The Lives and Loves of Daisy and Violet Hilton: A True Story of Conjoined Twins (55 page)
Read The Lives and Loves of Daisy and Violet Hilton: A True Story of Conjoined Twins Online
Authors: Dean Jensen
21.
“The girls must have the idea they can make ‘whoopee’ ”: Myer Myers, ibid.
Pages 166–1891.
“The arrogance of this man”: Martin Arnold, “Hilton Case Delayed for Three Days,”
San Antonio Light
, January 16, 1931.
2.
“I intend to use Myers as my first witness”: Martin Arnold,
San Antonio Express
, January 17, 1931.
3.
“Do you mean to say the defendants are trying to dodge the proceedings?”: ibid.
4.
“Since Mr. Thomas J. Saunders claims there is no need”: ibid.
5.
“I do not know”: Thomas J. Saunders,
San Antonio Express
, op. cit.
6.
“We will furnish counsel”: ibid.
7.
“It’s different from the stage”: Daisy,
San Antonio Light
, January 16, 1931.
8.
Rose said he would travel to San Antonio to “tell the true story of the girls”: Ike Rose, “Hilton Sisters Hearing Set for Monday,”
San Antonio Light
, January 16, 1931, 1.
9.
“My clients say that Ike Rose”: Saunders, ibid.
10.
“This is not a show”: W. W. McCrory,
San Antonio Express
, January 21, 1931.
11.
“I don’t know”: Myer Myers, “Myers Says He Spent $213,000 of Cash Made By Hilton Twins,”
San Antonio Express
, January 20, 1931.
12.
“In a way”: ibid.
13.
“If this man makes another remark like that”: Arnold, ibid.
14.
“I do not wish to turn this into a personal matter”: ibid.
15.
“It was bought with
my
money”: Myers, ibid.
16.
“We did not need him in the act”: ibid.
17.
“Well there were other reasons”: ibid.
18.
“I considered it my money”: ibid.
19.
“That was just a big publicity splash”: ibid.
20.
“Never in my life!”: ibid.
21.
“Spectators must respect the decorum of the court”: W. W. McCrory, “Decision In Siamese Twins Receivership Case Due Today,”
San Antonio Express
, January 21, 1931.
22.
“When we hesitated”: Violet, ibid.
23.
“No sir”: ibid.
24.
“He told us we were born in England and had no rights in this country”: ibid.
25.
“I never swore at him”: ibid.
26.
“In about 1929 when we found out that we were not being treated right”: ibid.
27.
“The doctors told us they could not possibly live”: Edith Myers,
San Antonio Express
, January 21, 1931.
28.
“We gave them the best teachers we could find”: Edith Myers, ibid.
29.
“The girls came to me in 1929 and demanded to know who their mother and father was”: ibid.
30.
She screamed, “How much do you expect to take?”: ibid.
31.
“Which one of your press agents gave you that?”: Saunders,
San Antonio Light
, January 21, 1931.
32.
“I knew my client was at a disadvantage”: ibid.
33.
As another part of his ruling:
San Antonio Light
, 1, January 21, 1931.
34.
“Jack Dempsey was nothing but a ham-and-egger”: W. W. McCrory,
Variety
, January 31, 1931.
35.
“Our freedom was the most important part”: Violet,
Lives and Loves
, op. cit.
36.
A few nights after McCrory handed down his decision: Pat Hammond, San Antonio, Texas, interview with author, May 19, 1996.
37.
Daisy and Violet remembered the night of their liberation this way:
Lives and Loves
. Op. cit.
pages 190–2131.
“You were not conscious of it after you were with them”: Lucille Stotzer in Bill Hendrick, “We Just Want to Be Normal,”
San Antonio Express
, September 29, 1985.
2.
“Daisy would have a date”: Stotzer,
San Antonio Express
, 1969.
3.
“We would just be sitting there chatting”: Moore in MacMillan interview, op. cit.
4.
“It gave us grave moments and much wonderment”: Daisy,
Lives and Loves
, op. cit.
5.
“I have thought it out”: Don Galvan, ibid.
6.
“Violet still carried a torch for Blue Steele”: Daisy, ibid.
7.
“I know that I should not like a separation from the man I married”: ibid.
8.
“Every day they sweep, scrub and dust their little flat”: “Why the Siamese Twins Left Home,”
San Antonio Express
, March 1, 1931.
9.
“We would like to adopt a child”: Daisy,
San Antonio Express
, January 13, 1931.
10.
“They all started wearing sunglasses and acting funny”: Johnny Eck in Joe Colluras, “Johnny Eck—Beyond Measure,”
Classic Images
, 139, July 1991, 51.
11.
