Koo-Koo the Bird Girl

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) was an American entertainer predominantly in side show but also a film performer.[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 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 spoke gibberish. 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, aged in her 80s.

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 does not speak any dialogue in the film but is seen in many scenes dancing in a feathery costume. Woosley was hit by a car in the 1960s. In 1964 she was presumed dead.

In popular culture

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]

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".

External links


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