Two In The Think Tank - The Great Stork Derby - Do Go On Mini

Episode Date: July 6, 2020

When Canadian lawyer Charles Vance Millar died, he set up a bizarre will that would give his fortune to the woman that gave birth to the most children over the next ten years. The strangest contest in history, this is the story of The Great Stork Derby.This is the podcast version of episode seven of our new web series that we made with Stupid Old Studios. You can watch the video of the episode complete with animations, props and lots and lots of regret face right now on The Stupid Old Channel YouTube page (link below).Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/9DXtQiqQH-o Our website: dogoonpod.comSupport the show and get rewards like bonus episodes: patreon.com/DoGoOnPod Submit a topic idea directly to the hat: dogoonpod.com/Submit-a-Topic Twitter: @DoGoOnPodInstagram: @DoGoOnPodFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/DoGoOnPod/Email us: [e-mail] out our other podcasts:Book Cheat: https://play.acast.com/s/book-cheatPrime Mates: https://play.acast.com/s/prime-mates/Listen Now: https://play.acast.com/s/listen-now/Our awesome theme song by Evan Munro-Smith and logo by Peader ThomasReferences and further reading:https://torontoist.com/2016/10/historicist-the-stork-derby/https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/the-great-stork-derby/https://boingboing.net/2018/11/21/the-great-stork-derby-rewarded.htmlhttps://www.thisamericanlife.org/668/transcript Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hey everybody, Jess and Dave, just jumping in really quickly at the top here to make sure that you are across all the details for our upcoming Christmas show. That's right, we are doing a live show in Melbourne Saturday December the 2nd, 2023, our final podcast of the year, our Christmas special. It's downstairs at Morris House, which usually be called the European beer cafe. On Saturday December the 2nd, 2023 at 4.30pm, come along, come one, come all, and get tickets at dogoonpod.com. This episode is brought to you by Progressive. Most of you aren't just listening right now.

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or on campus, and financial aid is available to qualified students, including the GI Bill. Now is the time, mycomputercareer.edu. Hi, everyone, it's Dave and Jess here, dropping into your feed. Hello, we are just dropping into, let you know that, I mean, we've let you know several times, surely by now you know, but we have a brand new web series up on YouTube and what you're about to hear is a little taste of that web series.

That's right, the audio-only version. So this totally works as a podcast. But if you want to see the visuals, our faces, some animation, lots of sexy stuff this way. Oh, yes. Oh my. Oh my god, to be honest, little too sexy. Yeah, I thought, oh boy.

Yeah, for some of you, the audio may be enough. But if you want to see more of it, you can click the, in the description of this episode, there's a very easy link to click and it'll take you straight to the web series. And this week, I'm doing a report, as I'm about to tell you, on the great stalk, Derby, Slash Derby. And it is a wild time.

It's a lot of fun. This is a very fun episode. And there's a couple more episodes of the web series still to come. But we've had a lot of fun with it, and we hope you've enjoyed listening slash watching them. All right, thanks so much, bye bye. How far would you go to win a bet? What if $10 million was on the line?

When a Canadian lawyer died, he set up a bizarre will that would give his fortune to the woman that gave birth to the most children over the next 10 years and Things got a little weird. Let me tell you about the great stalk Derby Hello and welcome to the library my name is Steve Warnke and I'm sitting in the library with Jess Perkins and Matt Stewart. What are you doing? Trying to rebrand the show, you know, call it the library. Oh!

Do you like that? No. Okay, well, whatever you want to call it, we'll call it that. Thank you, correct. No, we're calling it, thank you, correct. Thank you, correct. Yeah, welcome to Thank You, correct. You want to run it again?

Yeah, start again. Hello and welcome to Thank You, correct. My name is Dave Warnocky and I'm here. Sorry, I'm and welcome to Thank You Correct. My name is Dave Wanakie and I'm here. Sorry, I'm going to stop you right there. Your name Dave Wanakie. That doesn't sound too good. I like it. Your name is Max Power. Go again. Hello and welcome to Thank You Correct. My name is Max Power and I'm sitting here with Jeremy Withers and Christine Blue. I know. I'll Bloop, sorry, I know is my middle man. Christine, I know, bloop.

