Product Description

THE LIVES AND LOVES OF DAISY AND VIOLET HILTON follows the poignant life story of twin sisters who were literally joined at the hip, set against the tumultuous backdrop of America during the first half of the 20th century. Daisy and Violet and an unforgettable cast of show-business characters come alive on the pages of this carefully researched and sensitively written biography.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #114645 in Books
• Published on: 2006-10-31
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 421 pages

From the Publisher
• The true rags-to-riches-to-rags tale of conjoined twins— their journey from freak-show notoriety to vaudeville stardom to movie celebrity, and their heart-wrenching descent back into poverty. • A richly detailed account of the romantic adventures of these attractive and accomplished young women who were at the epicenter of one of the most celebrated sex scandals of 1930. • Chronicles the hurly-burly history of American entertainment from the turn of the 20th century through the 1950s. • Illustrated throughout with rare black-and-white photographs.

About the Author
DEAN JENSEN is a former journalist who owns and manages an art gallery in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His fascination with Daisy and Violet Hilton was first kindled by photographs of the sisters.

Customer Reviews

How the other half lived
According to taste, Dean Jensen's "Lives and Loves of Daisy and Violet Hilton" can be read as tragedy or triumph. After being on display almost all their lives, the Siamese twins at the end lived in quiet obscurity, clerking in a grocery. All their lives they had said that was how they wanted to finish.

However, they had also wanted husbands and children, and they never got those.

Unlike most Siamese twins, who have to deal with an array of deficits and health problems, Daisy and Violet Hilton were normal in every other way. Not just normal but, as we'd say today, gifted and talented.

More remarkable than the link of flesh at the base of their spines was their sunny disposition, maintained somehow despite an infancy and childhood that was extremely restricted by a stepmother who didn't want anyone to see them for free.

Their charm was their salvation. Although they were wickedly exploited, over their lives they repeatedly attracted devoted friends who rescued them time and again. These never were able to rescue the twins entirely from the exploiters, or from their own sad inability to judge boyfriends, but they kept the Hiltons from utter degradation.

Jensen interprets their lives as an endless search for love, which he -- and they -- interpreted as romantic, sexual love. That escaped them, but they did enjoy and attract affectionate love, which, it may be, they were always too distracted to quite recognize.

Jensen tells the story at a glacial pace but with plenty of detail. He rescues an amazing story. In the `20s, the Hilton Sisters were as celebrated -- and, briefly, as highly paid -- any of the characters of that wacky decade. Somehow they failed to make it into the popular histories along with such comparatively dull stars as Shipwreck Kelly.

The Hiltons' story is a gold mine of irony, but Jensen is not an ironist. By a odd accident, the women ended up in the same place, North Carolina, where the first famous set of Siamese twins, Chang and Eng, had enjoyed the kind of life the sisters had longed for: surrounded by children in rural domesticity. Jensen fails to make the connection.

The BEST
This was the BEST book that I have read in YEARS.
The book held my interest.
The story was great, along with the ending.
It was not a fluffy gloss over of the twins, but an honest bare-bones account of their lives.
It was happy, uplifting, tragic, and sad in all.
The book truly made an impression on me.
I think about these two girls often.
It's been 100 years on Feb 5th 2008 since they were born.
Buy it & read it.
You will not be disappointed!

I wished the book would never end.
It may sound unbelieveable, but The Lives and Loves of Daisy and Violet Hilton is the best book that I have ever read. I am surprised at how emotionally involved I became with regards to the twins triumphs and tradgies. The book kept me in suspense from start to finish. I think that the author (Dean Jensen) did a fantastic and brilliant job of really getting you to know the sisters individually. He also touched on things going on in history at the time to help create a realistic and interesting setting. Great photos too. It was also fun to read the book and then watch Chained For Life. So wonderful to see the twins perform. I am encouraging all of my friends to read this incredible book.