Daisy Hilton and Violet Hilton were a pair of British conjoined twins or Siamese Twins
who toured in the U.S. sideshow and vaudeville circuit in the 1930s.
Early life The girls were born in Riley Road, Brighton,
England, on 5 February 1908.
Their mother was Kate Skinner, an unmarried barmaid.
The sisters were born joined by their hips and buttocks; they shared blood circulation
and were fused at the pelvis but shared no major organs.
Skinner's boss Mary Hilton, who helped in childbirth, apparently saw commercial prospects
in them, and thus effectively bought them from their mother and took them under her
care.
The girls first stayed above the Queen's Head pub in Brighton, but later moved to the Evening
Star pub.
According to the sisters' autobiography, Mary Hilton with her husband and daughter kept
the twins in strict control with physical abuse; they had to call her "Auntie Lou" and
her husband "Sir".
They trained the girls in singing and dancing.
A medical account of the birth and a description of the twins was provided for the British
Medical Journal by Dr James Augustus Rooth, the physician in charge at the time of their
birth.
He reported that subsequently the Sussex Medico-Chirurgical Society considered separation, but unanimously
decided against it as it was believed that the operation would certainly lead to the
death of at least one of the twins.
He notes that these twins were the first to be born in the United Kingdom conjoined and
to survive for more than a few weeks.
Publicity
The Hilton sisters toured first in Britain at age 3 as "The United Twins".
Mary Hilton took them on to a tour through Germany, then to Australia, then to the USA.
In true sideshow manner, their performance was accompanied by an imaginative "history".
Their controllers kept all the money the sisters earned.
In 1926 Bob Hope formed an act called the Dancemedians with the Hilton Sisters, who
had a tap-dancing routine.
When Mary died in Birmingham, Alabama, her daughter Edith and husband Myer Meyers, a
former balloon salesman were "willed" the girls and took over management of the girls.
Held mostly captive, the girls were hit if they did not do as the Meyers wished.
They kept the twins from public view for a while and trained them in jazz music.
Violet was a skilled saxophonist and Daisy a violinist.
They lived in a mansion in San Antonio, Texas until the early 1930s.
In 1931, the sisters gathered enough courage to sue their managers, gaining freedom from
their contract and US$100,000 in damages.
They left the sideshows and went into vaudeville as "The Hilton Sisters' Revue".
Daisy dyed her hair blonde and they began to wear different outfits so they could be
told apart.
They had numerous affairs, failed attempts to get a marriage license, and a couple of
short marriages.
In 1932, the twins appeared in the film Freaks.
In 1951 they starred in Chained for Life, an exploitation film loosely based on their
lives.
Later life and deaths The Hiltons' last public appearance was in
1961 at a drive-in cinema in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Their tour manager abandoned them there, and with no means of transportation or income,
they were forced to take a job in a nearby grocery store.
On 4 January 1969, after they failed to report to work, their boss called the police.
The twins were found dead in their home, victims of the Hong Kong flu.
According to a forensic investigation, Daisy died first; Violet died between two and four
days later.
They were buried in Forest Lawn West Cemetery.
Legacy In 1989 a musical based on the twins, Twenty
Fingers Twenty Toes, with book by Michael Dansicker and Bob Nigro and music and lyrics
by Michael Dansicker, premiered at the WPA Theatre and ran for 35 performances.
The script can be found in the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.
It began as an accurate portrayal of the twins' early life, but then included a wholly fictitious
plot by their keepers to have them surgically separated as adults.
In 1997, a Broadway musical loosely based on the sisters' lives, Side Show, with lyrics
by Bill Russell and music by Henry Krieger, received four Tony nominations.
A 2014 revival of the musical by the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. was called "The
boldest and most splendidly realized production by the Kennedy Center since the Sondheim Celebration
in 2002."
This production will be moving to Broadway at The St. James Theater in the fall of 2014.
This revival will begin previews on October 28th with an official opening night on November
17th.
In 2012, Leslie Zemeckis filmed an award-winning documentary "Bound by Flesh" on the lives
of the twins.
The Hollywood Reporter called it a "scrupulously researched" and a "masterful film."
The number 708 bus in their birth town of Brighton, England is named in their honour.
In 2014, a revival of Side Show will open on Broadway at the St. James Theatre on November
17 starring Erin Davie as Violet and Emily Padgett as Daisy.
References
External links
Daisy and Violet Hilton at Find a Grave San Antonio Siamese Twins Have Unlike Finger
Prints http:www.hollywoodreporter.combound-by-flesh-film-review-382383