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| ELIZABETH "BETTY" GREEN |
| KOO-KOO, THE BIRD GIRL |
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| "Betty Green is a Jewish girl from Springfield, Mass. She is known professionally as Koo-Koo, the Bird Girl and looks like a cross between a crane and a shaved dachsund. Betty is a commedienne however, of the first water, and has a rare aptitude for business. As her agent says of her: "She may be koo koo enough to be able to make people laugh, but she's not koo koo when it comes to signing contracts." |
| " Miss Green owns five large apartment houses in Boston, and manages them herself when she is not touring with the circus. She is a movie fan and has autographs of almost every well known star in the picture business, securing them when the stars come to see her in the circus sideshow. But her favorite autograph is missing, and it was chiefly to secure Ronald Colman's signature that she signed a motion picture contract. She was especially eager to leave immediately for Hollywood in light of the fact that she had read that moment of Colman's impending divorce." - Zanesville (Ohio) Signal, Nov. 1931 |
| TOD BROWNING'S "FREAKS" (1932) |
| (above) A rarely seen group shot. Clockwise, bottom: Johnny Eck, the half-boy; director Tod Browning; Frances O'Connor, the living Venus d'Milo; Pete Robinson, living skeleton and Betty. In an early draft of the script Betty's character was named "Molina". (right) Betty did not have a speaking part in the film but did have a close-up with Wally Ford who played Phroso, the clown. In the scene pictured here, Betty's character has just finished whispering to Phroso that the bearded lady has just had her baby. (below) I believe this is a deleted scene from the film. It was used to advertise Dwain Esper's re-release of the film in the 1950's. Pictured is Betty with (I believe) Matt McCugh who played one of the Rollo Bros, a trapeze act and Frances O'Connor, the armless lady. Frances was a very pretty ingénue who might have made it in Hollywood except for her congenital condition. |
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| Heartthrob Ronald Colman was actually divorced in 1934. Betty must have been disappointed to learn that when "Freaks" was being filmed Ronald was making the film "Arrowsmith" on another Hollywood lot. |
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