The Lives and Loves of Daisy and Violet Hilton: A True Story of Conjoined Twins (56 page)
Read The Lives and Loves of Daisy and Violet Hilton: A True Story of Conjoined Twins Online
Authors: Dean Jensen
10.
“Then, after a time, Violet and I realized we were in love”: ibid.
11.
“The very idea is quite immoral and indecent”: William C. Chanler, “Pygopagus Marriage,”
Time
, July 16, 1934, 20.
12.
“I can’t give you a license”: Harry Reichenstein,
New York American
, July 6, 1934.
13.
“How do they expect a girl to be moral?”: Violet, ibid.
14.
“Why shouldn’t I marry?”: Violet, “Twin Still Plans Early Marriage,” interview with Lady Terrington,
New York Mirror
, July 7, 1934.
15.
“I want children,” Violet replied. “A boy and a girl”: ibid.
16.
Many of the wires came from jerkwater towns”: City Wedding of Siamese Twin,”
New York Times
, July 6, 1934, 19.
17.
“
I am Violet Hilton
”: Fox Movietone, July 1934. The author is grateful to James Taylor, publisher of
Shocked and Amazed!
for providing the author with a copy of this newsreel.
18.
Levy went on to argue: “A Ridge of Bone Upsets Violet’s Romance,”
American Weekly
, September 23, 1934.
19.
“In my opinion, Siamese twins are two persons”: Dr. D. H. L. Shapiro, “Siamese Twins One or Two Persons?”
Brooklyn Eagle
, July 10, 1934.
20.
“… Because of an accident of birth”: Levy, “Siamese Twin Wedding Held Publicity Stunt,”
San Francisco Examiner
, July 16, 1934.
21.
“I deny that”: Levy, ibid.
22.
“This cannot offend public decency”:
American Weekly
, September 23, 1934.
23.
“Any pair of male and female half wits”:
American Weekly
, 1934.
24.
Ibid.
Pages 256–2771.
“Harry is too conceited”: Daisy,
New York Daily Mirror
, July 7, 1936.
2.
“A semi-name band”: Moore in MacMillan interview, op. cit.
3.
“Both of the girls had boyfriends”: ibid.
4.
“Maybe there is someone in our band I like”: Daisy,
New York Daily Mirror
, op cit.
5.
“It may seem funny”: Daisy,
New York Daily American
, July 18, 1936.
6.
“They wanted,” Moore explained, “to have it done right”: Moore in MacMillan interview, op cit.
7.
“So the doctor says”: ibid.
8.
“It was the only time”; ibid.
9.
“Maurice … tried to get a marriage license”: Violet,
Lives and Loves
, op. cit.
10.
“That’s right,” he concurred”: Terry Turner, ibid.
11.
I’ll be your goat”: Violet, ibid.
12.
“I look up on the billboard”: Moore, op. cit.
13.
“It was too late”: ibid.
14.
“My daddy disowned me”: ibid.
15.
“I can’t go through with it”: Joe Rodgers,
Lives and Loves
, op. cit.
16.
“Rent a dress suit”: Turner, ibid.
17.
“Unhappy as a dog being washed”:
New York American
, August 23, 1936.
18.
“I looked into the crowd”: Violet, ibid.
19.
She was, she said, “convulsed with mirth”: Daisy, ibid.
20.
“When Jimmy kisses me goodnight”: Daisy,
New York American
, August 23, 1936.
21.
“That’s the real truth”: Daisy, ibid.
22.
“Jim Moore was as gay as a rag”: Rosengren, op cit.
23.
“I never slept with them”: Bramhall quoting Moore, interview with author, op. cit.
24.
“Your petitioners had no desire to be married”: petition for annulment filed in New Orleans District Court.
25.
“One of the girls—I don’t remember which”: Moore in MacMillan interview.
26.
“The girls had an offer to go to Minneapolis”: ibid.
Pages 278–2991.
“From the time the twins had come to America”: Rosengren, op. cit.
2.
“People may be willing to forgive”: Fernandez, op. cit.
3.
The conductor: “Marriage Was Just a Gag, ‘Siamese’ Twins Say Here,”
Minneapolis Tribune
, October 2, 1936.
4.
“If unable to collect”: ibid.
5.
“Don’t you read your own paper?”: Violet, ibid.
6.
The baby was a boy: Florenza Williams in letter dated January 7, 1969, to the Reverend John Stills, Charlotte, North Carolina.
7.
“She treated me as though I were the big bad wolf”: Moore in MacMillan interview, op. cit.
8.