I'm Jeremy Withers. So good to be here. Are you happy with what you've done? Yeah, look what you've done. It's all happened because you try to rebrand as the library and now we're here. I think we should have stuck with the library, but anyway, guys, today we're talking about a very strange will. And there's a strange will, there's a strange way.

There was a strange way about this episode. Now often on our podcast to go on, over the years, we've talked about people that have given birth to lots of children. And every time we do that, we ask, what's the question we asked you? Do they know what's causing it? Where does that come from? It's because of my dad. I mean, he definitely didn't think of it himself.

He was the one causing all the kids. That's where he comes from. Yeah, he calls a lot of kids. It's been busy, old John. No, something my dad always says if somebody is from a really large family, which he is, but he'll always say, what do they know what's causing it?

And he laughs every time. And others. So, honestly, John, I'm with you on this one. Every time it's funny, every time. And others. Honestly, John, I'm with you on this one. Every time is funny, every time. I feel like that question's going to come up a lot today. I feel like as we're going to try and answer that question here today. Welcome to Insider the Actor's Studio. This is where we go behind the scenes. Where some podcasts sayings come from. Today we're talking about John Perkins and his classic saying. I don I know what's causing it.

With me, Jeremy with us. Welcome Jeremy. Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here. I'm Jeremy with us. That's another option we could use. I like it. I also like that Jeremy with us catch phrases. I'm Jeremy with us. I think that's pretty cool, you know? You know who's who he is. I respect that. Does he know who he isn't? No. Okay, two separate questions. Absolutely not. All right, let me tell you about the great stalker, you know Charles Vance Miller.

Oh, good name. Was born in Canada in 1854 and died 72 years later in Toronto. 72? It's a good innings. You did all right in that time. And in that time he built quite a fortune as a lawyer, but also as the president and part owner of the Oakheaf Brewing Company. Okay. Ah. He's a brewer. Yeah, I'm actually saying it in a beer.

Brewing. Hello. That sounds fantastic. You had me at the lawyer. You're my lawyer. You're my lawyer. You're my lawyer. You're my lawyer.

You're my lawyer. You're my lawyer. You're my lawyer. You're my lawyer. You're my lawyer. You're my lawyer. You're my lawyer. You're my lawyer. Canadian say Darby like the proper way. I'm sticking with Derby. Okay. I support you. Thank you so much. I will talk about you behind you back. I know.

You know if he's saying Derby. Derby. Derby more like it. Derby Derby. Derby sounds... No. Just blame our Australian accent. So it's a different culture here.

We say Derby. And then you cover. And then you don't say Derby. Shut up. Okay. If we say it, then we cover it. And anybody who has a goal is for how we say it, we get to call them races. I'm pretty sure in North America they say Derby. There you go. Derby.

But in the Queen's Canada, where they speak proper English, eh? On our Charles Miller, never married and had no children. No of his own. And he spent his spare. He never figured out what was causing him. He tried and he tried. He didn't know how to make them. Basically he didn't know how to talk to women.

Yeah, that was his problem. But he spent his spare time at the racing stable where he owned horses. And there were good horses too. In 1915, his horse Tata Reen won the King's Plate. Now known as the Queen's Plate, which is Canada's oldest thoroughbred horse race. Cool. And only a stream is's their Melbourne Cup. Yeah. He later donated the

large racing cash prize to the hospital for sick children. Ah. So you thinking, he sounds like he's a great guy. He paints him in a good light. But he also held the view that every man has his price, and his idea of a good time was to leave one dollar bills on the ground and hide behind a bush and watch as people pick them up. Brake, yeah. Right, it was for Brake. How did he prank them?

He put a dollar bill down and someone picked up and went, oh, I found a dollar. Yeah, it wasn't attached to a fishing rod or anything like that. It was just on the ground and he was going, I wouldn't pick up a dollar, but this person would. A dollar back, that's worth three, four million bucks now. Yeah, I'd pick that up. Told you he was just on the ground and he was going, I wouldn't pick up a dollar, but this person would. A dollar back dance with three, four million bucks now. Yeah, I'd pick that up. Told you he was rich. I'd pick up a dollar now, you know?

