Free The Lives and Loves of Daisy and Violet Hilton: A True Story of Conjoined Twins by Dean Jensen Page A
Authors: Dean Jensen
while Edith was on stage.
“It was almost impossible to have contact with the girls,” Moore remembered. “They were under strict orders from Myer Myers not to talk to anyone unless he, Edith, or Mary was at their side. Sometimes, though, Edith would have to leave the tent for a short time, and then I could at least tell the girls how much I enjoyed their performances. I also showed them that I was mastering all the dance numbers they were doing on their stage. I really wanted them to like me.” 10
Moore had been on hand every minute of the time the C. A. Wortham Shows was on the San Antonio plaza. Now, ten days later, he was watching it dissolve. Working by torch light, roustabouts were striking the great tents, dismantling the rides, and reloading the carnival’s cargo on the flat-beds of the twenty-seven-car train.
Moore stood in the darkness outside Daisy and Violet’s Pullman car. He was aching. How he wished he could run off with the carnival.
The curtains inside the Pullman had been drawn for hours. It was four or five o’clock in the morning and presumably everyone inside wasfast asleep. After a long doleful wail from the steam locomotive, the front of the train began to move. There was a sequential clanking of the couplers as the train started rolling. Moore looked up one last time at the windows of the twins’ car. Daisy and Violet had drawn back the curtains. They were gazing at him through the window. They looked like ghosts, unearthly, just as they did the first time he saw them in their tent. In the seconds just before their car disappeared in the darkness, the sisters did something that made Jim Moore’s heart leap. They smiled and, simultaneously, blew him kisses. 11
The Royal English United Twins were, by far, the most popular attraction on the C. A. Wortham Shows’ midway. They were, in fact, the most popular attraction on any carnival midway anywhere. There wasn’t a sideshow man in the country who wouldn’t have entered into a pact with the devil to take possession of so powerful a draw. Often the crowds who flocked to the carnival headed straight for Daisy and Violet’s playhouse, and after seeing the pair, left the lot without leaving a dime anyplace else. Not since P. T. Barnum was trotting out such attractions as Tom Thumb and Chang and Eng, probably the first conjoined twins to be publicly exhibited, had any human wonders caused as great a public stir as the Royal English United Twins.
As inimitable as Daisy and Violet were as carnival attractions, the sensation they created could be traced in large part to Myer Myers’ adroit management. He had already revealed himself to be an impresario of daring when he erected the biggest and most opulent theater ever to be seen in any traveling carnival. He also showed himself to be a genius at promotion.
Of all the sideshow operators traveling with the C. A. Wortham Shows, Myer alone was given approval to load his touring car on the train. This allowed him great personal mobility whenever the carnival rolled into a new town.
Joe McKennon, the carnival expert, described Myer like this: “One of his publicity maneuvers was to take Daisy and Violet to see the mayor of a city, or, if the carnival happened to be in a state capitol, the governor. Because reporters and photographers always buzzed like flies around these officials, the twins’ visits frequently resulted in front-page stories and pictures.” 12
And maybe more than any other carnival man of the time, McKennon observed, Myer recognized the value of radio, a medium that was just becoming established in 1917. “He would pinpoint all the radio stations that were within fifty or seventy-five miles of where the carnival was playing. He would then squire the twins to all of those stations. During their radio appearances, the girls would talk, sing, and play their violins and saxophones. It was brilliant marketing. Often with horse and buggies, farm families traveled great distances to
“It was almost impossible to have contact with the girls,” Moore remembered. “They were under strict orders from Myer Myers not to talk to anyone unless he, Edith, or Mary was at their side. Sometimes, though, Edith would have to leave the tent for a short time, and then I could at least tell the girls how much I enjoyed their performances. I also showed them that I was mastering all the dance numbers they were doing on their stage. I really wanted them to like me.” 10
Moore had been on hand every minute of the time the C. A. Wortham Shows was on the San Antonio plaza. Now, ten days later, he was watching it dissolve. Working by torch light, roustabouts were striking the great tents, dismantling the rides, and reloading the carnival’s cargo on the flat-beds of the twenty-seven-car train.
Moore stood in the darkness outside Daisy and Violet’s Pullman car. He was aching. How he wished he could run off with the carnival.
The curtains inside the Pullman had been drawn for hours. It was four or five o’clock in the morning and presumably everyone inside wasfast asleep. After a long doleful wail from the steam locomotive, the front of the train began to move. There was a sequential clanking of the couplers as the train started rolling. Moore looked up one last time at the windows of the twins’ car. Daisy and Violet had drawn back the curtains. They were gazing at him through the window. They looked like ghosts, unearthly, just as they did the first time he saw them in their tent. In the seconds just before their car disappeared in the darkness, the sisters did something that made Jim Moore’s heart leap. They smiled and, simultaneously, blew him kisses. 11
The Royal English United Twins were, by far, the most popular attraction on the C. A. Wortham Shows’ midway. They were, in fact, the most popular attraction on any carnival midway anywhere. There wasn’t a sideshow man in the country who wouldn’t have entered into a pact with the devil to take possession of so powerful a draw. Often the crowds who flocked to the carnival headed straight for Daisy and Violet’s playhouse, and after seeing the pair, left the lot without leaving a dime anyplace else. Not since P. T. Barnum was trotting out such attractions as Tom Thumb and Chang and Eng, probably the first conjoined twins to be publicly exhibited, had any human wonders caused as great a public stir as the Royal English United Twins.
As inimitable as Daisy and Violet were as carnival attractions, the sensation they created could be traced in large part to Myer Myers’ adroit management. He had already revealed himself to be an impresario of daring when he erected the biggest and most opulent theater ever to be seen in any traveling carnival. He also showed himself to be a genius at promotion.
Of all the sideshow operators traveling with the C. A. Wortham Shows, Myer alone was given approval to load his touring car on the train. This allowed him great personal mobility whenever the carnival rolled into a new town.
Joe McKennon, the carnival expert, described Myer like this: “One of his publicity maneuvers was to take Daisy and Violet to see the mayor of a city, or, if the carnival happened to be in a state capitol, the governor. Because reporters and photographers always buzzed like flies around these officials, the twins’ visits frequently resulted in front-page stories and pictures.” 12
And maybe more than any other carnival man of the time, McKennon observed, Myer recognized the value of radio, a medium that was just becoming established in 1917. “He would pinpoint all the radio stations that were within fifty or seventy-five miles of where the carnival was playing. He would then squire the twins to all of those stations. During their radio appearances, the girls would talk, sing, and play their violins and saxophones. It was brilliant marketing. Often with horse and buggies, farm families traveled great distances to