Daisy and Violet Hilton

AKA:

The Hilton Sisters

Birth Name:

Birth Date:

February 5, 1908

Birth Place:

18 Riley Road, Brighton, England

Death Date:

January 4, 1969

Place of Death:

2204 Weyland Avenue, Charlotte, North Carolina

Age:

Cause of Death:

Hong Kong flu

Cemetery Name:

Forest Lawn West

Claim to Fame:

The Odd and the Interesting

Daisy and Violet Hilton, born in the early 1900s in Brighton, England, were conjoined twins joined at the hip and buttocks. Their lives were a blend of exploitation and fame, marked by challenges and achievements. Born to an unmarried barmaid, Kate Skinner, the twins were sold to her employer, Mary Hilton, who saw their potential as a spectacle. Under Mary Hilton's care, they were trained as performers and toured extensively, particularly in the U.S., where they were exhibited as "freaks" in sideshows and carnivals. After Mary's death, the twins became the wards of her daughter and son-in-law, Edith and Meyer Myers, who continued exploiting them financially and refusing to allow them out in public unless they were performing. They later gained legal independence in 1931 after suing the Myers family, receiving $100,000 in restitution (far below what they earned). The Hiltons became vaudeville stars, captivating their audiences with their talents including dancing, singing and playing instruments. Despite their fame, the Hilton sisters faced significant personal challenges. Exploitation in their early years left them unprepared to manage their finances and lives independently. They attempted romantic relationships, but societal prejudice and legal barriers prevented marriage. Their brief appearance in Tod Browning's 1932 cult classic film Freaks and the 1951 biopic Chained for Life showcased their lives but didn't lead to lasting success. As vaudeville declined, the sisters struggled financially. They ended up working in a grocery store in Charlotte, North Carolina. In 1969, they died of the Hong Kong flu, passing within days of each other due to their physical connection.

What an Interesting Life …

The Hiltons’ last public appearance was in 1961, at a drive-in theater in Charlotte, North Carolina. Without warning, their tour manager abandoned them there with no means of transportation or income. They applied for a job in a nearby grocery store called the Park ‘n Shop, offering to work for one salary. The owner Charles Reid hired them at two full salaries and designed a discreet two-person cashier station so that customers could not tell the sisters were conjoined. The Hiltons rented a small two bedroom home courtesy of the shop owner’s church, Purcell United Methodist, and settled into a quiet life, involving work and church. During the holidays they remembered fellow employees and favorite customers with Christmas gifts.

At the time of their birth in 1908, Daisy and Violet Hilton were not separated because the Sussex Medico-Chirurgical Society unanimously decided that the operation would likely kill one or both of the twins. The twins were the first conjoined twins to be born in the UK and survive for more than a few weeks. However today the conjoined twins could have been separated through a low-risk surgery as they didn’t share any vital organs or blood vessels. ⁠

While declared dead on January 4th, in late December Violet caught the Hong Kong flu but recovered. Daisy then caught the flu and lingered for a week. When found it looked like Violet dragged Daisy to the heating grate in the living room of the small house to keep her warm. Daisy died on approximately January 1, 1969 while Violet died 2 days later. They never answered the phone as they lied dying in there home.

Cemetery Information:

Final Resting Place:

Forest Lawn West

4601 Freedom Drive

Charlotte, North Carolina, 28208

USA

North America

Map:

Map of Forest Lawn West in Charlotte, NC

Grave Location:

Thompson Family Plot, Section M, Lot 313, Grave 2

Grave Location Description

As you enter the cemetery, drive straight ahead until the road ends at Section L. Turn right and drive 200 feet to the end of the road and turn left. Drive 100 feet (6 rows of monuments) and park. Look to your left and count 2 memorials in and look for the “Thompson” upright monument. The Hilton Sisters rest together as in life.

