The Lives and Loves of Daisy and Violet Hilton: A True Story of Conjoined Twins

Ten Speed Press
PO Box 7123
Berkeley, CA 94707
www.tenspeed.com

Distributed in Australia by Simon and Schuster Australia, in Canada by Ten Speed Press Canada, in New Zealand by Southern Publishers Group, in South Africa by Real Books, and in the United Kingdom and Europe by Publishers Group UK.

Interior design by BookMatters

Frontispiece:
MGM publicity still of Violet
(
left
)
and Daisy
(
right
)
Hilton, 1932, shortly before the release of Tod Browning’s film
Freaks.
On the reverse side of the photograph is the following studio caption
: “Daisy and Violet Hilton, pretty Siamese twins, have long been famous in side shows but make their motion picture debut in the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer picture
Freaks
. They are accomplished musicians, each playing the saxophone very well and though they have been joined since birth they enjoy the best of health. Strangely enough, these twins have entirely different likes and dislikes.” (Author’s collection)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data on file with the publisher.

eISBN: 978-0-307-81477-7

v3.1

For my wife, Rosemary, my daughters, Jennifer and Jessica,
and my son, Dane Marco, with love
.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Daisy and Violet Hilton existed for me only in the most faintly drawn outlines when I first thought about writing their story. For bringing the sisters vividly to life, I am indebted to many who, unless they requested otherwise, are identified in the text and in the footnotes. While they are not renamed here, it should be understood that their contributions were enormous.

It was complicated to keep the twins in sight during their early years abroad. I am grateful to those who assumed the tedious job of tracking the sisters’ movements. These able researchers include: in England, Paul Braithwaite, Joan Goddard, Mervyn B. Harding, Mr. and Mrs. R. D. Harvey, P. D. Rooth, Pete Stanifroth, Lady Teviott, and Ned Williams; in Australia, Wendy Baker, Peter A. D. Fogarty, Joe Hobson, Mark V. St. Leon and especially Sam Marshall and Sophie Townsend; in the Netherlands, Bert Degenaar.

Fred Dahlinger Jr., former director of the Robert L. Parkinson Library at the Circus World Museum in Baraboo, Wisconsin, and a longtime friend, would nearly qualify as the book’s co-producer. Others who extended especially helpful favors: Elfrieda Abbe, Carol W. Auspacher, Kitty Caparella, William Fitzhugh Fox, Joseph Haestier, Ken Harck, Ward Hall, Lynn Keziah, Johnny Meah, Carol Ness, Bill Russell, David J. Skal, Al C. Stencell, James Taylor, Bill Whiting, Dale Whitmore, and the late Gretchen Worden.

There are two new women in my life as result of this project. Susan Subtle took an early interest in the Hiltons’ story, gently goaded me to keep writing, and hand-delivered the manuscript to Phil Wood, publisher of Ten Speed Press. My feelings of gratitude for Susan are without bounds, and this is also true for Veronica Randall, my editor at Ten Speed. She made innumerable improvements and, magically it almost seems to me, infused the book’s narrative with the kind of texture and animation that now feels absolutely right.

Lastly, I thank my dear wife, Rosemary, who read the earliest drafts of the book. I noted every page where I saw her nodding off, and determined these parts of the story needed some attention. I thank her, too, for her ongoing support and tolerance of my many absences as I searched, like some crazed groupie, for more on the remarkable story of Daisy and Violet Hilton.

CONTENTS