But when I go to the supermarket, and you need to put a coin in to get a trolley, and I'm always like, God damn it, I don't have any coins. I was at the pub the other day, and I went down to pick up a dollar. It was a bottle cap. And you still kept it? I said, I've got it right now.

So, unfortunately my local Miff Bo will not accept it. It was a bottle cap. And you still kept it? I said, got it right now. So unfortunately my legal milk bar will not accept it. We're having a furious argument right now over text. You text your milk bar? Yeah, you don't text your milk bar? Absolutely. I'm always like morning Jerry got me milk and he's like, yeah, Jess, it's what I mostly sell.

You ever ask back, no, the sun's gone wrong at Jerry's milk bar. And then I'm by the going. I need to make sure it's there before I go and get it. I just wrote a really Stanley worded little misive there. And I don't think we'll be hearing another word out of old Kenny. Jamie, Jimmy. Kenny, Jimmy, he runs the best milk bar this side of town. You're a sink must go with with Kenny G, wasn't it?

Well, I think I smoothly got away with it. Just like our friend Kenny, Jiminy. Imagine Kenny G only milk bar, it's pretty fun. That's a fun idea. Imagine. Imagine this fun prank, right? You put a dollar on the ground and you hide behind a bush, wait, stay with me. And then someone picks it up and they walk away with it.

And he just gets to watch them go. Because every man has his price. It's the lamest thing I've ever heard. Well, he had terrible pranks in life, but his pranks in death were a lot better. I already told you he died at the age of 72 in 1926 and he died a wealthy, wealthy man. But with no children or a partner, people wondered where his fortune would go. A lot of his friends thought he'd be donating to something like the local university as he sometimes talked about that.

Oh, he sometimes talked about it. This is why I'm always nice to old people because you never know. You never know. They might have no one but you. He's stories of like, you know, people befriending their elderly neighbor and then they pass away and that person just inherits like something cool.

So yeah, I'm always friendly to old people. I've never heard that story. It happens. But you'll hear it when it happens to me. Well, I'm suddenly wondering why you two became friends with me. You're so close to the grave. So close. And I assume you've got money somewhere.

You could leave me a box of band t-shirts. OK. You got a lot of them. I do. They're all yours. I'd love them to their legacy to live on. Beautiful. Be on the grove.

See? It works. Great. So I'm going to watch the car with. Love it. Rags. Rags. Oh, box of rags. Appreciate that. Thank you. I'm going to watch the car with. Love it. Rags. Rags.

Oh, Boxer Rags, appreciate that. Thank you. I thought you had nothing. Tudd, Daddy's got rags. You didn't go rags. So people thought you might don't add to Toronto University, but he decided to do something very different indeed. He decided to prank people from beyond the grave, but leaving a very unusual will.

Two dollars on the ground. Oh! Pick it up, your pig. Two dollars on the ground. Oh! Pick it up, your pig! Two dollars left in his coffin. Whoever finds it keeps it. Probably grabbed it again. Imagine the amount of rags you could buy. Two dollars.

Oh, so many rags. So many rags. Rags to riches in a way. He wrote the will himself, after all he was a lawyer, with intricate knowledge of the law. Is it an incredible deal? But still, but it was exquisitely written in the crown. The will was written as if to push the very boundaries of what would be accepted.

And he acknowledged this writing in the will quote, This will is necessarily uncommon and capricious because I have no dependence 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. And quote, okay, it's a beautiful quote. I zoned out actually. Basically, I've got a lot of money, I've got no one to leave it to.

So I'm going to have fun with it. Okay. What do you say about Confucius there? Confucius he say, leave the will to the way. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Let's just move on. Some of the things he left to people included, there's a few notes in the will.

He left his shares in the Ontario Jockey Club to three people, two of whom were upstanding members of the community and who publicly opposed betting on horse racing. And a third man who was the absolute opposite and as a saloon and race track owner, he was known in the gambling community. So two upright citizens who hate gambling, one person who supports gambling. All three could only claim their shares, which were very valuable at 1,500 pounds worth in the day,

but they could only get the money if they joined the club and agreed to do so as a group. But if one was out, they were all out. The two conservatives did join the club for a token five minutes, just long enough to cash in their shares, but I guess they had to sell out on their principles to get the money. Yeah, I do that. You thought that was a good time.

