Siamese twins Daisy and Violet Hilton were born in February 1908. It seemed that in those days they could only expect a life in poverty, far from people, or, on the contrary, the position of “living wonders” in a circus of freaks. But Violet and Daisy did the impossible: they left for the USA, became variety show stars and even led a rich personal life - but they died, poor and forgotten by everyone, in the wilderness of North Carolina.
Siamese twins Violet and Daisy Hilton are the owners of an incredible destiny. They were born in 1908 in Great Britain, and twenty years later they were already stars of the New York variety show, earning incredible money at that time - $5,000 a week, which corresponds to today's $65,000. In 1934, the girls found themselves at the center of a huge scandal when Violet Hilton announced that she wanted to officially marry her fiancé Maurice Lambert. But the city authorities did not give permission for the wedding, saying that such a marriage would not be traditional in the full sense of the word - that is, a union of only two people. Violet and Daisy made it to the front pages of all American newspapers, further strengthening their fame.
Violet and Daisy's mother was an unmarried 21-year-old waitress from Sussex, Kate Skinner. Kate was horrified by her daughters: she was sure that the girls, joined at the back in the area of the lower spine, were God's punishment for the fact that she gave birth out of wedlock. Immediately after giving birth, Kate gave the girls to the 55-year-old midwife Mary Hilton who received them. At first, the ambitious woman made money from girls from birth: she showed them to neighbors for money, then she began taking two-year-old Violet and Daisy to fairs. The girls learned to play musical instruments, and by the age of eight they had already become a national attraction: they went on tour to Australia and Europe, and in 1916 they were sent on a long tour to the USA. By that time, Mary Hilton had retired, and her son-in-law, the businesslike and cruel Myer Myers, became the manager - or rather, the owner - of the girls.
Myers exerted strict control over the girls. “Who will look at you for money if you show up for free every now and then?” - he said and did not even let them out into the street. To prevent them from running away, Myers lived in the same room with them for many years, never leaving them alone for a minute. He made them into the popular duet "The Siamese Twins of San Antonio." The girls played the piano, violin and clarinet, sang and even danced with their partners, delighting the audience.
In the end, the twins rebelled against their tormentor: when Myers one day in anger broke a bouquet sent to him by a fan, they attacked him, beat him and tore his shirt. Stunned, Myers agreed to give them more freedom. Overjoyed, the twins plunged headlong into the sea of love pleasures. One day they both fell in love with a married man named Bill Oliver and were so jealous of each other that they did not speak for several days. Another time, Violet found herself a groom - Maurice Lambert. According to the girls, they could easily lead separate personal lives, since their friend, the great illusionist Harry Houdini, taught them how to isolate their consciousness, to be mentally absent from each other when they needed it.
In 1931, the Hilton twins sued Myer Myers, demanding to be released from the contract with the impresario imposed on them. The court gave them their freedom and ordered him to pay Violet and Daisy $100,000 (about $1.5 million in today's money). But then they began to have difficulties: cinema was replacing variety shows, and the girls soon began to need money. They had to do anything to make money: they starred in the disgusting film "Freaks", which, under pressure from the public and film studios, was soon withdrawn from cinemas. Soon, Violet agreed to marry gay actor Jim Moore for the sake of a fee - for the sake of a fee for the low-grade performance that their wedding became. In 1941, Daisy also married vaudeville actor Buddy Sawyer, who also turned out to be gay. This marriage lasted only 10 days. Things went from bad to worse for the girls, and during World War II they performed in a third-rate establishment as “the world’s only Siamese twin strippers.”
In 1951, the Hilton sisters made an autobiographical film, Chained for Life, but critics left no stone unturned. In the end, they were left penniless and settled in the town of Charlotte, North Carolina, where they lived in a modest house near a church and worked part-time in a local store. Local residents helped them out of pity. By that time, doctors had repeatedly suggested that the sisters separate them, but they were deathly afraid of doctors and categorically refused such proposals.
On Christmas Day 1967, the 59-year-old sisters fell ill with a severe flu. They still refused to see doctors and treated themselves, staying at home. After the holidays, local residents told the police that the sisters had not left the house for several days. Police broke into the house and found the twins dead. As experts later reported, Daisy died first. Violet remained alive for a couple more days, but did not even think to contact the doctors. The sisters were buried in the local cemetery.
