  daisy hilton and violet hilton (5 february 1908 â january 1969) were a pair of british conjoined twins or siamese twins who toured in the u.s. sideshow and vaudeville circuit in the 1930s. ==early life== the girls were born at 15 riley road, brighton, england, on 5 february 1908.http://www.mybrightonandhove.org.uk/page_id__5427_path__0p1364p1013p1395p214p220p.aspx their mother was kate skinner, an unmarried barmaid. the sisters were born joined by their hips and buttocks; they shared blood circulation and were fused at the pelvis but shared no major organs. skinner's boss mary hilton, who helped in childbirth, apparently saw commercial prospects in them, and thus effectively bought them from their mother and took them under her care. the girls first stayed above the queen's arms pub in brighton, but later moved to the evening star pub. according to the sisters' autobiography, mary hilton with her husband and daughter kept the twins in strict control with physical abuse; they had to call her "auntie lou" and her husband "sir". they trained the girls in singing and dancing. a medical account of the birth and a description of the twins was provided for the british medical journal by dr james augustus rooth, the physician in charge at the time of their birth. he reported that subsequently the sussex medico-chirurgical society considered separation, but unanimously decided against it as it was believed that the operation would certainly lead to the death of at least one of the twins. he notes that these twins were the first to be born in the united kingdom conjoined and to survive for more than a few weeks. ==publicity== thumb|235px|daisy and violet hilton with the meyers c. 1927 the hilton sisters toured first in britain at age 3 as "the united twins". mary hilton took them on to a tour through germany, then to australia, then to the usa. in true sideshow manner, their performance was accompanied by an imaginative "history". their controllers kept all the money the sisters earned. in 1926 bob hope formed an act called the dancemedians with the hilton sisters, who had a tap-dancing rou
1908_births 1969_deaths 20th-century_English_actresses British_expatriates_in_the_United_States Conjoined_twins Deaths_from_influenza English_autobiographers English_film_actresses Infectious_disease_deaths_in_North_Carolina People_from_Brighton People_from_Charlotte,_North_Carolina People_from_Miami,_Florida Sideshow_performers Twin_people_from_England Vaudeville_performers