Every man has his price. Yeah, what do you think? I think we have many principles that I wouldn't bend. For £1,500. Yeah. Like even in today's money. Yeah, big time, because that's what I threw three grand in Australia. They're great. Please.

Imagine all the things I could buy with that. What about a holiday home? In Kingston, Jamaica, which he left to three lawyers that he knew hated each other. The deal was if one of them sold, all the money would be donated to feed the poor. It later turned out to be a double prank on the lawyers, and Miller had already sold the home two years before his death, but he just wanted to fuck with them. Okay, that'll allow. So that has to go through working out of way with two people you hate only to find.

There's no property in Kingston. It's like a weird sort of jigsaw. Yeah. It's from the sword. It's a very soft version of the sword films. Yeah. And if you sell poor people get fed. Okay. All right. Sounds great actually.

I want to play a game too. All right. He also has some of his stock in the brewery to very conservative pastors who are publicly in favor of prohibition. Again, that's good. The cash out they had to sell out their principles. But the most famous entry in the wheel that would become to be associated with him is what is known as the great Stork Derby. Or Derby.

Or Derby. Edit as appropriate. It was the ninth clause. Really, it was just two sentences that stated, the mother who gives birth in Toronto to the greatest number of children, as shown by the Registrations under the Vital Statistics Act, shall receive all the rest of my money. And one or more of the mothers

have the equal highest number of registrations under the act. They are to divide the said monies and accumulations equally between them. So there's a tie, you split the cash. Super weird. And the money that he pledged was very sizable, equal to $9 million Canadian dollars in today's money, which is $7 million US,

or $10 million Australian dollars. But today's money, which is $70 million US or $10 million Australian dollars. But today's money. Yeah. That's insane. Crazy. So whoever has the most children in 10 years gets $10 million Australian dollars. That's so irresponsible. It's crazy.

What? It's irresponsible to reward people for giving birth to kids they possibly don't even want. Okay. That's irresponsible then. Or can afford to look after. They can afford. They're going to get $ possibly don't even want. Okay, that's irresponsible then. Or can Ford to look after? They can afford, they're gonna get 10 million dollars. Yeah, one of them is gonna run off for it. One of them.

Yeah, and the other one's gonna just put their babies in a bin or something, doesn't it? No. Just talk about it. Just talk about it. Just talk about it if you don't need them. The bin for the money or? Yeah, the bin, the bin is called a cot.

Oh yeah, bin, I think. Put them in the bin for an app. Yeah, that's what called a cot. Oh yeah, the bean. Put them in the bean for an app. Yeah, that's what we call an Australian. I mean, like in an old Victorian era orphanage. That's what I meant. In a bean. Check it out now.

And what, what's up? What is that? It's not mush for dinner. That sort of thing. Yeah, mush. I see. It's in like, 26. Is that the depression?

Oh. Well, kick it. It's getting up to it, isn't it? It's obviously a lot of money even in like 1926. Is that the depression? Oh. Well, it's getting up to it, isn't it? It's obviously a lot of money even in today's standards. $2 million. Okay. But the decade after Miller's death would include part of the Great Depression. And Canada was hit very hard. Miller probably wouldn't have known this was coming.

Not many people saw it coming. But just to show how tough people had it. In 1933, between a quarter and a third of all working-edge Canadians were unemployed, people were really, really struggling to get by financially. So this is a real carrot on the end of a stick. But if you don't win, then you have a bunch of kids and no jobs. This feels like a terrible idea. That's a lot of money.

Is this a better prank than $1 on the grand and high behind a bush? I don't know if he knows what a prank is. I don't think I know what a prank is based on this story. I thought it would sort of be like holding a chair for someone and then when they go sit down, you yank it out under them and they fall. I remember it does that the most in 10 years for about $10 million. Oh my god. The only difference is you yank the chair at from a pregnant woman.

Yeah. She's about to have a record amount of babies. That's funny. That is funny. Okay, now I get it. I don't know, I don't do. I know. And in a 10-year period as well, like, there's no rest.

It's like, up one out, going in. How many do you reckon you can have in 10 years? What do you predictions? What do you think the most? Well, I know my Nana had 13 kids over a period of about 20 years. And she was relatively non-stop. And that was without $10 million in the line? No, no cash from the line.

