Koo-Koo the Bird Girl

Woolsey was born in 1880Hartzman, 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}}. 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.{{cite journal |vauthors=Harsha Vardhan BG, Muthu MS, Saraswathi K, Koteeswaran D |title=Bird-headed Dwarf of Seckel |journal=Journal of Indian Society of Pedodontics and Preventive Dentistry |volume=25 Suppl |pages=S8–9 |year=2007 |pmid=17921644 |url=http://www.jisppd.com/article.asp?issn=0970-4388;year=2007;volume=25;issue=5;spage=8;epage=9;aulast=Harsha}} 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.{{Cite news|date=August 29, 1942|title=Coney Island, N.Y.|pages=44, 54|work=The Billboard|publisher=Nielsen Business Media, Inc.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DQwEAAAAMBAJ&q=Minnie+Woolsey&pg=PT24|access-date=2021-05-26|via=books.google.com}} She was hit by a car in the 1960s. When and how she died is unknown.

File:Congress of Freaks at Ringling Brothers, 1924.jpg]]

• 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.”{{Cite web|last=Hambrook|first=Colin|date=2017-09-29|title=Accomplished Australian circus and physical theatre performer Sarah Houbolt takes flight|url=https://disabilityarts.online/magazine/opinion/accomplished-australian-circus-physical-theatre-performer-sarah-houbolt-takes-flight/|access-date=2021-05-26|website=Disability Arts Online}}
• She is mentioned in Tom Waits's song Lucky Day (Overture) from his album The Black Rider, about sideshow performers.{{Cite web|last=Waits|first=Tom|date=1993|title=Lyrics: The Black Rider: Lucky Day Overture|url=http://www.tomwaitsfan.com/tom%20waits%20library/www.tomwaitslibrary.com/lyrics/theblackrider/luckydayoverture.html|access-date=2021-05-26|website=tomwaitsfan.com}}

• Elizabeth Green the Stork Woman

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• [https://web.archive.org/web/20080412220407/http://www.phreeque.com/koo-koo.html Biography at Phreeque.com]

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Category:1880 births

Category:Sideshow performers

Category:People from Rabun County, Georgia

Category:20th-century deaths

Category:Date of death unknown