Hello, friends. Each of us at some point wanted what it’d be like to live in a different time period. How would your personality and values fit in a completely different reality? We can say with certainty that if. It were possible to move people from the past past into our modern world, their fate would turn out differently.
This definitely would have been the case. For the heroines of our story today. A single surgery and a more moral society would have given them a long and happy life. However, they were destined to be born at a time when technology did not yet play such a big role in our lives. On February 5, 1908, a sensation occurred in the English city of Brighton.
21 year old Kate Skinner gave birth. To two girls conjoined twins. The birth of such rare children always attracted a lot of attention. That is why the doctors who delivered the babies described the condition in detail in a special journal. The girls were attached by the buttocks and thighs. They had one circulatory system and not a single organ in common.
It was impossible to separate them without. Killing one of the sisters. If the babies were born today, their separation would not have been difficult. But in those days, there was not a single specialist who would risk the twins lives. Despite the doctor’s sad predictions that the.
Newborns would not live past one month, the babies held on to life tightly and their condition remained stable. It is unclear how their mother’s life turned out. Kate worked as a waitress in a. Pub and gave birth to the children. Out of a wedlock. She sincerely believed that the birth of. Such unusual children was punishment for her sins. She decided not to take on such. A huge responsibility and sold her children.
To a midwife named Mary Hilton. Why did a total stranger want these children? Unfortunately, the answer is obvious. This wasn’t a charitable act by Mary. Instead, she understood that those children could. Make her a fortune and so decided to buy the strange babies from their unfortunate mother. At that time, this transaction was not.
Something out of the ordinary, so it did not attract the attention of the police. It also did not surprise doctors who were very pessimistic about the children’s prospects. The girl’s new guardian named them Daisy and Violet and gave them her last name. At the age of three, she brought them to a pub called The Evening Star, where she made them perform for the public. At that time, freak shows in which. People with physical disabilities performed were very popular.
Although some of the performers were able to earn decent money and end their. Lives as wealthy people. I’ll get ahead of myself to say that Daisy and violence had a very different fate. They were considered property of their adoptive mother and lived in a rented room in that same bar. Their so called mother humiliated them by.
Letting anyone come gawk at them for a small price of two pennies. Still, it is worth to note that. Mary also taught the girls to draw, play musical instruments and sing. The girls were able to achieve some. Success in the art world, but unfortunately. At a high price. Time passed, and the slightly older sisters looked like a pair of dolls on stage. They had blonde curly hair and wore cute dresses as they sat side by side playing their musical instruments.
The audience loved their duets, playing the. Piano and the violin. For their so called mother, this was. Merely a way to make money. She began to take them on tour to Germany and Austria, where they began to learn about the world and earn decent money. When Mary died, life didn’t come easier for the girls. Mary’s daughter Edith and her husband Meyer Meyers, a merchant from Australia, became the girl’s guardians. They were happy to continue exploiting them.
The Myers came up with a vaudeville performance for the girls in which the. Sisters played the saxophone and the violin. Enchantingly. In the 1920s, Daisy and Violet found great success performing in different countries. They brought in such large audiences that they could make as much as $5,000 a day. They even crossed paths with different celebrities, including Charlie Chaplin.
However, the twins never saw the money that they earned. Edith, on the other hand, bought herself a house in Texas and never denied herself expensive clothes or other luxuries. The girls freedom was out of the question. They were forbidden to go outside during. Peak hours because nobody would pay to see them perform if they could see them for free.
However, it was simply impossible to completely isolate the twins. After all, they were in the world of show business and eventually got to know some very influential people. The first person who treated them as individuals with distinct personalities was the famous illusionist Harry Houdini. He insisted that they rid themselves of their oppressive guardians.
In court, they couldn’t have known that this acquaintanceship be so fateful. Thanks to the illusionist’s help, daisy and Violet found a lawyer named Martin Arnold. Not only was he able to terminate their contract, but he was also able to completely free the 21 year old. Woman from the Myers. Only in 1931 did the twins receive full compensation for all the years of exploitation in the amount of $100,000.
They also got US. Citizenship and their long awaited freedom. It was the happiest time in their lives. They threw away their matching dresses, brought the most fashionable clothes, got different haircuts, each to their own liking, and plunged into the world of pleasure, their new way of life. Boisterous parties and famous acquaintances made them an even more popular conversation topic. Soon, the sisters discovered the possibility of romantic relationships. There were rumors that the girls had many fans.
When one of the sisters was having. A romantic evening, the second one would simply turn away and concentrate on a book doing her absolute best not to bother the other sister. Both women even ended up getting married several times. But these marriages were very scandalous. For example, in 1936, Violet married actor James Moore. The wedding took place at the newly.
Opened Dallas Stadium in 1941, but after. Two weeks, the couple divorced. Later, the woman admitted that the only. Purpose of that wedding was to entertain the public. Daisy’s chosen one was dancer Harold I Deb. Their marriage was also terminated after a week and a half for unknown reasons. Perhaps it was these relationships that were. Motivation for the sisters to write their.
Own autobiography, the Life and Love of the Hilton Sisters. In the book, they detailed their difficult life and relationships. Indeed, the public reacted negatively to the. Twin sham weddings and their popularity gradually began to dwindle. Time was also not their friend. They were aging. The unusual appearance of the two talented middle aged women no longer excited the audience. The twins didn’t want to simply give up and decided to do something that.
The public really liked. In the past, they starred in a film titled Chained for Life, based on their personalized stories. This time, however, their gamble failed. The film was failing in the box. Office, but there was still hope that. It would have more success once it was shown than drive in theaters around the country. It was played in the theater for the last time in 1961 in North Carolina. In the meantime, the sister’s tour manager ran away with all their savings. This was a real blow, after which.
The sisters were forced to take a. Job in the most ordinary grocery store. I’ll get ahead of myself to say. That this is where they worked for. The rest of their lives. The store staff loved Daisy and Violet. And the manager even built a special cash register for them to be comfortable. Perhaps they still had a hope to one day return to show business. Every day they came to work dressed in colorful outfits and full makeup, as.
If they were going on stage. Such a miracle, however, never did happen. On the eve of 1969, Daisy came down with the flu and passed away in early January. Violet died several days later. The sisters were discovered by health workers. When the store owner sounded the alarm that they had not been at work. For several days heard their wishes.
Daisy and Violet were buried in the same grave. They were 60 years old when they died. It is true that Daisy and Violet had very difficult lives both in the physical and emotional sense. However, as you can see, they did not deny themselves pleasure and live their lives to the fullest, even though they had to share a body. No one knows how their fate would have turned out if they were not born conjoined. But Daisy and Violet’s powerful sisterly bond helped them survive even the most difficult and unpredictable moments in life to date.
The story of the Hilton Sisters is. One of the most popular and well documented twin stories. I simply had to share it. Friends, what do you think? Do you think the sisters led and happy lives? Make sure to share your opinions in the comments. That’s all for today. Thank you for Reading.
