Burlington Liars' Club

The organization grew out of informal social gatherings of the local police and fire departments, where various tales (of varying degrees of credibility) were frequently swapped. During a slow news period around Christmas of 1929, two local freelance reporters made up a story about the social group being a "Liar's Club," and handing out a medal for the year's best lie, and sent the story out for publication.^[1]

Freelance reporter Mannel Hahn (sometimes misspelled "Manuel" Hahn) fabricated the news story about a lying contest between the Burlington police and fire departments, and sent it to the Milwaukee Journal and Chicago Daily News—and friendly rival local writer Otis "Otey" Hulett repeated it to the Racine, Wisconsin newspaper. All three newspapers published the story January 2, 1930.^[1][3]

The reported "winner" was the a local sea captain who claimed, with detailed explanation, to have seen a three-mile-long whale.^[1][4] A "runner-up" (not immediately reported by Hulett) was the local police chief, who denied he could (or had) ever tell (or told) a lie (some accounts name him as that year's winner).^[1][2][3] The story was so popular with the newspapers, that they demanded to know the "annual" winner the following year, as well as the identity of club officers. Though Hahn had since moved to Chicago, Huelett embraced the idea, and named Hahn as president, himself as vice president, and "Pink" Schenning (a former regular at the tale-swappings, who had once suggested a medal for the best lie) as secretary-treasurer.^[1][3]

Subsequently, the group's "annual award" became an object of widespread media and public interest, and the organization became more formal and consistent in its efforts, and broadened its geographic scope. By 1933, the organization claimed to have sorted through 1,500 entries in the "contest" for biggest lie in America, to select the winner.^[1][5] By the 60th year, the contest had become "international."^[6][3]

In 1980, the club was abandoned, but revived in 1981, and during the 1980s repeatedly received over 300 submissions a year.^[2][7]

Initially, Hahn and Hulett "judged" the contest, (and the next year apparently Hulett judged). Hahn indicated that judges should be "newspapermen and lawyers" who are "experts" at recognizing or ferreting out lies.^[1][4]

Just before the second years' award announcement, the Wisconsin State Journal (Madison, Wisconsin) reported that the award was only given to Burlington locals, over the age of 70, who had "related three fantastic stories" during "ordinary conversation" over the preceding year in front of "one or more judge."^[4] However, by 1933, contestants' entries were being accepted from throughout the United States, and winners were selected from other states.^[5] Since the contest began accepting foreign entrants, by its 60th year, it has received entries from Canada and Europe.^[3][6]

Winners have ranged across a wide spectrum of society. Many women have participated, and by 1940 one had won.^[1] Winners have been as young as a 12-year-old (who won the 60th contest by claiming "her sister" was "so thin" she used a Cheerio as a Hula-Hoop).^[6]

Though the organization has a policy of not allowing politicians, or other "professional liars," to be considered,^[2][8] some notable figures have been awarded either an annual "Professional Class Liar" award (as Nazi propaganda leader Paul Goebbels),^[9] or a "lifetime membership" in the club (as with mischievous aviator Douglas "Wrong Way" Corrigan).^[10][11]

In 1933/1934, Bruno Ceresa won the award with the claim that his grandfather's clock was so old that its pendulum's shadow had worn a hole in the back of the clock).^[1][12] In 1940, founder Hahn credited it as the best lie so far,^[1] and it was later judged (in 1954) as the best lie of the first quarter-century of the organization.^[1]

"Membership" in the club is variously described as being open to all, for a fee of one dollar,^[2] or a dollar and a lie.^[2] In 2009, it was reported that the dollar fee granted a lifetime membership in the Club, and entitled the holder to submit an unlimited quantity of lies each year.^[3] Membership, by then, had grown to over 2,000 globally, according to an officer of the club.^[3]

However, by 2020, only an estimated 75 entries were received in the annual contest—won by the contest's first-ever three-time winner, Daryl Lockwood, of Waupaca, Wisconsin.^[13]

December 30, 2010, the Associated Press reported that the winning entry in the contest was not original, but had been previously said by comedian Steven Wright. The AP also reported that two of the "runner-up" lies were not original. The winning contestant insisted he came up with the story on his own, however. Club officials dismissed the matter, allowing the winners to retain their titles.^[14][15]