It was probably opposite. Every kid was a little less money they had, so. My grandma had not ate in 15, 16 years, but there was twins in there. I think you've got to be going. You'd be hoping that twins or triplets ran in your family. You know, most people if you found out

you were pregnant with triplets, you'd be like, oh my God, you'd be a bit shocked. Excited, sure. But shocked. And this one, you'd be like, oh my God. Thank you. You did it in your cash.

Yeah. Yeah, I'd be like, take that. Calling your kids, he would do it and Louis and open opening up your money bin, all right? And any time you saw another mother in the park with one kid, you'd be like Nice try Nice try monomone. I'm so tired But I'm gonna be rich and tired. Yeah, that's that's perfect. So I'm guessing based on maybe our family's experiences

maybe about seven, but probably one. This episode is brought to you by Progressive. Most of you aren't just listening right now. You're driving, cleaning, and even exercising. But what if you could be saving money by switching to Progressive? Drivers who save by switching save nearly $750 on average, and auto customers qualify for an average of seven discounts.

Multitask right now. Quote today at progressive.com. Progressive casualty and trans company and affiliates, National average 12 month savings of $744 by new customer surveyed, who saved with progressive between June 2022 and May 2023. Potential savings will vary. Discount counts not available in all safe and situations. Are you working way too hard for way too little? There's never been a better time to consider a career in IT. You could enjoy a recession-resistant career and a rewarding field

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We'll make a twin in there. Yeah, you gotta have a twin in there. You gotta have multiple. It can't be, yeah, it's got, maybe. Do you have more than seven in 10 years to be wild? So it's nine months it takes, right? Yeah. And if you're like, if you're getting a dumb straight away,

what's that nine months? And then- The next one's like eight months. Yeah, and I think you can even get birth the very next day. I mean, let's speed up this gestation period. I think you can see one that it the next day. I'm going to have to bear it the next day. Let's speed up this gestation period. I think you can see one that is very next day, can you? It can happen pretty soon after, but it's pretty real.

So let's say a year each, then it's 10. So 10 would be wild. 10 would be insane. I would be insane. Oh my goodness. That would be insane. So it's a crazy will. And the will really took me as friends by surprise

and people started to speculate as to why he'd made the stipulation in the first place. Was it a joke? How do you figure that it would just be rejected by a judge? He's very good with the law, but nothing like this has ever been written before. Does he actually expect it to be up hell? Some said he was trying to try to spotlight on contraception and get people talking about it, because apparently it's very pro contraception in life. I'm starting a conversation. But he's essentially doing the opposite though. Yeah, because he's making people do it.

Oh. Oh. Yeah, concert sets. I reckon what happened here is he thought he'd become a ghost and he'd get to watch a lot of people bone. Oh, yeah, he's a big parent. And he's like, I did this. I mean, I'm doing this because I'm there.

Yeah, he's kind of a threesome technically. Capably, I'm in it. I'm on ya., it's kind of a threesome technically. Basically, I'm in it. I'm on ya. I'm lying. I'm sort of floating through ya. Oh, actually, that goes mad. I'm gonna go in the corner, but I'm gonna still walk. Oh, I feel weird going through ya.

Oh, God. It's very cold. What's his name again? Charles. Charles. You do. Doug, Charles. Gellie.

Charlie. Doug. Charlie. So, there, Gellie. Gellie, dog. Gellie. So there two theories, the third theory, the one that I tend to favour is that was he just a dick, wanted to prove yet again his favourite phrase, every man has his price. You lengthy court battle was also fought over the mill of fortune by some of his distant relatives that suddenly appeared after his death. Has it?

