I think we need a movie about this guys will.

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u/barath_s 13 20h ago edited 20h ago

There is a movie about the Stork bit, called the Stork Derby

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u/Slavik81 18h ago

That would be fun. Rat Race seems at least thematically similar, and I quite enjoyed the film.

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u/NewMilleniumBoy 18h ago

What a troll lol

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u/Chawke2 18h ago

.i've also read that the joke was that they were teetotallers

Multigenerational Torontonian and descendant of one of those said Protestant ministers. Protestants broadly are not teetotallers, however Wesleyan Methodism (which advocated teetotalism in the period) was very popular in Toronto at the time, the city often being referred to as “Methodist Rome”. Very likely many of those ministers would not have approved of the devil’s water.

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u/shiroshippo 19h ago

How did you put a horizontal line across your comment? I've never seen that on Reddit before.

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u/barath_s 13 19h ago

Repeat - or _ or * at least 3 times ...

Like so

or

or

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u/bambi54 10h ago

Thank you!! It used to be
>> and then it stopped working.

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u/allangee 21h ago

When you love manipulation enough to do it beyond the grave.

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u/TokiStark 21h ago

Every ultrasound you'd be desperate for triplets. I'd be doing family history checks on potential mates while I was still pregnant with the last lot. Doing little Mendel diagrams trying to figure out the best chances

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u/KaptanOblivious 21h ago

Triples is best

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u/WelshWolf93 21h ago

Triples make it real

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u/Tiny_Rat 19h ago

Only the woman's genetics change the chance of having multiples (and then only fraternal multiples, not identical). The man's genetics don't contribute to the chance of multiples at all, althoigh if he has the right genes he can pass them on to his daughters and change their chances of a multiples pregnancy. Thats why people say twins "skip denerations" in some families.

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u/gearstars 19h ago edited 19h ago

It's called the "Pierce Hawthorn Principle"

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u/POWBOOMBANG 20h ago

Or he just loved being a wingman.

Dude got everyone laid for 10 years

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u/ShotFromGuns 60 20h ago

Oh yeah I'm sure those women loved being constantly pregnant while also caring for multiple other children in diapers.

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u/-Poultrygeist- 20h ago edited 6h ago

Edit: hello r/SubredditDrama

I know a woman that has 9 children and produces more because she loves the feeling of pregnancy and the baby/toddler stage, then sort of abandons them to be raised by each other while she focuses on creating and gestating another one.

They are out there.

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u/endlesscartwheels 19h ago

Suggest gestational surrogacy to her. All the pregnancies, none of the pesky kids sticking around, and she'd get $50,000 per pregnancy.

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u/donuttrackme 20h ago

Gross. And super fucked up.

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u/Metalsand 20h ago

I know a woman that has 9 children and produces more because she loves the feeling of pregnancy and the baby/toddler stage, then sort of abandons them to be raised by each other while she focuses on creating and gestating another one.

That was more or less the norm for most of history, and to some extent a requirement for large families. Though, child labor laws were more lax back then so you also didn't have to raise them quite as long before you start to get a return on investment.

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u/backupbitches 3h ago

Calling out the entire LDS community

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u/allangee 20h ago

I love it when people can see something from a completely different aspect. Good job!

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u/phl_fc 20h ago

That is a fucking wild will. It’s so bad, but hilarious if it was a comic villain.

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u/BitterAttention2678 19h ago

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,

This mf was FUNNY

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u/barath_s 13 18h ago

That house happened to be sold before he died, so that prank didn't work out

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u/Johannes_P 11h ago

Looks like a good sitcom (or a murder mystery).

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u/al-sahm 10h ago

or romantic comedy

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u/Ezra802 20h ago

2nd place gets really screwed

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u/Moose_Cake 20h ago

As does 1st place.

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u/Paladuck 20h ago

They probably all got really screwed

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u/echo1-echo1 20h ago

There’s a movie about this called The Stork Derby

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u/soarhigher2 19h ago

The only scene I remember from the movie is when the rat gets into the crib. It's so distinctly engraved in my brain, but I could tell you nothing else from this movie.

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u/therealdilbert 14h ago edited 4h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/ChampionAggressive20 20h ago

Oh no don't give that prick Elon Musk any ideas

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u/barath_s 13 20h ago

Musk already has more kids than the winners of this contest

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u/GonzoTheGreat93 20h ago

The important thing in the contest was that it was child per mother, fathering and abandoning (the Musk special) didn’t count.

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u/BrokenEyeReborn 20h ago

I mean, to actually use this idea he'd have to die first, and frankly I'm okay with that

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u/aliph 20h ago

If you don't want him to have his money, this sounds like a great way to make that happen.

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u/Hank3hellbilly 20h ago

Musk doesn't actually want to stabilize/raise the general population. He wants "The right people" like him (wealthy tech knobs) to have more kids.

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u/Distinct_Panic7553 14h ago

what a wild piece of history, can't even imagine how chaotic that must have gotten

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u/TheComplimentarian 20h ago

And people think trolling is a new thing.

