Daisy and Violet Hilton (5 February 1908 – early January 1969) were English-born entertainers, who were
conjoined twins. They were exhibited in Europe as children, and toured the United States
sideshow
In North America, a sideshow is an extra, secondary production associated with a circus, carnival, fair, or other such attraction.
Types
There are four main types of classic sideshow attractions:
*The Ten-in-One offers a program of ten seq ...
,
vaudeville
Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...
and
American burlesque circuits in the 1920s and 1930s. They were best known for their film appearances in ''
Freaks
Freak has several meanings: a person who is physically deformed or suffers from an extraordinary disease and condition, a genetic mutation in a plant or animal, etc.
Freak, freaks or The Freak may also refer to:
Fictional characters
* Freak (Ima ...
'' and the biographic ''
Chained for Life'' (1951).
The twins were born at 18 Riley Road,
Brighton
Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London.
Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...
, 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.
They were variously called or referred to as The Siamese Twins, The Hilton Sisters and The Brighton Twins or The Brighton Conjoined Twins and in the United States as the San Antonio Twins. The sisters performed alongside
Bob Hope
Leslie Townes "Bob" Hope (May 29, 1903 – July 27, 2003) was a British-American comedian, vaudevillian, actor, singer and dancer. With a career that spanned nearly 80 years, Hope appeared in more than 70 short and feature films, with 5 ...
and
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin Jr. (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is consider ...
. After years of being managed professionally by their legal guardians, in the early 1930s, on the advice of
Harry Houdini
Harry Houdini (, born Erik Weisz; March 24, 1874 – October 31, 1926) was a Hungarian-American escape artist, magic man, and stunt performer, noted for his escape acts. His pseudonym is a reference to his spiritual master, French magician ...
, they were legally emancipated.
Early life
![Hilton sisters7](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/Hilton_sisters7.jpg)
![Violetdaisybabies](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cb/Violetdaisybabies.jpg)
A medical account of the birth and a description of the twins was provided for the ''
British Medical Journal
''The BMJ'' is a weekly peer-reviewed medical trade journal, published by the trade union the British Medical Association (BMA). ''The BMJ'' has editorial freedom from the BMA. It is one of the world's oldest general medical journals. Origi ...
'' by physician
James Augustus Rooth,
who helped deliver them. 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 one or both of the twins. He noted these twins were the first to be born in the UK conjoined and to survive for more than a few weeks.
[
Their mother was unmarried.][ Kate Skinner's employer, Mary Hilton, who helped in childbirth, apparently saw commercial prospects in them, and effectively bought them from their mother and took them under her care. The girls first stayed above the Queen's Arms pub in Brighton where they were exhibited.][ They later moved to the Evening Star pub. According to the sisters' autobiography, Mary Hilton with her husband and daughter strictly controlled the twins by means of physical abuse; they had to call her "Auntie Lou" and her husband "Sir". They trained the girls in singing and dancing.
]
Performing career
![Daisy and Violet Hilton c1927f](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/23/Daisy_and_Violet_Hilton_c1927f.jpg)
The Hilton sisters toured first in Britain in 1911 (aged 3) as "The United Twins". Mary Hilton took them on to a tour through Germany, then to Australia, then in 1916 to the US. 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
Leslie Townes "Bob" Hope (May 29, 1903 – July 27, 2003) was a British-American comedian, vaudevillian, actor, singer and dancer. With a career that spanned nearly 80 years, Hope appeared in more than 70 short and feature films, with 5 ...
formed an act called the Dancemedians with the sisters, who had a tap-dancing routine. When Mary died in Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Birmingham is the seat of Jefferson County, Alabama's most populous county. As of the 2021 census estimates, Birmingham had a population of 197,575, down 1% fr ...
, the girls were bequeathed to Mary's daughter Edith Meyers, and Edith's husband Meyer Meyers, a former balloon salesman.
The couple took over management of the twins. Held mostly captive, the girls were beaten if they did not do as the Meyerses wished. They kept the twins from public view for a while and trained them in jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
music. Violet was a skilled saxophonist and Daisy a violinist. They lived in a mansion in San Antonio
("Cradle of Freedom")
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, mapsize = 220px
, map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = United States
, subdivision_type1= U.S. state, State
, subdivision_name1 = Texas
, s ...
, Texas.
In 1931, the sisters sued their managers and were legally emancipated, gaining freedom from their contract and awarded US$100,000 in damages[Jensen, Dean. ''The Lives and Loves of Daisy and Violet Hilton: A True Story of Conjoined Twins'', Berkeley, CA: ]Ten Speed Press
Ten Speed Press is a publishing house founded in Berkeley, California in 1971 by Phil Wood. Ten Speed Press was bought by Random House in February 2009 and is now part of their Crown Publishing Group division.
History
Wood worked with Barnes & N ...
, 2006; (equivalent to $ in ). They went into vaudeville as "The Hilton Sisters' Revue". Daisy dyed her hair blonde and they began to wear different outfits so as to be distinguishable from Violet. After vaudeville lost popularity, the sisters performed at burlesque
A burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects. venues.
Shortly after gaining independence from the Meyerses, the Hiltons sailed to the UK on the ''Berengaria'' in December 1932. They spent most of 1933 in the UK and returned to the US in October 1933.
Violet began a relationship with musician Maurice Lambert, and they applied in 21 states for a marriage license
A marriage license (or marriage licence in Commonwealth spelling) is a document issued, either by a religious organization or state authority, authorizing a couple to marry. The procedure for obtaining a license varies between jurisdiction ...
, but it was always refused.