As ghost? No, it's not ghost. And they all made claims to the cash. some of his distant relatives that suddenly appeared after his death. Has it? Yes. No, it has not. And they all made claims to the cash. The case continued through the court and eventually reached the Supreme Court, which was tasked with determining if the clause was in fact legal. Was it a moral to encourage women to give birth just for a competition? The case lasted for years and was extremely complicated. So there's people arguing about whether it's legal and also relatives trying to sue and be like, yeah, that's a legal out, I'll have

it. Yeah. The media had fun reporting on Miller's strange wheel early on talking about the house and Jamaica and the priests and all that kind of stuff. But it didn't actually seem to kick off any baby making competition, especially when it not actually be held up. Yeah. Imagine if you were giving birth to six babies, only to discover that it's not eligible. And then you've got six kids. So people weren't rolling the dice on it until

they found out it's happening. To me, that's stupid, because if you're going to roll the dice on it, roll the dice. It'd be smart to jump everyone else who is waiting back, especially if you could somehow already be pregnant when it started. Because some people would have been pregnant when... You are very on the money to though. Oh, today. It is rare, yeah. I don't feel like shit. We're pointing out.

We got a banner on here, Evan saying congratulations, Matt. You're finally right. Now, he's not, I mean, he's close. Well, let me tell you how you're right. Still good. Six years after Miller had died, the attorney general got sick of the case and tried to pass a bill that would reject the will and instead donate all of the money to Toronto University. But this was a bit of a mistake and actually drew more attention to the case.

And people rallied against this decision. Some groups, oh groups you might not actually expect to get behind it. Women's groups were in favour of the contest being recognised because as they saw it, why shouldn't women be allowed to have a crack of the money? Yeah, okay, yeah, sure. I mean, you can't do it alone, so it's... Why shouldn't people be allowed, you know? But it is the woman who gives birth the most, who gets a reward with the money. Other people just didn't want the government intervening. After receiving 14,000 letters that basically told them

to keep their stinking mitts off the money, the government withdrew their proposal and allowed the competition to go ahead. So six years in, it's officially on. Right. But is it starting back then? It's starting now. I can't.

The clock has been ticking this whole time. And now it's been widely publicized. The media went crazy for the story. But as I just stated, six of the 10 years have already expired. Right. There were only four years left before the competition expires. A short of someone giving birth to octoplets, the woman who was most likely to win had probably already given birth to lots of children in the previous years. Yeah, she just had to top it up a little bit. Yeah, you just said four more years. I've already got a kid. Four more years, let's kick on. Oh my god, and kids I can go for tri bit. Yeah, you just said four more years. I've already got a kid. Four more years. Let's kick on. Oh my God, and kids, I can go for triplets.

Yeah. Take me up, round me up to a beautiful 11. The media looked up birth records and went and knocked on the doors of women who had had multiple births. Being like, you're in, you're in with a chance. Someone already had six births in the previous six years. It's already one for one. All right. That's a hot streak. Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to heat up. Just don't think about it. Don't get in your own way. Just It's already one for one. All right, that's a hot streak. Get on the head up. Just don't think about it, don't get in your own way. Just keep going, just keep going.

Just keep going. And throw yourself whatever. That's it. So in a way, it's less fucked than I had originally thought, because I mean, this wheel is still definitely fucked up. Don't give me wrong. But the people that have a shot at winning have already had multiple bursts without any monetary incentive. So you've already had six

bursts in six years. That was just how you were living your life. The old day is just used to be like that. They didn't have a lot to do. Yeah. You know, there weren't there wasn't Netflix. And so, you just fucked the whole time. Contraception was really, it was frowned upon, right? Yeah, yeah, big time. So, those are the big Catholic families and stuff. Yeah. And you're right, don't get flicked. No Netflix, so you're just like, well, what do we do?

No Netflix, but there was chill. I've read the news paper. It was all chill, baby. Read the newspaper three times. Guess we might as well. Get a free gone. Let's go again. Why the newspaper damn?

Why something like a mess? Oh. Bad sheets. Oh, well, they do. I don't know. Lay them newspaper down, let's not make a mess. That's crazy. You think they just started again, but they've just been fighting it for so long. So long, it's been four years to go. Because if it's written, it's got to be in the ten years after he dies. Is that why? Because it does feel unfair. Or very fair.

So he died on Halloween 1926. Right. 10 years. 10 years from that date, Halloween 1936. That's what it's called. Just to give you a bit of context, in 1933, six and a bit years into the competition, technically, time-wise, the five women leading the race

had 56 kids between them. Sorry, what? 32 had been born in the competition's state of time limit. So some of them had already six in their, in six years, but before that, they've already got four of them. They've got 11 or something. Wow. We're gonna keep going.

