Who was Albert Piddington, Toronto, the first recorded competitive eater? Where was the competition?
It's a bit of a mystery, with no clear answers.
A story on CityNews, recently, made passing reference to competitive eating beginning in Toronto in 1878. Sure enough, that checks out:
Albert Piddington of Baldwin street, succeeded, amid roars of laughter, in wresting the prize from among the competitors for the reward offered by the Rutler combination, for eating the most pie with his hands tied behind him. The delicacy consisted of lucious, very sticky raspberry tarts, places on stools reaching up to the mouths of the competitors, who made the assault on their knees.
The want of success of the others proved the truth of the adage as to there being many a slip between the cup and the lip. Their smeary and sticky countenances and their disappointed aspects as the pies slipped away from them, while the large segments slipped down Piddington’s throat were worth looking upon.
A handsomely bound book was the prize which fell to the young gentleman’s lot. His deftness, cleanliness and quickness on the swallow excited great admiration — his face being nearly as clean as when he went on the stage of the Grange opera house.
That story first ran in the Toronto Leader,1 and was reprinted in Missouri’s Fulton Gazette newspaper. A different telling, which included the claim that this was for a charity, ran in the Indianapolis Journal. While the citation seems flawed — Newspapers.com has that title, but no reference — this take claims both men and women participated, as a charitable fundraiser. Neither the Star nor the Globe seems to have covered the spectacle.
Who was Albert Piddington? Where was the Grange Opera House? What’s a Rutler combination?
Who was Albert Piddington?
Albert Edward Piddington was born in the summer of 1865,2 making him roughly 12 ½ years old at the time of the event. He was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts to George and mother Louisa, nee Johnson. They lived at 6 Baldwin Street, just down the street from printer Samuel Piddington (23 Baldwin Street).
Both in Boston and in Toronto, his dad George was a jeweler. It mustn’t have been a very profitable job. By 1881, young Albert was listed as working as a confectioner.3
Piddington resurfaced in the news a few months after the pie-eating contest, in October 1878. Gardener Charles H. Bailey was walking along “being followed by his dog, when three or four boys came along, one of whom also had a dog.” The boys allegedly cheered on the dogs to fight, leading the gardener to strike the opposing dog, the boy to retaliate, the man to strike the boy with his cane, the boys to throw rocks at the man, the man to throw rocks at the boy, ultimately causing “a deep gash” on Albert’s head. Bailey was arrested.4 He was ultimately fined $2 and costs.5
Piddington again surfaced in the papers in 1881, billed as “a small but very sharp boy.” He was accused of riding a bicycle on the sidewalk, but “given another chance,” instead of the $2 fine.6
As of 1900, Albert was a stamper for H. F. Sharpe & Co., living at 31 Baldwin. Sharpe ran a photo supply company at 94 Bay Street.
Piddington’s end is unclear, but it was likely in the United States. One member of Ancestry found a 1917 Record of inmates, Niagara County Almhouse for an Albert Edward Piddington. While this Lockport resident was born in October 22, 1874, he was born in Chelsea to George and Louisa, nee Johnson; he claimed no relatives. In September 1918, a First World War draft registration card listed a Albert Edward Piddington living in Deal, a borough of Monmouth, New Jersey. This A. E. was born on March 25, 1876, working for Alfred Nathan, a butter maker.
No one, however, has found a death registration or death notice for Piddington.
Where was the Grange Opera House?
That’s a very believable name for Toronto, the Grange Opera House, as there was a Grange Avenue, and a stub of it still exists. Originally a private residence (1817), the namesake Grange became the Art Museum of Toronto (1913, following a 1902 donation), known since 1966 as the Art Gallery of Ontario.
But the earliest fire insurance map for the road, 1884, shows houses and an “orphan asylum” on the south side, and houses, including The Grange itself on the north side. No sign of an opera house on Grange Road, either, in the 1878 city directory.
Toronto’s city directory listed just three theatres: the Grand Opera House (Adelaide at Johnston Lane), the Royal Opera House (King Street West), and Queen’s Variety Theatre (King Street West). The Star and Globe also feign ignorance.
What was the Rutler combination?
No luck on this either, in the local papers, in the City directory — there’s no one with this surname — etc.
The Toronto Leader was published from 1852 to 1878, and is the namesake of Leader Lane. It appears that the paper only survives between 1853 and 1869 at Archives of Ontario, on microfilm. It’s unknown which paper the other reprint cited.
Ancestry.ca has birth registration ledgers from Boston (August 19) and Chelsea (July 16, but indexed incorrectly as June 16).
On the 1881 census, Piddington is listed as just 14 years old, when he was two years older than that.
“City News,” The Globe, 21 October 1878, page 4.
“Police Court, Before Mr. George T. Denison, P.M. Monday, Oct. 21,” The Globe, 22 October 1878, page 4.
“Police Court, Before Mr. G. T. Denison, P. M., Wednesday, October 26,” The Globe, 27 October 1881, page 7.