Before Paris and Nicky were Violet and Daisy Hilton. Unfortunately, life for these Hilton sisters was far from charmed.
The talented but lonely Hilton sisters.
For many today, the Hilton sisters are simply Paris and Nicky. Decades before the hotel heiresses became household names, though, there was another pair of well-recognized Hilton sisters: Daisy and Violet.
The conjoined twins were born in 1908 in Brighton, England to a poor, unmarried barmaid named Kate Skinner, who believed the girls’ condition was a punishment from God for her indiscretions. At that time, the sisters–fused together at the hip–were the only conjoined twins to be born and live more than a few weeks in the UK.
In spite of that medical miracle, the twins suffered a sad fate after Mary Hilton, Skinner’s employer, took Violet and Daisy under her care. Hilton, who helped deliver the twins, saw dollar signs behind the twins’ condition, and acquired them for the sole purpose of exploitation.
Introduced to the sideshow circus at the age of three, the Hilton sisters toured Germany, Australia, and eventually the United States. Gaining access to the US was difficult, though, because the girls were considered “medically unfit” to make such a trip.
Hilton solved this problem by creating a public media outrage, which put enough pressure on authorities that the twins were eventually granted entry to the US.
After Mary Hilton died, the girls were once again shuffled around as property and bestowed upon Hilton’s daughter, Edith Meyers, who treated the sisters even worse than her mother. Meyers ruthlessly “trained” the girls to dance and play instruments (in lieu of a proper education) so they would attract more attention and make more money. Violet played the saxophone, Daisy, the violin.
The Hilton Sisters with the Meyers family. Source: Wellcome Images
If the twins did not comply with Meyers or her husband’s training schedule, they would be beaten. This abuse continued over time, with Meyers threatening to institutionalize them if they did not obey. Violet and Daisy Hilton continued to tour, appear in circus shows, and perform under the strict management of the Meyers for many years. Once, the twins even participated in a Bob Hope act.
The sisters never saw a penny of the money they earned – estimated to be around $5,000 per week at the height of their popularity. When they were 23 years old, the Hilton twins (upon prodding from friend Harry Houdini) successfully sued their managers for $100,000 and were released from any standing contracts. The newly emancipated sisters then ventured into Vaudeville on their own; the only thing they knew and enjoyed.
Source: The Blot
The young women starred in “The Hilton Sisters’ Revue,” and after that scene died down, moved into burlesque shows. Daisy and Violet Hilton led much of their romantic lives before the ever-scrutinizing public eye; having many boyfriends and some failed marriage attempts, which can be partially attributed to the fact that officials regarded the granting of marriage licenses to a man and just one of the sisters as a sort of bigamy.
Source: Retro Charlotte
In 1932, Tod Browning’s film Freaks brought the sisters some notoriety, but it faded out along with the ending of the decade. The Hilton sisters penned an autobiography in 1942 titled The Lives and Loves of the Hilton Sisters, in which Daisy wrote:
“We [were] lonely, rich girls who were really paupers living in practical slavery.” And later, “I’m not a machine; I’m a woman. I should have the right to live like one.”
Freaks has gone on to become a cult classic film in the years after its 1932 release.
By 1951, they had agreed to star in a loosely biographical film on them, Chained for Life, which was released in 1952 but not received well by the public. Exiting cinema, the sisters opened a hot dog stand in 1955, but neighboring vendors complained about the “freaks” that stole all of their business.
The film Chained for Life dealt with the legal complexities of imprisoning one twin for a crime when the other is clearly innocent. Today the film has an IMDB score of 4.2 out of 10 stars. Source: Messy Nessy Chic
In 1961, the struggling sisters made what would be their last public appearance in Charlotte, North Carolina (after an unsuccessful tour of drive-in theaters) where afterwards they were abandoned by their own tour manager and left without any money or transportation.
Violet seen happily chatting up democratic leader Cicero Yow, while Daisy, a Nixon supporter, looks less than enthused.
With no options left, they found work at a nearby grocery store promoting Twin Pack potato chips and became cashiers. They were said to have enjoyed this simple life and the solace it brought them; they even enjoyed performing for their co-workers in the break room.
This “normalcy” didn’t last for long. When the sisters failed to report to work one day in early 1969; police found the 60-year-old sisters in their home, dead of the flu. Medical tests revealed that Daisy died first, and Violet a few days later – presumably too sick to phone for help when her sister perished.
In June of this year, Bound by Flesh – a new documentary film by Leslie Zemeckis (wife of American director Robert Zemeckis) – premiered in limited theatrical release, and has been touted as the most thorough and respectful piece of media about the Hilton sisters, featuring interviews with friends and colleagues of the twins, along with vaudeville historians.
Source: Jezebel
Anelle Newitz of i09 commented recently after the release of the documentary, “What makes Zemeckis’ film [Bound By Flesh] more than just a sad story of two exploited women is that it also shows us how the Hilton sisters fit into a unique moment in American media history.
These women were basically like the YouTube stars of the 1920s, famous in a medium that attracted millions, but didn’t translate into other media very successfully.”
Perhaps the saddest aspect of the Hilton twins’ story is that they could have been separated with little risk to either sister, as they did not share any internal organs. They claimed that they wanted to stay together, always.
Enjoy this fascinating look into the lives of the conjoined Hilton sisters? Then check out our other posts on interesting diseases and the weirdest mental disorders in human history. Then, read up on some of history’s most well-known “freak show” performers, including the infamous Grady Stiles.