In 1932, the twins appeared in the film ''Freaks
Freak has several meanings: a person who is physically deformed or suffers from an extraordinary disease and condition, a genetic mutation in a plant or animal, etc.
Freak, freaks or The Freak may also refer to:
Fictional characters
* Freak (Ima ...
''. Afterwards their popularity faded, and they struggled to make a living in show business.
Later life
In 1936 Violet married gay actor James Moore as a publicity stunt. The marriage lasted ten years on paper, but it was eventually annulled. At the time of the wedding, Daisy was visibly pregnant. Her child was given up for adoption. In 1941 Daisy married Harold Estep, better known as dancer Buddy Sawyer, who was also gay. The marriage lasted ten days.
In 1952 they starred in a second film, '' Chained for Life'', an exploitation film loosely based on their lives. Afterwards, they undertook personal appearances at double bill screenings of their two films.
The Hiltons' last public appearance was at a drive-in in 1961 in Charlotte, North Carolina
Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...
. 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, where they worked for the rest of their lives.
On January 4, 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
The Hong Kong flu, also known as the 1968 flu pandemic, was a flu pandemic whose outbreak in 1968 and 1969 killed between one and four million people globally. It is among the deadliest pandemics in history, and was caused by an H3N2 strain of ...
. According to a forensic investigation, Daisy died first; Violet died between two to four days later. They were buried in Forest Lawn West Cemetery in Charlotte.
Media 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.
''Side Show
In North America, a sideshow is an extra, secondary production associated with a circus, traveling carnival, carnival, fair, or other such attraction.
Types
There are four main types of classic sideshow attractions:
*The Ten-in-One offers ...
'', a Broadway musical loosely based on the sisters' lives, with lyrics by Bill Russell and music by Henry Krieger
Henry Krieger (born February 9, 1945 in New York City) is an American musical theatre composer. He most notably wrote the music for the Broadway shows ''Dreamgirls'' (1981, with lyrics and book by Tom Eyen), ''The Tap Dance Kid'' (1983), and ''S ...
, opened at the Richard Rodgers Theater on 16 October 1997. It starred Emily Skinner as Daisy and Alice Ripley as Violet, and received four Tony
Tony may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Tony (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters
* Gregory Tony (born 1978), American law enforcement officer
* Motu Tony (born 1981), New Zealand international rugby leagu ...
nominations, but closed after 91 performances.[ In 2014, a substantially rewritten version of the musical was mounted at the Kennedy Center and moved to Broadway, where it opened at the St. James Theater on 17 November 2014, starring ]Erin Davie
Erin Davie is an American actress and singer, best known for her performance as the young Edith Bouvier Beale in the Broadway production of the musical ''Grey Gardens'', taking the part on Broadway at the Walter Kerr Theatre in 2006, after its ini ...
as Violet and Emily Padgett
Emily Padgett (born September 20, 1984) is an American actress, singer, and dancer.
She is known for her work on Broadway as Daisy Hilton in ''Side Show'' and Sherrie Christian in ''Rock of Ages'', as well as for originating the roles of Lucy G ...
as Daisy. Although well-reviewed, the revival closed on 4 January 2015.
In 2012, Leslie Zemeckis
Robert Lee Zemeckis (born May 14, 1952) is an American filmmaker. He first came to public attention as the director of the action-adventure romantic comedy ''Romancing the Stone'' (1984), the science-fiction comedy ''Back to the Future'' film tr ...
filmed a documentary, ''Bound by Flesh'', about the sisters' lives. ''The Hollywood Reporter
''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...
'' called it "scrupulously researched" and a "masterful film". The film won Best Documentary awards at both the 2012 Hollywood Film Festival and the 2013 Louisiana International Film Festival.
![Daisy and Violet Hilton c1927e](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/25/Daisy_and_Violet_Hilton_c1927e.jpg)
Other legacy
Brighton & Hove
Brighton and Hove () is a city and unitary authority in East Sussex, England. It consists primarily of the settlements of Brighton and Hove, alongside neighbouring villages.
Often referred to synonymously as Brighton, the City of Brighton and H ...
708 (YP58 UGH), a 2009 Scania OmniCity DD bus that currently operates on the 27 (Westdene Park & Ride – Saltdean) in their home town, was named in their honour.
In May, 2018, it was announced that Brighton and Hove City Council
Brighton and Hove City Council is the local authority of the city of Brighton and Hove. It is a unitary authority, having the powers of a non-metropolitan county and district council combined. It provides a full range of local government services ...
and the current owner of the house in which the twins were born had agreed that a commemorative blue plaque
A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom and elsewhere to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving as a historical marker. The term i ...
could be erected at the property.
On 26 May 2022 a commemorative blue plaque was unveiled at 18 Riley Road, dedicated to Violet and Daisy Skinner: The Hilton Twins.
Filmography
* ''Freaks
Freak has several meanings: a person who is physically deformed or suffers from an extraordinary disease and condition, a genetic mutation in a plant or animal, etc.
Freak, freaks or The Freak may also refer to:
Fictional characters
* Freak (Ima ...
'' (1932)
* '' Chained for Life'' (1952)
References
External links
*
San Antonio Siamese Twins Have Unlike Finger Prints
Retrieved 9 December 2014.
Profile
hollywoodreporter.com. Retrieved 9 December 2014.
The sisters singing the song "Love Thief"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hilton, Daisy and Violet
1908 births
1969 deaths
Conjoined twins
Sideshow performers
Vaudeville performers
English film actresses
English autobiographers
20th-century English actresses
Identical twin actresses
Deaths from influenza
Infectious disease deaths in North Carolina
People from Brighton
People from Charlotte, North Carolina
People from Miami
British expatriates in the United States
English twins
Women autobiographers