Yeah. No. No. Five women, 56 kids between them. So it's an average of 11.2. Ah. You guys are feeling the same way I am because your bodies can't birth children.

Yeah, I'm the other way. I'm like, well, that's 11.2 good times. Ah. But I was like, I grew up with a fan, like once I'm a family 13 kids. It doesn't even seem crazy to me. I know, no, no, no. Me too.

I came from big families, but I'm just thinking about them coming out of my body. That's what's getting in my head. Yeah, I know what they even said. Well, my Swiss Italian Nana, she lived that. Yeah. But was it over 20 years she got first? Yeah, I think it was around.

So I think when my youngest son, he was born, my eldest son, he was already an adult. Yeah, yeah, my dad's older. My dad's older, his brother, 16 years older than him. Right. That big, big gaps. Ah, well, boy. The gaps is exactly what ended up happening.

Ha, ha, ha. Don't you hide your regret face. You regret straight down that camera. So it became huge news around Canada and around the world. And some newspapers even paid mothers for exclusive interviews and updates on their progress creating sort of characters out of them. Oh, let's check in with Mrs. Smith. So they're all getting some cash anyway along the way?

Yeah, a little bit just to make sure you don't talk to the other newspaper. You talk to me, you tell me when you're pregnant, you're now said to me, don't tell your husband. Tell me. I love these stories because people always talk about modern media of having lost the plot. All these scandal bullshit. It's all sensationalist stuff.

It's like, oh, that's the media forever, but that's not true. Yeah, apparently it got a bit crazy. Some of the women were being hounded and they weren't really interested. They were just like, I've just got six kids. Yeah, I'm just, I'm living my life and now you're like, you know, making a character out of me. And if anything tragic ever happened, if one of the, they lost one of the pregnancies or any of that, they talk about it in the context

of the competition, rather than obviously the tragic death of family. In terms of the money. Yeah, exactly. Oh, you're not gonna get the money now, how do you feel about that? It's like, I'm actually going to, I'm mourning it.

It's some serious tragedy here. Yeah. All right. But these are the reporters that coined the phrase the great stalk Derby. Derby. So they can't be something good. Yeah, exactly. And that's what it's known to history as. So the 10 year period came to an end

on Halloween, 1936. Ooh! Ooh! Ooh! And at that time, it was not immediately clear who would want. Six women all claimed to have had nine births in the 10 year period. Perfect, that's a bunch of money for all of them.

Yes, great result, well done. Right, good job everybody. But then there's a one woman who's trying to beat the clock. She's pushing so hard. It's 11.58. It's also only two months in a row pregnant seat. But she's trying. But still it's 11.58.

But questions were asked. The competition didn't really have rules stated in Miller's two sentence description. He was pretty vague about it. Did the children have to be born in wedlock to count? Oh, come on. That's not written and no, surely. If you've birthed a kid, it counts.

It counts, right? If your body birthed a kid, it counts, right? If your body's gone through trauma, it counts. Does that have to be a human? Because some of them got some puppies. What about that? Didn't say anything about that. As long as the puppies were born in a wet luck, you were married to the puppy.

It's okay, well to the dog. Tragically, they also debated whether still births counted in the total uh... she given birth the baby hasn't survived that does that still can obviously extremely traumatic event for any mother and other debating about that

so there were legal challenges aplenty with each woman getting a lawyer to represent them cool six-clamings right now some kind of legal fees so as you well i don't know maybe this is guy was a lawyer, was that his plan all along? Did he get his lawyer friend's rich? Now, in the end, the court ruled that four women should share the money for giving birth

to nine children. The winning women were Annie Catherine Smith, Kathleen Allen Nagel, Lucy Ellis Timleck, and Isabelle Mary McLean. All had nine children. Nine children? They split the money four ways. Wow. Two and a half million Aussie dollars these days. Two women were left out of this, because six were claiming it.

Pauline May Clark's claims were rejected because her children had been born to two different men, one of whom wasn't her husband, and it was ruled that only, quote, legitimate children should count. Despite that stipulation not being written anywhere in Millers. I mean, they're alive, they're human beings, and she gave birth to them. It's just a very conservative society and the judge ruled that that's what Miller would have wanted, even though he never said that. That's...

