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.

Early life Woolsey was born in 1880 in Rabun County, Georgia. She was widely reported to have had Seckel syndrome (also known as Virchow–Seckel syndrome), a rare congenital disorder characterised by severe growth retardation, microcephaly, and distinctive bird-like facial features, including a narrow face, a beak-like nose, large eyes, a receding jaw, and prominent ears. Contemporary accounts also described Woolsey as bald and toothless, and variously reported that she was blind or severely short-sighted, although the extent of her visual impairment is unclear.

By the mid-1920s, Woolsey was performing with Ringling Brothers. In 1924, she appeared in the circus's "Congress of Freaks" promotional photograph alongside many of the era's best-known sideshow performers.

In 1932, American film director Tod Browning cast Woolsey in the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) film Freaks, which featured numerous sideshow performers.

Accounts place Woolsey still performing around 1960, when she was about 80 years old. She was reportedly struck by a car sometime afterward. The date, place, and circumstances of her death remain unknown. She is mentioned in Tom Waits's song "Lucky Day (Overture)" from his album The Black Rider, about sideshow performers. Koo-Koo the Bird Girl is alluded to in the Ginger Rogers film Black Widow.