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  • Violet and Daisy: The Story of Vaudeville’s Famous Conjoined Twins by Sarah Miller
  • Elizabeth Bush
Miller, Sarah Violet and Daisy: The Story of Vaudeville’s Famous Conjoined Twins. Schwartz & Wade, 2021 [320p] illus. with photographs
Library ed. ISBN 9780593119730 $20.99
Trade ed. ISBN 9780593119723 $17.99
E-book ed. ISBN 9780593119747 $10.99
Reviewed from digital galleys R Gr. 7-12

In her latest title, Miller (The Miracle and Tragedy of the Dionne Quintuplets, BCCB 7/19) again explores the intersection of private drama and public spectacle, this time in a biography of conjoined twins Daisy and Violet Hilton. Born in Brighton, England in 1908 to an unwed mother, the girls—joined at the base of their spines—were formally adopted by Mary Hilton, the midwife/tavern owner who delivered them. Self-promoting the adoption as an act of charity, Hilton proved deft at turning the babies into a money-making curiosity, first offering discreet private viewings, and later entering into contracts with showmen who displayed the twins in Europe, Australia, and the United States. Fortunately, the girls’ beauty and genuine comfort in communicating with strangers propelled them beyond the “freak” circuit with an act that emphasized singing, dancing, and instrument playing, as well as chatting with the audience. Unfortunately, Hilton was physically [End Page 345] and emotionally abusive, and her daughter and son-in-law, who later became the twins’ legal guardians, continued the exploitation. By the time Violet and Daisy achieved legal emancipation and release from shady contracts, they had the physical ability to become self-supporting but few of the life skills to thrive in a world in which their vaudeville act had become irrelevant. Miller steadily focuses on the twins’ greatest source of strength—their ability to anticipate each other’s needs and adjust accordingly with affection and respect. However, she does not whitewash their complicity in ballyhoo and publicity stunts (notably, fake romances and marriage), even so far as keeping Daisy’s pregnancy tightly under wraps. Exploited stage darlings? Callous self-promoters? Sad vaudevillians with little to offer in the motion picture era? Miller wisely leaves readers to work out their own answers. An author’s note, sources, chapter citations, index, and photographs are included.

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