That'd feel good for that kid too, hey. Yeah. Well, sir, I'm not... Oh, okay. Okay, pretty good. That'd feel good for that kid too, hey. Yeah. Well, sir, I'm not okay. Okay, thank you. I'm not a real, okay, I don't know, I don't know, just. The other lady who has left out is even more tragic and that is Lillian Kenny, who had her claim rejected because two of her births were still born.

And again, despite her not saying that in the will, remember all it said was to the mother who has since my death given birth into Ronto to the greatest number of children, but they didn't live and they had the judge ruled that because the children didn't survive that they didn't count in the total and she was knocked down to seven. Imagine being the judge, what a wild thing to... Yeah, so she doesn't get...

Because it's not, it's like he had to make that decision. It would have been a heathen up there. But it would have been a heathen up there. He would have had to have found a way to make that ruling rather than just going, oh, it's not written there. So I'll be saying. So there's no question for this. So why not split it six ways and you're all so very rich. Totally.

But I do have some better news. And that is Mrs. Clark and Mrs. Kenny eat both challenge the decision in court. Resulting in an out-of-court settlement where each woman received $12,500, which is about 10% of what the other winning women received. So in the end they got something. And how did that money come from? They actually challenged against the government and they decided to, rather than have a lengthy court battle, we'll pay you out this money to stop the proceedings.

I would have thought it would be nice if all the mums sort of banded together and the ones who did win just split it anyway. I know, because there was a lot of money. In the end, if the winners got $2.5 million, Ozi, Clark and Kenny both got about $250,000. Still pretty good. Still sizeable, especially during the Great Depression.

Yeah. I have read that the families all lived quite sensibly and frugally after their win falls, but according to the Torontoist, Kenny had a fondness for taxi rides and once paid for a round trip to Niagara Falls with a $100 bill, which is about $1,600 in today's money. Oh my god! She just liked taxis. Oh, taxis! And the dead man. Oh, the blue her mind. Get a little mint in a water bottle water bottle. Hello. Imagine a helicopter. Oh my god. Oh yeah, there'd be so many other things It would blow my mind. Imagine Netflix and blow my mind Hovercrafts and the dead man Miller's distant relatives laying claim to the money. Well, they got nothing good

I must feel so weird. Oh this guy. yeah, I believe that we're vaguely related Give me his stuff. Please. Yeah, well as you can see money does weird things to people and every man As he's priced. Yeah, I look I don't deny that. I would do nearly anything for the right amount of money Newy Probably anything make us an offer in the comments below It's hard to say how many children were born because of the competition. Again, because these people already had big families at the time. But we finally have an answer. Do they know what's causing it? Tens out an eccentric Canadian millionaire with too much money. There you go. These are your answer, Dad. Now,

stop asking. I'd be watching Dad. Is he my dad too? Yes. Yeah, I hope you're watching it out dad. What's his name? John John Dad I call him dad, so I don't know his name never learned his name don't need to Because he's dad Anyway dad Squat you did it we did it I'm sorry. I didn't want to hey hey. I didn't want to do this Shut the fuck up. Hey, I didn't Matt shut the fuck up. Hey. Hey, you really bringing us down Shut the fuck up. Sorry. I've just got a text from my milk

You're bad for Yeah, no more musk things. Oh no! No more big bosses. Oh, fuck big bosses. Well, that's it for the great stalk Derby, Slash Derby. Now, this is a spin-off of our podcast. Do go on with over 200 episodes to listen to.

If you like this topic, check out some of our other crazy but true story episodes like the Colour Bomb Heist, the video game crash, the mouse universe experiments and the Barclay Marathon. Subscribe for free on your favourite podcast app and be sure to subscribe to this channel to check out our other videos. Good job Dave. Thank you. How many kids do you reckon we could have? Oh, in 10 years? Yeah. What did that nine? Nine in 10. Nine and 10. That annoys me. Go for one more. Have twins. Is it that much to us?

None of them have twins. 6 had 9. I think 69. 9. It's okay now I'm back on board. 9. This episode is brought to you by Progressive. Most of you aren't just listening right now. You're driving, cleaning, and even exercising. But what if you could be saving money by switching to Progressive? Drivers who save by switching save nearly $750 on average, and auto customers qualify

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