Grave Location GPS

35.256353, -80.916929

Photos:

[+]

Videos Featuring Daisy and Violet Hilton:

Jordon the Lion: Conjoined Twins Grave Daisy and Violet Hilton

Freaks (1932) - Daisy and Violet Scene

Daisy and Violet Hilton: The Siamese Twins of Vaudeville

Siamese twins performing household tasks (1924)

Tragic Lives Of Conjoined Twins Daisy And Violet Hilton

The Hilton Sisters (singing siamese twins) 1951

Bound by Flesh - Official Trailer

Love Thief - Violet and Daisy Hilton

The intriguing story of Daisy and Violet Hilton

See More:

Eben Byers

popular name: Eben Byers

date_of_death: March 31, 1932

age: 51

cause_of_death: Cancer due to excessive radiation exposure

claim_to_fame: The Odd and the Interesting

best_know_for: Eben Byers, popular Pittsburgh sportsman, socialite and industrialist, fell out of an upper berth in 1927 returning from a Yale-Harvard football game and injured his arm. His Pittsburgh physiotherapist, Dr. Charles Clinton Moyar, prescribed a patented drink called ''Radithor." Radithor, a popular and expensive mixture of radium 226 and radium 228 in distilled water, was advertised as an effective treatment for over 150 "endocrinologic" diseases, especially lassitude and sexual impotence. Over 400 000 bottles, each containing over 2 μCi (74 kBq) of radium, were marketed and sold worldwide between 1925 and 1930. Byers was drinking in excess of 3-4 bottles a day for years, claiming the elixir eased the arm pain and gave him a little energy boost. He enthusiastically recommended it to friends, sent them cases of it, even gave some to one of his horses. but stopped in October 1930 (after taking some 1400 doses) when that effect faded. Soon after he lost weight, had horrible headaches and his teeth began to fall out. In 1931, the Federal Trade Commission asked him to testify about his experience, but he was too sick to travel, so the commission sent a lawyer to take his statement at his home; the lawyer reported that Byers's "whole upper jaw, excepting two front teeth and most of his lower jaw had been removed" and that "All the remaining bone tissue of his body was disintegrating, and holes were actually forming in his skull." The death of the Pittsburgh millionaire sportsman Eben M. Byers, who was an avid Radithor user, by radium poisoning in 1932 brought an end to this era and prompted the development of regulatory controls for all radiopharmaceuticals.

Quinta Maggia McDonald

popular name: Quinta Maggia McDonald

date_of_death: December 7, 1929

age: 29

cause_of_death: Radium sarcoma, industrial poisoning

claim_to_fame: The Odd and the Interesting

best_know_for: Quinta Maggia McDonald was the middle child of seven Maggia sisters; listed in order of age: Louise, Clara, Albina, Mollie, Quinta, Irma and Josephine. Children of Italian immigrants, Albina, Mollie, Quinta and Irma all worked in the radium-dial factory. Quinta was recruited to work at the United States Radium Corporation in Orange, New Jersey as a dial-painter. Like her sisters she would end up paying the price. The initial effects of radium seemed harmless, and the substance was popular amongst the younger girls in the factory. They would go home from a day of painting with their clothes glowing from the radium exposure. Some would even paint the buttons on their dresses or their nails, but the joy of the radium glow was short lived. Long-term radiation sickness symptoms soon became present among many of the women who worked with radium paint. Common issues included bone cancer, anemia, lesions, and sores. These problems were exhibited in Amelia Maggia, the first dial painter to die from radiation sickness. After Amelia's death, Quinta initially went to the doctor complaining of dental pain where her teeth began to just drop out of her mouth. Unlike her sister before her, she received a diagnoses of radium poisoning and was told there was no cure. Sometime later she noticed pain in her ankles, legs and hips and was put into plaster casts to keep her immobile in the chance this might bring some relieve. Upon her final hospitalization the doctors noticed a large sarcoma on her leg - the kind of bone tumor that killed a fellow Radium Girl a year before. She eventually lapsed into a coma and died at the age of 29 leaving behind two young children.

Daisy and Violet Hilton

Cemetery Information:

Final Resting Place:

Map:

Grave Location:

Grave Location Description

Grave Location GPS

Photos:

Read More About Daisy and Violet Hilton:

Videos Featuring Daisy and Violet Hilton:

See More:

Eben Byers

Quinta Maggia McDonald

Charles Atlas