Bound by Flesh Page #4

- Mary wasn't very happy

traveling across the outback.

There were certain troubles

that, you know,

she wasn't quite prepared for.

- She was there

in this desolate country

with her daughter, Edith,

and herself,

so she needed somebody else.

- He kind of takes on

this sort of protection role

for Mary.

He met Edith,

Mary Hilton's daughter,

and really pursued that

as a relationship.

- We thought that even when

he begged Auntie

to let him marry Edith,

his eyes were cruel.

- Edith was very much

a maternal figure to the girls.

- The twins

were much fonder of her

than they were of Mary Hilton.

- Daisy had a twisted limb.

One leg was bent

or something,

and she was kind of

half-crippled,

and she talked about

how she would rub it nightly

with liniment

and, you know, have the... -

have her exercise, and finally

the limb straightened out.

- Edith was in

her middle to late 20s.

She had about as many curves

as a cornstalk.

He himself

was pneumatically enlarged

because he was just

this kind of, like, round man... -

very short but very stout.

- And once he's married

to Edith,

he really starts

to assert his influence

over how they're managed.

- They started showing

in country fairs.

- What we would now call

the state fair

and the county fair... -

all those fairs

that we think about now

as being principally about

carnivals and rides.

But in their day,

in their birth,

they were all about farm folk

getting together

at the time of harvest

and creating the fair

not only to sell their produce

but also to compete

and were entertained thereby,

because

it was the perfect excuse

for the carnival folk,

who were looking for a place

to make their money,

to be attracted to those

state and county fairs.

- Myer was a big reason why

they actually came

to the United States.

- About 1 91 5,

they landed in San Francisco.

They got to Angel Island.

Angel Island, of course,

is like Ellis Island.

They'd have to pass through

customs to get into the country.

When the twins

got off the boat,

the authorities initially

refused to permit them

to enter the country.

So they were held there

for several days.

Mary, again, very sharp woman,

went into San Francisco

and started talking

to the newspaper people there,

and it became

a bit of a cause celebre

that these

poor little children

were being held

in confinement.

Ultimately,

the authorities agreed

to let the two

into the country.

- Once they were in

and were booking gigs,

you really see Myer and Mary

working jointly

to try to promote the girls.

- They began receiving offers,

and one of them came from

a traveling carnival,

Clarence Wortham's

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