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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
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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.”
271:, 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
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reported that
Woolsey was recovering in Coney Island Hospital after breaking her arm while descending stairs. She was hit by a car in the 1960s. When and how she died is unknown.
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275:. 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
262:. 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.
254:, 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
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242:. 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
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American
Sideshow: An Encyclopedia of History's Most Wondrous and Curiously Strange Performers
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Koo Koo in 1924 (picture top, fourth from Left), was well known for her sideshow career with
481:"Accomplished Australian circus and physical theatre performer Sarah Houbolt takes flight"
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Minnie Ha Ha; Koo Koo the Bird Girl; Cuckoo Girl; Koo Koo, the Blind Girl from Mars
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Journal of Indian
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Harsha
Vardhan BG, Muthu MS, Saraswathi K, Koteeswaran D (2007).
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entertainer, best known for her only film appearance in
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Entertainer as sideshow entertainer, film performer
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360:. Altered Dimensions Paranormal. December 26, 2012
410:. New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin. p. 178.
16:American side show performer (1880- after 1960)
389:. Circus Freaks and Human Oddities. 2010-12-13
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506:"Lyrics: The Black Rider: Lucky Day Overture"
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383:"KOO KOO - The Bird Girl - Freaks the Movie"
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109:Learn how and when to remove this message
354:"Minnie Woolsey - Koo Koo the Bird Girl"
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47:adding citations to reliable sources
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558:People from Rabun County, Georgia
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334:Elizabeth Green the Stork Woman
208:(1880 – after 1960), billed as
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479:Hambrook, Colin (2017-09-29).
265:She appeared in the 1932 film
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468:– via books.google.com.
430:"Bird-headed Dwarf of Seckel"
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234:Woolsey was born in 1880 in
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406:Hartzman, Marc (2005).
256:intellectual disability
252:Virchow-Seckel syndrome
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160:Rabun County, Georgia
456:"Coney Island, N.Y."
315:Lucky Day (Overture)
309:She is mentioned in
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563:20th-century deaths
553:Sideshow performers
504:Waits, Tom (1993).
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340:References
170:after 1960
69:newspapers
311:Tom Waits
278:Billboard
248:Minnehaha
230:Biography
226:in 1932.
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328:See also
313:'s song
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