Minnie Woolsey
Koo Koo, the Bird Girl
Born
Minnie Woolsey

1880 (1880)
Rabun County, Georgia
Diedafter 1960[1]
Other namesMinnie Ha Ha; Koo Koo the Bird Girl; Cuckoo Girl; Koo Koo, the Blind Girl from Mars
Occupation(s)Entertainer as sideshow entertainer, film performer
Known forFreaks film

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.

Koo Koo in 1924 (picture top, fourth from Left), was well known for her sideshow career with Ringling Brothers
  • The Manchester-based Gypsy folk band Naymedici released a single titled "Koo Koo the Bird Girl" in memory of the entertainer, with a video featuring scenes from Freaks.[6]
  • Australian performer Sarah Houbolt created a performance called Kookoo the Bird Girl. Speaking to Disability Arts Online, Houbolt said “My full length show, KooKoo the Birdgirl, is about Minnie Woolsey, a historical performer with disability, who starred in Freaks (1932). This is an art history piece, and a female perspective on the side show. My passion to uncover her story is as a result of the importance of telling our history from a disability perspective. Minnie lived in a time of compulsory sterilisation and anti-marriage laws for disabled women, which not many people know about.”[7]
  • She is mentioned in Tom Waits's song Lucky Day (Overture) from his album The Black Rider, about sideshow performers.[8]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Minnie Woolsey - Koo Koo the Bird Girl". altereddimensions.net. Altered Dimensions Paranormal. December 26, 2012. Retrieved 27 May 2021.
  2. 1 2 "KOO KOO - The Bird Girl - Freaks the Movie". thehumanmarvels.com. Circus Freaks and Human Oddities. 2010-12-13. Retrieved 2021-05-27.
  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. ISBN 1585424412.
  4. ↑ Harsha Vardhan BG, Muthu MS, Saraswathi K, Koteeswaran D (2007). "Bird-headed Dwarf of Seckel". Journal of Indian Society of Pedodontics and Preventive Dentistry. 25 Suppl: S8–9. PMID 17921644.
  5. ↑ "Coney Island, N.Y." The Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. August 29, 1942. pp. 44, 54. Retrieved 2021-05-26 – via books.google.com.
  6. ↑ "Naymedici - Koo Koo The Bird Girl (Official Music Video)". Archived from the original on 2021-12-14 – via www.youtube.com.
  7. ↑ Hambrook, Colin (2017-09-29). "Accomplished Australian circus and physical theatre performer Sarah Houbolt takes flight". Disability Arts Online. Retrieved 2021-05-26.
  8. ↑ Waits, Tom (1993). "Lyrics: The Black Rider: Lucky Day Overture". tomwaitsfan.com. Retrieved 2021-05-26.
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