Koo-Koo the Bird Girl

Minnie Woolsey (Koo Koo, the Bird Girl)
Born Minnie Woolsey
1880
Rabun County, Georgia
Died after 1960[1]
Nationality American
Other names Minnie Ha Ha, Koo Koo the Bird Girl. Koo Koo, the Blind Girl from Mars
Occupation Entertainer
Known for Freaks film

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

Koo Koo (picture top, fourth from Left), was well known for her sideshow career with Ringling Brothers

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 and was commonly billed as Minnie Ha Ha (a play on Minnehaha), in her sideshow entertainment career. She suffered from 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 with an antimongoloid slant, a receding jaw, large ears and mild intellectual disability. In addition, Woolsey was bald, toothless, and either completely blind or very short-sighted. She would appear in a Native Indian American costume 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 dancing in a feathery costume. Woolsey was hit by a car in the 1960s. When and how she died is unknown, but accounts show that she was still alive and performing in 1960, working at Coney Island in sideshow/circus, in her 80s.

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.[4]

Australian performer Sarah Houlbolt created a performance called Kookoo The Bird Girl. Speaking to Disability Arts Online, Houlbolt said, “My full length show, KooKoo the Birdgirl, is about Minnie Woolsley, 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.”[5]

See also

References

  1. ↑ http://altereddimensions.net/2012/minnie-woolsey-koo-koo-the-bird-girl
  2. ↑ "Koo Koo – The Bird Girl", thehumanmarvels.com, retrieved January 8, 2015.
  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. ↑ "Naymedici - Koo Koo The Bird Girl".
  5. ↑ http://disabilityarts.online/magazine/opinion/accomplished-australian-circus-physical-theatre-performer-sarah-houbolt-takes-flight/


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