“They were always writing or wiring Mom and Dad for money”: Rosengren, op. cit.
9.
“Financial security never seemed to be the least bit of concern”: Fernandez, op. cit.
10.
“They were just so generous with their money”: Moore in MacMillan interview, op. cit.
11.
“They became quite heavy drinkers”: Rosengren, op. cit.
12.
“They had fielded the same questions so often”: E. Burke Maloney,
Ashbury Press
, June 11, 1978.
13.
It was, Daisy imagined, going to be “fun”: Daisy,
Lives and Loves
, op. cit.
14.
“Whether we were sailing from New York”: Buddy Sawyer interview with author, November 20, 1997.
15.
“The twins, of course, were always the headliners”: ibid.
16.
“Probably the best times I had with Daisy and Violet”: ibid.
17.
Sawyer remembered: ibid.
18.
“Sometimes Daisy and Violet could get so angry with one another”: ibid.
19.
“Daisy liked to have a cocktail now and then”: ibid.
20.
“It happened in the wee small hours”: ibid.
21.
“I felt that her marriage”: Violet,
Lives and Loves
, op. cit.
22.
“I did not argue with my sister about her choice”: ibid.
23.
“I have made it my rule”: “Judge Buscaglia Dies In Midst of Campaign for Surrogate’s Court,”
Buffalo Evening News
, October 3, 1953.
24.
Because I had take a Siamese twin as a bride”: Sawyer, op. cit.
25.
“All that night and through every night and day”: Daisy,
Lives and Loves
, op. cit.
26.
“… One morning when we looked across the twin bed”: ibid.
27.
“Daisy is a lovely girl”: Sawyer, “Left His Bride Because Three’s a Crowd,”
American Weekly
, February 6, 1944.
28.
“Maybe it was my fault”: Sawyer interview with author, op. cit.
Pages 300–3191.
“The girls were so outstanding”: Theodore D. Kemp, Charlotte, North Carolina, interview with author, July 10, 1995.
2.
Desperate for some upturn in their fortunes: “Hilton Sisters Set By Jolly Joyce Agency,”
Billboard
, November 7, 1942.
3.
“It was Kentucky Derby time”; Bud Robinson, Los Angeles, California, interview with author, October 20, 1996.
4.
“We run into drunks and hecklers”: Violet,
Cincinnati Post
, June 13, 1958.
5.
“I don’t think there were another two entertainers”: Sawyer interview with author, op cit.
6.
Both had been long separated from their husbands:
Pittsburgh Press
, undated.
7.
It was then when the king of all Sunday newspaper supplements: Emile C. Schumacher,
Nothing’s Sacred On Sunday
. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1951.
8.
“… We still long to find romance”:
Lives and Loves
. Op cit.
9.
“I never got the impression”: Howard Krick, Salem, Oregon, interview with author, September 22, 1996.
10.
“Because the Hilton Sisters were the top billed act”: ibid.
11.
“They were real troupers”: ibid.
12.
Krick told this story: ibid.
Pages 320–3391.
“Frisco didn’t get off to the smoothest of starts:” Abe Ford, Boston, Massachusetts, interview with author, March 13, 1998.
2.
“Ross’ specialty had always been novelty acts”: ibid.
3.
“We’ll be sure to see the picture”: Violet, quoted by Ford, ibid.
4.
“Maybe we were crazy:” Daisy, quoted by Ford, ibid.
5.
“Dad was the consummate night person”: Heather Tanchuck, Los Angeles, California, interview with author, July 11, 1998.
6.
“Daisy and Violet had fired several directors”: Harry L. Fraser in
I Went That-a-Way
, edited by Wheeler W. Dixon and Audrey Brown Fraser, Metuchen, New Jersey and London, Scarecrow Press, 1990, 131.
7.
Mulhall was the first cinema star to earn $1000 a week:
Screenland
, 28–29, 95–96, in collection of New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, date unknown.
8.
“Except for the actors who were the principals”: Whitey Roberts, Los Angeles, California, interview with author, October 7, 1997.
9.
“Once we got together for the film”: Fraser, op. cit.
10.
“The shooting went fast”: Roberts, op. cit.
11.
“It posed some special problems”: Fraser, op. cit.
12.
“I remember the script girl”; ibid., 132.
13.
“I’m fascinated by
Chained for Life
”: Hedda Hopper, date unknown, presumably written for
Chicago Tribune Syndicate
.
14.
“They were having the time of their lives”: Roberts, op. cit.
15.
“We were in and out of the studios”: ibid.
Pages 340–367