Should anyone be in Brighton on Thursday, the Mayor of Brighton will unveil a plaque to local showbiz heroines, the conjoined Hilton Twins at midday this Thursday, 25th May. If you'd like to attend please gather from 11.30am onwards at the twins' birthplace, 18 Riley Road, Brighton BN2 4AH.
Violet and Daisy were the UK's first surviving conjoined twins, born at home in Riley Road in Brighton in 1908. Rejected by their mother Kate Skinner, midwife Mary Hilton recognised their moneymaking potential and took them off her hands. Mary put them on show as babies, at the Queen's Arms where she was landlady, and people paid to raise the girl's gown to see where they were conjoined.
They were taken to America by the Hiltons where their singing, dancing and musicianship was appreciated - in fact they were huge stars! But the Hiltons kept all of the money. As adults the twins took the Hiltons to court and gained their freedom but settled for a portion of what they were worth.
Free of their 'guardians' they struggled to manage their careers but appeared in two films over the years: Freaks in 1932 and Chained for Life in 1952 (see YouTube link below). They were befriended by escapologist Harry Houdini who taught them how to mentally separate from each other.
They returned to Brighton only once, on a UK tour in 1933, headlining at the Hippodrome for four sellout shows. They tried to find their mother on that trip, only to discover she had died when they were four years old.
Down on their luck in the early 1960s, they found new jobs behind the checkout of the Park-N-Shop in Charlotte, USA. They succumbed to the Hong Kong flu pandemic and died at home in January 1969.
Brighton & Hove Buses are already proud to be associated with them:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XE4dzXqWzg&list=RD_XE4dzXqWzg
