Showing posts with label Twins. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Twins. Show all posts

Monday, 29 July 2013

Daisy & Violet Hilton, 1908–1969, (English conjoined twins, jazz musicians, performers)

* Daisy & Violet, the conjoined Hilton sisters, had Pluto on the MC in the sign of The Twins and a Sun-Chiron conjunction in the Gemini decan of Aquarius. The Ascendant is around the last degree of Virgo quincunxed by Mercury in Pisces: unwanted by their mother, an unmarried barmaid named Kate Skinner, the sisters were brought up by her boss, Mary Hilton, who trained them to sing and dance, and toured them across the globe while privately subjecting them to abuse. The twins were exploited ruthlessly throughout much of their lives (Neptune on the North Node is ruled by Moon in Aries), but they continually struggled for their dignity and autonomy (Saturn and Pluto are angular while Uranus conjoins the South Node).


WIKIPEDIA BLURB

Daisy Hilton and Violet Hilton (5 February 1908 – ?? January 1969) were a pair of conjoined twins or Siamese Twins who toured in the U.S. sideshow and vaudeville circuit in the 1930s. They were the first to be born in the United Kingdom conjoined and to survive for more than a few weeks.

The Hilton sisters toured first in Britain at the age of three as "The United Twins". Their mother Mary Hilton took them on a tour through Germany, Australia and 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 routine.

When Mary died in Birmingham, Alabama, her daughter and her husband took over. They kept the twins from public view for a while and trained them in jazz music. They lived in a mansion in San Antonio, Texas until the early 1930s.

In 1931, the sisters gathered enough courage to sue their managers, gaining freedom from their contract and US$100,000 in damages. They left the sideshows and went into vaudeville as "The Hilton Sisters' Revue". Daisy dyed her hair blonde and they began to wear different outfits so they could be told apart. They had numerous affairs, failed attempts to get a marriage license and a couple of short marriages. In 1932, the twins appeared as themselves in the film Freaks. In 1951 they starred in Chained for Life, an exploitation film loosely based on their lives.

The Hiltons' last public appearance was in 1961 at a drive-in cinema in Charlotte, North Carolina. Their tour manager abandoned them there, and with no means of transportation or income, they were forced to take a job in a nearby grocery store. On 4 January 1969, after they failed to report to work, their boss called the police. The twins were found dead in their home, victims of the Hong Kong flu. According to a forensic investigation, Daisy died first; Violet died between two and four days later.

Read more from their Wikipedia biography.


NATAL DATA and ASTROLOGY CHART

BIRTH DATA: Daisy Hilton and Violet Skinner, 5 February 1908, 21:00 (9 p.m.) GMT (+0), Brighton, England, UK (50n50, 0w08). ASC: 29 Virgo. RR: AA (from birth record). SOURCE: Sy Scholfield (©) quotes the report of the doctor attending the girls' birth: Dr. James A. Rooth, "The Brighton United Twins," British Medical Journal, vol. 2 , no. 2647 (Sep. 1911), pp. 653-654: "The twins were born a few minutes before I arrived at the case, about 9 p.m., and the placenta had been expelled." The article is available online: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2332195. Date and place from records cited in Dean Jensen, The Lives and Loves of Daisy and Violet Hilton: A True Story of Conjoined Twins (Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press, 2006).


If you're enjoying these posts please consider making a donation by Paypal toward the upkeep of this blog and the further acquisition of birth records. Thanks.

These blog posts and emails are for private recipients only. If it comes to your attention that these posts are being transferred to public media such as a mailing list or website then please notify us.

Copyright Sy Scholfield. All rights reserved in all media.



Friday, 19 April 2013

Lee and Lyn Wilde (American singers, twins, nonagenarians)

* Now aged 90, the Wilde Twins were born on different dates either side of midnight.

Lee and Lyn Wilde, sometimes billed as The Wilde Twins, are twin sisters, who appeared in films of the early to mid-1940s.

Born in East St. Louis, Illinois, Lee is the older of the two, born shortly before midnight of October 10, 1922, with Lyn born in the early hours of the following morning.

They began singing with their siblings in church, and by their teens were singing hymns for their local radio station, as well as performing in Illinois and Kentucky. They graduated from East St. Louis Senior High School in 1939. By 1940 they were band singers, and in 1942 they made their film debuts, as vocalists for the Charlie Barnet Band, performing one song in the Harriet Hilliard film Juke Box Jenny. They also performed with Bob Crosby for a short while. Further live performances led to another featured film appearance in the Judy Garland film Presenting Lily Mars in 1942. Joe Pasternak was impressed by them and signed them to a seven-year contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios. They played small roles in Andy Hardy's Blonde Trouble (1944), followed by Twice Blessed, a film written specifically for them to introduce them to a wider audience.

The sisters appeared in nine films together up until 1949. Lyn briefly continued her film career after that, appearing in six more films until 1953. They married brothers, Jim and Tom Cathcart, and focused their attentions on family life, rather than continuing in show business, but they retained a love of music. After leaving show business, Lee pursued many activities, including flying. She earned her pilots license in 1961. She also attended college in Palm Desert, earning an Associates Degree from College of the Desert, and later graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Foreign Languages from the University of California at Irvine. In 1989, they recorded a reunion album titled Back to Together Once Again and continued to perform occasionally into the 1990s.

Read more from their Wikipedia biographies.

Photo source: Yank, the Army Weekly 3 August 1945.


HOROSCOPE NOTES

The sunny-faced twins seem to have their Suns in Libra on their ICs ruling Leo Ascendants.


NATAL DATA and ASTROLOGY CHART

BIRTH DATA: Marion Lee Wilde, 9 October 1922, about 23:50 (11:50 p.m.) CST (+6), East St. Louis, Illinois, USA (38n37, 90w09). ASC: about 00 Leo. RR: B (from website biography).

BIRTH DATA: Mary Lyn Wilde, 10 October 1922, about 00:10 (12:10 a.m.) CST (+6), East St. Louis, Illinois, USA (38n37, 90w09). ASC: about 04 Leo. RR: B (from website biography).

SOURCE: Sy Scholfield (c) cites data from Lee Wilde Cathcart quoted on the "Wilde Twins Biography" <www.zianet.com/jjohnson/wt2.htm>: "Marion Lee and Mary Lyn Wilde were born in East St. Louis, Illinois on October 10, 1922. Technically, they had different birth dates - Lee was born just before midnight and Lyn followed just after midnight. So, Lee assumed the role of Big Sister."

If you're enjoying these posts please consider making a donation by Paypal. Thanks.

Lee Wilde Chart

Lyn Wilde Chart

These blog posts and emails are for private recipients only. If it comes to your attention that these posts are being transferred to public media such as a mailing list please notify us.

Copyright Sy Scholfield. All rights reserved in all media.