JOINED-AT-THE-HIP sisters Daisy and Violet Hilton had been performing on the vaudeville circuit since the ’20s. Now the 26-year-old conjoined twins from Texas were on tour trying to secure a marriage license for Violet and musician Maurice Lambert. Denied in NEW YORK and NEW JERSEY, they headed for CHICAGO where, a Tribune writer cracked, “even nudists are not denied the delights of matrimony.” Nudists, yes; conjoined twins, no. Sweitzer kept the threesome, along with newsmen and a theater press agent, waiting all day before showing up and letting them down gently. Though each twin eventually got a shot at marriage, on this day all were disappointed-except, the Tribune reported, the press agent.
– Broadway musical based on the Hiltons’ lives: “SIDE SHOW.”
– Number of children fathered by conjoined twins Eng and Chang Bunker (1811-74): 21.
– Chance that a live birth will result in conjoined twins: 1 IN 70,000 TO 100,000.
– Estimated cost of separating Maria de Jesus and Maria Teresa Quiej-Alvarez of Guatemala, who were joined at the head, in Los Angeles in 2002: $2 MILLION.
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“Really, I hated to turn them down.”
-Cook County Clerk Robert Sweitzer
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nwatkins@tribune.com
