Koo Koo

Biography

"Koo Koo the Bird Girl" was born Minnie Woolsey in Rabun County, Georgia in 1880. She suffered from a rare congenital skeletal disorder called Virchow-Sechel or Harper's syndrome, also known as bird-headed dwarfism or nanocephaly. This very rare syndrome is characterized by various physical shortcomings, such as a small head, a beak-like nose, and a receding jaw, as well as stunted growth and mental limitations. In Minnie's case, it left her toothless, blind, and almost completely bald. The story goes that she was rescued from a dismal existence in a Georgia insane asylum by an enterprising showman who thought he could cash in on her strange looks alone. She began her showbiz career as "Minnie Ha-Ha," an obvious play on North Carolina's Minnehaha Falls. In her act, she appeared in a phony Native American costume and danced and shook excitedly, speaking gibberish to the sideshow audience. She was initially reluctant and shy, but soon she came to love the attention she received. There is frequent confusion about the name "Koo Koo the Bird Girl" in sideshow circles. The first "Koo Koo" was Elizabeth "Betty" Green (also known as "The Stork Woman"); Woolsey actually took the name at a later date. Although they both appeared in the film "Freaks" (1932), Minnie is credited as "The Bird Girl" and Elizabeth by her real name. Minnie had no lines in "Freaks," but she made a lasting impression on moviegoers when she dressed in a feathery costume, complete with a tiny plumed cap and chicken-like feet, and shimmied on the table during the wedding feast of trapeze artist Cleopatra and Hans the dwarf. In later years, Minnie worked at Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York as "Koo Koo, the Blind Girl from Mars". By that time, age or perhaps boredom had replaced her dancing, and she would primarily stand or sit in a near- comatose state, confounding spectators by failing to respond to any visual stimuli. Exactly how long Minnie performed with the circus is unknown, but some accounts show that she was still living, and almost run over by a car, in the 1960s, when she would have been in her 80s.