“She was grand and ritzy”: Leila Hyams in Grace Macks, “Venus and the Freaks,”
Screenplay
, April, 1932.
12.
“First I met the midget”: Olga Baclanova in John Kobal,
People Will Talk
. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1985, 52.
13.
“He was so handsome”: Baclanova, ibid.
14.
Willard Sheldon … remembered Daisy and Violet as “bright, intelligent girls”: Willard Sheldon, Los Angeles, California, interview with author, October 25, 1995.
15.
“They were lovely girls”: ibid.
16.
Joined by other M-G-M employees from floor sweepers to executives: Harry Rapf quoted by Samuel Marx interview Elias Savada, Los Angeles, California, April 4, 1972, cited in David J. Skal and Elias Savada,
Dark Carnival: The Secret World of Tod Browning
. New York: Anchor Books, 1995, 168.
17.
“I’d not only make [people] laugh. I’d make them love me”: Marie Dressler,
The Life Story of An Ugly Duckling
. New York: R. M. McBride, 1924, 24.
18.
“Scott and I had no sooner seated ourselves”: Dwight Taylor,
Joy Ride
. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1969, 247, 248.
19.
“Just about every day you picked up the paper”: Sheldon, op. cit.
20.
“Daisy and Violet are more than pretty”: Faith Service, “The Amazing Life Stories of the Freaks!”,
Motion Picture
, April, 1932, 100.
21.
They had a “big sedan”: ibid.
22.
“We’re happier now than we’ve ever been”: Daisy, ibid.
23.
“Halfway through the preview”: Merrill Pye in Skal and Savada,
Dark Carnival: The Secret World of Tod Browning
, 174. Op. cit.
24.
“Everyone who worked on the film wanted to go into hiding”: Sheldon, op. cit.
Pages 214–2331.
He had seen Daisy for only seconds: “One of the Hilton Sisters to Marry,”
American Weekly
, circa 1934.
2.
“Probably the most delicate of all Jack’s courtship’s problems”:
New York American
, April 23, 1933.
3.
“Both of the girls are swell”: Jack Lewis, ibid.
4.
“Here’s a nickel”: ibid.
5.
[Blue] then mounted the stand: Don Dearness, “Blue Steele Emerges Second Best from Fray,”
Billboard
, April 18, 1931, 23.
6.
“The Hilton sisters created a sensation”:
Variety
, February 14, 1933, 52.
7.
“I love to defeat an opponent, it’s true”: Harry Mason, “Harry Mason Admits, ‘Yes, I’m a Pensioner,’ ”
London Daily Express
, December 22, 1938.
8.
“It’s not exactly Keats”: ibid.
9.
“… To my great relief”: Violet,
Lives and Loves
, op. cit.
10.
“I used to go on dates with Violet and Harry”: Daisy,
Lives and Loves
, op. cit.
11.
“They were a grand pair”: Albert Dunk, “They Were the Greatest Double Act In the Business,”
Brighton and Hove Gazette
, January 10, 1969.
12.
The twins, according to Albert Dunk: ibid.
13.
“The poor girls must have been heartbroken”: Haestier interview, op. cit.
14.
“Brighton is taking its own Siamese twins very much to its heart”:
Brighton Herald
, 1933.
15.
“I remember them at two grand pianos”: Dunk, op. cit.
16.
“… They are performers of real merit”: Frederick H. U. Bowman, “The Hilton Sisters,”
World’s Fair
, Oldham, England, May 27, 1933.
17.
In Wolverhampton: caption on photograph from
Wolverhampton Express & Star
, undated.
18.
“Harry Mason … has made a great comeback”:
The Ring Magazine
, August, 1933.
19.
“I’m quite sure we will be the happiest foursome in the world”: Violet,
New York American
, October 15, 1933.
20.
“We’re tired of vaudeville and tired of exhibiting ourselves”: Violet, ibid.
21.
“Jack has been writing to me almost every day”: Daisy, ibid.
Pages 234–2551.
“I danced with one twin”: Moore in MacMillan interview, op. cit.
2.
“The formula we had was an especially good one”: ibid.
3.
“Violet and Daisy are, with the exception of the joining of their bodies”:
New York Herald
, undated.
4.
“Too bad only one of them cared for boys”: 174, Dufour, op. cit.
5.
“Both girls were the sweetest things:” Fernandez, op. cit.
6.
“Moore said that Violet and Daisy were nymphomaniacs”: John Bramhall, San Antonio, Texas, in interview with author, January 6, 1996.
7.
“One thing we agree on”: Daisy,
Lives and Loves
, op. cit.
8.
“Ah …” was the only sound he was able to emit: Julius Brossen,
New York Sun
, July 5, 1934.
9.
“We want to get married as soon as we can”: Maurice Lambert, ibid.