Exploitation, Fame, and Tragedy: The Story of Violet and Daisy Hilton

On a brisk day in 1934, Violet Hilton, a poised young woman with dreams of marriage, walked into a New York marriage licence bureau hand-in-hand with her fiancé, Maurice Lambert. On her left stood her ever-present conjoined twin sister, Daisy. Their entry caused a commotion, drawing typists and clerks out of their offices to gawk at this unusual trio. However, the stir quickly turned to rejection when a city official, flustered and unprepared for such an unprecedented situation, refused Violet’s request to marry. The reason? The official deemed the union akin to bigamy. Newspapers the next day mocked the drama, with one headline quipping, “The lawyers figured out that three-party honeymoons are no good.”

For Violet and Daisy Hilton, this public denial was only one of many challenges they faced in a life that veered between the extraordinary and the deeply tragic. Conjoined twins, vaudeville stars, and eventually societal outcasts, their story is a testament to both human resilience and the cruelty of exploitation.

From Birth to Exhibition: The Early Years

The story of Violet and Daisy Hilton begins in Brighton, England, where they were born on 5 February 1908 to an unmarried barmaid, Kate Skinner. The twins were pygopagus conjoined twins, connected back-to-back at the lower spine. They shared a circulatory system but no vital organs, and while separation surgery might have been possible, the medical risks in 1908 were deemed too high. Their very existence defied the odds—conjoined twins were rare, and their survival past infancy even rarer. Yet from the moment of their birth, their lives were shaped not by love or care but by exploitation and cruelty.

After their birth, a doctor was summoned who established the girls were joined back to back at their lower spines but shared no major organs

Kate Skinner viewed her daughters as a curse, a divine punishment for having conceived them out of wedlock. Rejecting the twins, she sold them to her employer, Mary Hilton, a midwife and pub owner, who saw in them not children but a business opportunity. Hilton claimed ownership over Violet and Daisy in exchange for money and immediately began displaying them to paying customers in the backroom of her pub. The girls, adorned in frilly outfits, were treated as curiosities, with patrons charged to see the "join" or to buy postcards of the twins as souvenirs.

The twins grew up in an environment of constant objectification. They called Hilton “Auntie,” but there was no familial affection. Their earliest memories were of strangers lifting their clothes and the pervasive scent of ale in Hilton's pub. By the time they were toddlers, Hilton took the girls on the road, displaying them at fairs and circuses. Physical and emotional abuse became part of their daily reality, with punishment meted out harshly if they cried or resisted.

By age five, Violet and Daisy were more than just static exhibits. Recognising that performing would draw larger crowds, Hilton trained the girls in music and dance. Violet became proficient at the violin, while Daisy conducted. Their stage personas were carefully crafted to attract attention and pity, and the twins soon gained international attention, touring Europe and Australia. In 1915, Hilton tried to bring them to the United States, but immigration officials initially refused entry, citing the twins’ "medical unfitness." Undeterred, Hilton orchestrated a media campaign that pressured officials to admit the twins. Once in America, their lives took another dark turn.

Myer Myers and the Vaudeville Years

Following Hilton’s death in 1919, Violet and Daisy became the wards of Hilton’s daughter, Edith, and her husband, Myer Myers, a balloon salesman with grand ambitions. Myers quickly took control of the twins' lives, exploiting their talents to catapult them onto the vaudeville stage. While other sideshow acts were static curiosities, Violet and Daisy became full-fledged entertainers, performing musical routines alongside legends like Charlie Chaplin and Bob Hope. By the 1920s, they were earning as much as $5,000 a week—a staggering sum equivalent to $65,000 today.

American immigration inspector John J. Conner administers an oath to British conjoined twins Violet Hilton (center) and Daisy Hilton, in matching flower-print dresses, who are seeking American citizenship, in Chicago, Ill., late 1920s or early 1930s.

Despite their fame, the twins saw none of their earnings. Myers kept the money for himself, building a mansion in San Antonio, Texas, while keeping Violet and Daisy in near-total isolation. He forced them to practise tirelessly and threatened them with institutionalisation if they ever considered escaping. The twins described this period as one of complete control, with Myers and Edith sleeping in the same room to prevent them from planning an escape.

Their break finally came in the late 1920s when they befriended the famous illusionist Harry Houdini. Appalled by their situation, Houdini advised the twins to seek legal help. In 1931, Violet and Daisy sued Myers for their freedom and won, securing both emancipation and a settlement of $80,000 (around $1.5 million today). However, their victory was bittersweet. Now adults at 23, the twins were unprepared for life outside of Myers’ control.

Violet and Daisy Hilton: Fame, Love, and Scandal

Emancipation brought freedom but also confusion. Violet and Daisy had spent their lives as property, never learning to manage their finances or navigate the complexities of adult life. They struggled to maintain their careers in a changing entertainment landscape, and their personal lives became tabloid fodder. The twins yearned for love but faced unique challenges.

Violet fell in love with bandleader Maurice Lambert, but their attempts to marry were thwarted repeatedly. Denied marriage licences in 21 states on “moral grounds,” the couple eventually parted ways. Violet later staged a sham marriage to James Moore, a gay actor, in a Dallas stadium, but the union lasted only ten years in name. Daisy also married briefly—to vaudevillian Harold Estep—but the marriage ended after just two weeks.

Daisy Hilton gets married in Dallas on July 29, 1936. Her conjoined twin Violet is on the right.

Adding to their personal turmoil, Daisy became pregnant during a brief relationship. Their agent pressured her into having an abortion, falsely claiming her life was at risk. Heartbroken, Daisy gave up the child at birth and never spoke of it again.

There was no shortage of men unfazed by the thought of marrying conjoined twins, although some, like Violet’s would-be husband Maurice Lambert, eventually tired of being denied official permission

Decline and Desperation

By the late 1930s, vaudeville’s decline left the twins struggling to find work. They turned to desperate measures, including performing in burlesque shows as “The World’s Only Strip-Teasing Siamese Twins.” In 1932, they appeared in the controversial film Freaks, which, though initially banned for its exploitation of people with disabilities, later gained cult status. Their final film, Chained for Life (1951), was a critical and commercial failure, and by the 1950s, the twins were financially destitute.

Attempting to reinvent themselves, Violet and Daisy opened a hot dog stand in Miami, ambitiously named "The Hilton Sisters' Snack Bar." Initially successful, the venture faltered as the novelty wore off, and neighbouring vendors ostracised the twins. They closed the business within a year. Reduced to selling makeup door-to-door, they faced constant rejection and ridicule.

By the early 1960s, the twins were living in Charlotte, North Carolina, where local business owners and church elders offered them jobs and housing. They worked at a grocery store as produce weighers, eking out a modest but stable existence.

The sisters in later years

A Tragic End

In December 1968, Violet and Daisy contracted the Hong Kong flu. Isolated and without adequate care, they failed to report to work. Concerned, their employers contacted the police, who discovered the twins’ lifeless bodies in their home. Daisy had died first, and Violet, unable to summon help, succumbed shortly after. Their shared circulatory system meant that Violet would not have survived more than a few hours, despite sensationalised reports suggesting otherwise.

With just $1,000 to their names, the twins were buried in a shared grave alongside a Vietnam veteran, Troy Thompson, at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Charlotte. Their funeral was a quiet affair, attended by friends and co-workers who had shown them kindness in their final years.

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