Koo-Koo the Bird Girl
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]
Koo Koo, the Bird Girl | |
|---|---|
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| Born | Minnie Woolsey 1880 |
| Died | after 1960[1] |
| Nationality | American |
| Other names | Minnie Ha Ha; Koo Koo the Bird Girl; Cuckoo Girl; Koo Koo, the Blind Girl from Mars |
| Occupation | Entertainer as sideshow entertainer, film performer |
| Known for | Freaks film |
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, but accounts show that she was still alive and performing in 1960, working at Coney Island in sideshow/circus, in her 80s.
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.[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 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.”[7]
- She is mentioned in Tom Waits' song Lucky Day (Overture) from his album The Black Rider, about sideshow performers. [8]
See also
References
- http://altereddimensions.net/2012/minnie-woolsey-koo-koo-the-bird-girl
- "Koo Koo – The Bird Girl", thehumanmarvels.com, retrieved January 8, 2015.
- 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.
- 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.
- "Coney Island, N.Y.", Billboard, Nielsen Business Media, Inc., pp. 44, 54, August 29, 1942, retrieved November 23, 2018.
- "Naymedici - Koo Koo The Bird Girl".
- http://disabilityarts.online/magazine/opinion/accomplished-australian-circus-physical-theatre-performer-sarah-houbolt-takes-flight/
- http://www.tomwaitsfan.com/tom%20waits%20library/www.tomwaitslibrary.com/lyrics/theblackrider/luckydayoverture.html