Koo-Koo the Bird Girl explained

Minnie Woolsey
Koo Koo, the Bird Girl
Birth Name:Minnie Woolsey
Birth Place:Rabun County, Georgia
Death Date:after 1960[1]
Other Names:Minnie Ha Ha; Koo Koo the Bird Girl; Cuckoo Girl; Koo Koo, the Blind Girl from Mars
Known For:Freaks film
Occupation:Entertainer as sideshow entertainer, film performer

Minnie Woolsey (1880 – after 1960), billed as Koo-Koo the Bird Girl, was an American side show entertainer, best known for her only film appearance in Tod Browning's film Freaks in 1932.[2]

Biography

Woolsey was born in 1880[3] in Rabun County, Georgia. Little is known about her early life, only that she was "rescued" from a mental asylum in Georgia by a travelling showman and was commonly billed as Minnie Ha Ha (a play on Minnehaha) in her sideshow entertainment career. She had a rare congenital growth skeletal disorder called Virchow-Seckel syndrome, which caused her to have a very short stature, a small head, a narrow bird-like face with a beak-like nose, large eyes, a receding jaw, large ears and mild intellectual disability.[2] [4] In addition, Woolsey was bald, toothless, and either completely blind or very short-sighted. She would appear in an American-Indian style bodysuit made of feathers with a single feather on top of her head as her costume and would dance and speak gibberish.

She appeared in the 1932 film Freaks, alongside a cast of other sideshow performers from the time, billed as Koo Koo, the Bird Girl. She was not the original Koo Koo however; the billing was previously used by another performer in the film, a "Stork" or "Bird" woman named Elizabeth Green. Woolsey is seen in many scenes, particularly at the wedding ceremony, where she is seen dancing on the dining table in a feathery costume. In 1942, a news brief in Billboard reported that Woolsey was recovering in Coney Island Hospital after breaking her arm while descending stairs.[5] She was hit by a car in the 1960s. When and how she died is unknown.

In popular culture

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Minnie Woolsey - Koo Koo the Bird Girl . altereddimensions.net . Altered Dimensions Paranormal . 27 May 2021 . December 26, 2012.
  2. Web site: 2010-12-13. KOO KOO - The Bird Girl - Freaks the Movie. 2021-05-27. thehumanmarvels.com. Circus Freaks and Human Oddities. en-US.
  3. Hartzman, Marc (2005). American Sideshow: An Encyclopedia of History's Most Wondrous and Curiously Strange Performers. New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin. p. 178. .
  4. Harsha Vardhan BG, Muthu MS, Saraswathi K, Koteeswaran D . Bird-headed Dwarf of Seckel . Journal of Indian Society of Pedodontics and Preventive Dentistry . 25 Suppl . S8–9 . 2007 . 17921644 .
  5. News: August 29, 1942. Coney Island, N.Y.. 44, 54. The Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc.. 2021-05-26. books.google.com.
  6. Web site: Hambrook. Colin. 2017-09-29. Accomplished Australian circus and physical theatre performer Sarah Houbolt takes flight. 2021-05-26. Disability Arts Online.
  7. Web site: Waits. Tom. 1993. Lyrics: The Black Rider: Lucky Day Overture. 2021-05-26. tomwaitsfan.com.