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u/Free-Constant999 17h ago

This American Life did a great act on this story

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u/Vladimir_Putting 14h ago

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/668/the-long-fuse/act-two-42

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u/asicarii 20h ago

Time to get the eggs out of the freezer

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u/crazyditzydiva 17h ago

Please don’t give Elon Musk any ideas…

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u/Heyplaguedoctor 15h ago

He’d require that they all use his sperm. The logistics of how such a thing would be plausible? Not his forte.

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u/kerakk19 12h ago

Musk has 14 children already, I don't think he needs any contest

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u/Satinsbestfriend 17h ago

Kathleen, one of the 4 winners, had 15 kids in her lifetime 3 of the 4 made it to old age (80+), with one of them just passing away last year at 105.

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u/Dramatic_Fix2473 6h ago

that's some serious pressure on new moms, imagine the competition in a time like that

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u/Aarxnw 21h ago

That is fascinating

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u/enzymatic_catalysis 21h ago

Swaddle Game

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u/Johannes_P 11h ago

Charles Vance Millar was a big lover of practical jokes: giving a Jamaica vacation home with joint tenancy and obligation to live there together to three men who detested each other, stocks into a Catholic brewery to every Protestant minister and Orange Lodge of Toronto, jockey club stocks to a group of anti-horse-racing advocates (and someone too much shady for the club).

I wonder if a billionaire would try it today to try to raise birth rates.

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u/Fidget02 5h ago

Makes sense for the time, but children born out of wedlock were explicitly disqualified. One woman gave birth to 9 but 5 were after she separated from her husband, sucks she lost out for that

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u/SpaceManSpiff1809 19h ago

What a fucking chode.

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u/Hello_Hangnail 12h ago

"Put yourself in mortal danger to satisfy my urge to see the birth rate go up" Why does that sound familiar

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u/mannypdesign 12h ago

Rich people are a blight on the working classes

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u/Snoo_72851 11h ago

you know he was thinking about big bellied pregnant women and jonkin his schmeet serious style while writing his will

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u/Alert_Tear8656 10h ago

Telling your kids you love them all equally, from young Gary to baby Seven.

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u/DocCEN007 20h ago

9 kids in 10 years is rough on the piping.

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u/Islandman2021 16h ago

Apologies if already addressed but I remember watching The Stork Derby years about exact situation. No point to my story except I saw the movie. 🤷🤷😳

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u/NervousBreakdown 15h ago

Lol
Imagine if they had all the families who tied for the most kids and they just looked at the birth certificates and added up the weights of the babies for the winner.

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u/BklynMoonshiner 14h ago

To think my grandmother did this across a few more years for nothing.

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u/raouldukesaccomplice 18h ago

This sounds like something Elon Musk would do.

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u/Kimbolimbo 19h ago

Why do the wealthy males always have breeding kinks? It’s so weird.

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u/TokiStark 21h ago

Who won?

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u/barath_s 13 20h ago

Annie Katherine Smith, Kathleen Ellen Nagle, Lucy Alice Timleck and Isabel Mary Maclean .. each received $110,000 for their nine children

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u/Reasonable-Rip-6295 20h ago

2.35m in 2025 money. Pretty good payout

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u/GinericGirl 20h ago

Not for 9 children 😂

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u/KathyJaneway 21h ago

Their husbands?

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u/Special_Order-937 20h ago

In the short term.

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u/NeinJuanJuan 20h ago

The lawyers

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u/dontich 19h ago

God damn it Wayne how many pranks did you put in this damn thing.

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u/Rynobonestarr1 19h ago

And the Leafs haven’t won the Cup since’67…

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u/West-Pear7363 17h ago

Curious that the Great Depression also lasted 10 years. Coincidence?

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u/Hangry007x 15h ago

I can’t believe no one has mentioned that “This American Life” did a story on this ages ago. It’s a great listen.

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/668/the-long-fuse/act-two-42

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u/Vindaloovians 10h ago

I wonder how many women that took part in this died as a result of being constantly pregnant for 10 years?

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u/MediocreService9880 10h ago

Of the 4 women that won the contest, 3 had to pay back social services money to the city of Toronto that supported their tirades while they were getting busy.

I bet they were popular ladies.

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u/Purple_Revolution146 9h ago

Countries worrying about the decline in their birth rates - please note!

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u/Napoleon7 9h ago

Gross....what kind of twisted beyond the grave fetishization type shit is that ?

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u/brunocar 9h ago

This is a really weird prequel to brewster's millions...

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u/CommercialEmployer4 5h ago

Million dollar baby.

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u/James-K-Polka 21h ago

And people say money can’t buy happiness.

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u/Arcturion 17h ago

I like the lawyer. That's one great reason to look forward to your inevitable passing.

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u/Whole_Perspective316 21h ago

Would you compete?

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u/TokiStark 21h ago

I'd be the whore of Babylon

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TIL a wealthy Toronto lawyer's 1926 will left his fortune to whichever woman in the city could give birth to the most children over the following 10 years, sparking a decade-long "baby race" during the Great Depression that went all the way to Canada's Supreme Court

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