Conjoined Twins Are the Best! Book Review, 'The Lives and Loves of Daisy and Violet Hilton'

Hands down, this book is the best I have ever read about conjoined twins!  Katherine Dunn’s ‘Geek Love’ still has my heart for the best fictional book about sideshow freaks, but now it has to share space with Dean Jensen’s non-fiction masterpiece. 

‘The Lives and Loves of Daisy and Violet Hilton’ starts appropriately enough at their birth in Brighton, England in 1908.  Born to an unwed mother who viewed their deformity as punishment for her sexual indiscretion/s she prayed for their deaths.  When that didn’t happen she signed over their care to the midwife who delivered them.  Their absentee father was rumored to be the son of the town’s newspaper scion (Kate Skinner, their mother, was a maid to the family) or the local barber. 

Although not educated, midwife Mary Hilton, of whom the girls took their names, was savvy enough to know what a golden opportunity Siamese twins (the term ‘Siamese’ popularized nearly a century earlier by Chang and Ang Bunker) could mean to her drinking establishment.  Thus taking on both the mantle of angel to the public, and harsh task master to the girls in private, she made the girls work for their gruel.  It didn’t take her long to figure that her girls could earn even more money for her on the road exhibiting at wax museums and other saloons.  Under Mary’s tutelage the band of travelers, which included the twins, Mary's husband and adult daughter, eventually made it to Scotland where a chance encounter with Harry Houdini lead to a world tour for the then toddler aged twins. 

Inspired by another conjoined sister act, along with being a natural showwoman, Mary had the girls tutored to sing, play instruments, and even dance.  Although fused at the pelvis and joined at the hips and buttocks, the girls shared blood circulation but no major organs.  (Most likely today they would have been separated surgically soon after birth.)  Daisy and Violet were considered beautiful along with graceful and charming.  Their act was a cut above other conjoined twin performers in that they left their audiences feeling awe over pity. 

The Hiltons toured Europe with both success and disappointment (war was in the air) before moving onto the Land Down Under where they didn’t quite make the splash that everyone hoped for.  With financial troubles back in the states, their agent (whom Mary signed a contract) left them in Australia for what he described a short time.  They then went on ‘walk about’ with traveling carival shows during one of the hottest summers in Australian history.  Amongst heat stroke, Mary’s daughter Edith married a fellow carnival traveler/balloon salesman, Myer Myers.  Seeing potential in the cute singing/dancing/comedic golden Hilton twins, Myers hatched a plan to conquer America.  Soon after Mary, now widowed and feeling her age, gave him control over the girls. 

I would tell you more, but already I think you are getting a taste as to how delicious this book was to read.  It took me in directions I wasn’t planning on contemplating.  For instance, Bob Hope was a dancing partner to the girls during their vaudeville days.  There were delightful tidbits such as when the teenaged Hiltons met back up with Houdini he showed each of them how to separate themselves mentally from the other.  Further, there is a historic scope within this book that may not have been the intention of Jensen, but is very enlightening.  There are also parts of the Hilton story that Charles Dickens probably regrets not thinking up, although to the credit of Mark Twain - he did.  (Twain’s short story, ‘Those Extraordinary Twins’ was used as the plot for the girls’ movie, ‘Chained For Life’).  Twain may have thought ‘conjoined twins + murder = short story glory!’  What he didn’t write about was what happens to beautiful dancing singing twins once their pretty faces start to sag and wrinkle yet they are still joined at the hip.  He didn't pen what sort of odd jobs the twosome could be capable. 

At one point in their careers they even worked as strippers.  (I’m going to let you chew on that mentally for a moment before moving on.) 

Okay, moving on.

‘Lives and Loves’ is a much better caliber of book then I could have hoped for when I ordered it.  As a literary effort it is more engrossing at the beginning then at the end, and not because the end dwells on the sisters’ fall from grace.  As I referenced earlier, there is a historic scope that the latter part of the book does not embrace as much.  My major complaint is that I really wanted to know what happened to certain people involved in the lives of Daisy and Violet after their connections with the twins were severed.  Particularly Myer Myers and his family.  Yet, this is a trifle considering the ups and downs of the Hilton sisters’ lives that Jensen delves into in great detail. 

What is so interesting about Daisy and Violet is that they have made an impact on collective consciousness pop culture but few of us know that the idea of beautiful conjoined twin enchantresses was based on real people.  Like so many performers of yesteryear they were hugely popular before fading away, but now with this book and a decade old Broadway play called 'Side Show,' which was loosely based on them (Where the F*#$ was I in 1997?  If I knew there was a Broadway show about conjoined twins I would have walked to New York City barefooted in the snow just to see it!) the Hiltons may find themselves rediscovered.  Perhaps someday soon if someone asks, 'Will the most famous Hilton sisters in the world to please stand up?'  The answer will be, not so fast Nicky and Paris, Daisy and Violet take a bow.

copyright 2007 Westerfield