Bound by Flesh Page #2

to make her money.

There was a lot of brutality

that was involved with it

just to, so-called,

keep them in line.

- Mary would get angry,

tell them that

they were so repellent.

- Her temper was something that

her daughter or her husband

could not control.

And when we displeased her,

she whipped our backs

and shoulders

with the buckle end

of a wide belt.

- They started showing

elsewhere.

- On circuses and sideshows,

they became

very, very big attractions,

but the girls never saw

any of the money.

- At an early age,

we were taught to recite,

read, and sing.

- They studied

violin and piano,

saxophones, clarinets.

- It was amazing

how much training

was crammed into

our early lives.

In preparation

for our debut in Berlin,

our first appearance

in a theater,

l, Violet,

played The Princess Waltz

2 1 /2 hours

without a mistake.

- They became multitalented

by the time they were

six, seven, and eight.

Wax museums were all over

at that time.

Wax museums usually offered

a variety of entertainment

that changed periodically.

So they might bring in

magicians;

they might bring in

various "freaks."

Houdini had seen the twins

at this wax museum

and was absolutely fascinated

with people with unusual

and extreme anomalies.

He was particularly drawn

to Daisy and Violet.

Not only did they have

this curious anomaly... -

very rare for conjoined twins

in that period

to even have reached

the ripe old age

of six or seven or eight... -

but they were also

such fetching things to look at,

like one of Raphael's

paintings of cherubs.

They were that lovely.

- If you go back

to the turn of the century,

to the '20s and '30s,

if someone had a deformity,

normally you did not see

that person out on the street.

The parents would maybe

raise the child

but would not take them

out in public.

But here are two girls

that are absolutely gorgeous... -

I mean, just marvelous... -

and, you know,

if anybody saw them,

they would just fall in love

with those girls.

- Those old dime museums

that they performed in as kids,

the audience could be tough.

I mean, here you are,

gorgeous young girls

out there onstage,

appealing to not only the fancy

of all the young men

in the audience

for legitimate reasons

but also for

pretty freaky reasons.

- Ike Rose was the operator

of Rose's Midgets,

a troupe

of performing midgets.

- Ike Rose visited Mary

and asked

for an opportunity

to represent the Hilton twins,

and Mary agreed to that.

At this point,

they were called

The Brighton United Twins.

They played in some

quite impressive venues... -

concert halls,

musical theaters.

And lke Rose,

at the same time,

was representing

the Blazek sisters,

who were also conjoined twins.

The Blazeks were grotesque,

almost,

they way they were

joined together.

Sometimes lke would show

both Daisy and Violet

and the Blazek sisters

in the same venues.

Ike Rose prevailed

on Mary Hilton

to take the pair

to Australia.

- They had initially been

brought down

to a pier at Luna Park

in Australia.

And when that venture failed

and it looked like they weren't

going to make the money

that they had been promised...

- Ike Rose dropped

from the picture.

- They hooked up

with another show,

and they started traveling

across Australia.

- Traveling was just horrendous.

The interior of Australia,

frying-pan heat,

traveling by train

and by horse-drawn wagon,

and it was while

they were out in the outback

that they met Myer Myers,

who was essentially

a balloon salesman.

He was instantly enamored

of the twins.

Myer Myers, another person

that was very savvy,

asked Mary Hilton, you know,

if he could begin

trouping with them.

Mary would have been

well into her 50s.

- Mary wasn't very happy

traveling across the outback.

There were certain troubles

that, you know,

she wasn't quite prepared for.

- She was there

in this desolate country

with her daughter, Edith,

and herself,

so she needed somebody else.

- He kind of takes on

this sort of protection role

for Mary.

He met Edith,

Mary Hilton's daughter,

and really pursued that

as a relationship.

- We thought that even when

he begged Auntie

to let him marry Edith,

his eyes were cruel.

- Edith was very much

a maternal figure to the girls.

- The twins

were much fonder of her

than they were of Mary Hilton.

- Daisy had a twisted limb.

One leg was bent

or something,

and she was kind of

half-crippled,

and she talked about

how she would rub it nightly

with liniment

and, you know, have the... -

have her exercise, and finally

the limb straightened out.

- Edith was in

her middle to late 20s.

She had about as many curves

as a cornstalk.

He himself

was pneumatically enlarged

because he was just

this kind of, like, round man... -

very short but very stout.

- And once he's married

to Edith,

he really starts

to assert his influence

over how they're managed.

- They started showing

in country fairs.

- What we would now call

the state fair

and the county fair... -

all those fairs

that we think about now

as being principally about

carnivals and rides.

But in their day,

in their birth,

they were all about farm folk

getting together

at the time of harvest

and creating the fair

not only to sell their produce

but also to compete

and were entertained thereby,

because

it was the perfect excuse

for the carnival folk,

who were looking for a place

to make their money,

to be attracted to those

state and county fairs.

- Myer was a big reason why

they actually came

to the United States.

- About 1 91 5,

they landed in San Francisco.

They got to Angel Island.

Angel Island, of course,

is like Ellis Island.

They'd have to pass through

customs to get into the country.

When the twins

got off the boat,

the authorities initially

refused to permit them

to enter the country.

So they were held there

for several days.

Mary, again, very sharp woman,

went into San Francisco

and started talking

to the newspaper people there,

and it became

a bit of a cause celebre

that these

poor little children

were being held

in confinement.

Ultimately,

the authorities agreed

to let the two

into the country.

- Once they were in

and were booking gigs,

you really see Myer and Mary

working jointly

to try to promote the girls.

- They began receiving offers,

and one of them came from

a traveling carnival,

Clarence Wortham's

World of Wonder.

- C.A. Wortham,

Clarence A. Wortham,

was the king of the carnivals.

And by 1 91 0 to 1 920,

he had the most-recognized,

largest carnival

in the United States.

The Wortham show

was a Midwestern show... -

north and south,

on up to Canada to Toronto.

Carnivals were an outgrowth

of the Columbian

World's Exposition

in Chicago in 1 893, '94.

- They called the White City

"The Columbia Exposition."

- They had

lots and lots of shows.

They had two rides.

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