Charles Vance Millar - The Stork Derby

The Stork Derby

Though highly successful in the law and in his investments, Millar is now known primarily for his love of jokes and pranks which played on people's greed. One favourite was to leave money on a sidewalk and watch from hiding as passers-by furtively pocketed it.

Millar's greatest and final prank was his will, which says in part:

"This Will is necessarily uncommon and capricious because I have no dependents or near relations and no duty rests upon me to leave any property at my death and what I do leave is proof of my folly in gathering and retaining more than I required in my lifetime."

The will was full of hilariously playful bequests:

• Three men who were known to despise each other were granted joint lifetime tenancy in Millar's vacation home in Jamaica.
• Seven prominent Toronto Protestant ministers and temperance advocates were to receive $700,000 worth of O'Keefe Brewery stock, a Catholic business, if they participated in its management and drew on its dividends.
• Three fervid anti-horse-racing advocates were to receive $25,000 worth of Ontario Jockey Club stock.

But the final bequest of his will was the largest and strangest. In the will's tenth clause, it required that the balance of Millar's estate was to be converted to cash ten years after his death and given to the Toronto woman who gave birth to the most children in that time. In the event of a tie, the bequest would be divided equally. The resulting contest became known as the Great Stork Derby.

Although the Supreme Court of Canada attempted to invalidate the will as being contrary to public policy, Millar had prepared it with care. The will survived ten years of litigation, including attempts by Millar's distant relatives to have it declared invalid, and the Derby continued uninterrupted. Because of Millar's long-term investments, particularly one with the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel that turned a $2 investment into over $100,000, his estate increased drastically during the 10 years, and was worth $750,000 when it was finally liquidated with its value enhanced with it accumulating during a deflationary economic period. Most of this prize was shared by four Toronto women who each had 9 children. The estate also settled $12,500 each for two women with dubious claims to a share in the prize. The childless Millar ended up 'fathering' (howbeit indirectly) 36 children.

The contest would be immortalized by a made-for-television movie The Great Stork Derby, which starred Megan Follows.

It was speculated that Millar prepared this clause in his will as a means to discredit indiscriminate births and prohibitions against birth control.