When I was a little girl I loved her. I went to a ballet and she was sitting in front of me!! She let me try on her outrageous aquamarine ring. I was SO starstruck.
My father, Arthur Churvis, aka "Bud Chase" in his television days, was a comedy writer for Phyllis Diller before I was born. They became friends, and when she gave him a copy of her book "Phyllis Diller Tells All About Fang" she wrote in it an encouragement which he not only appreciated but achieved. I still have the book. She has a great signature.
I was a small gay bar in Dallas when I was 18 and friend of hers brought her to the club! She came to the dance floor and danced with us and flirted with us and remembered how ugly she’d been when I was a kid! I told her you’re beautiful!! ❤ she laughed and told us she’d had her face fixed and she was so nice. A really nice lady. Really nice.
She was one of the first celebrity to be public about her plastic surgery. In 1978 she told me that she made all her own clothing and she had worked as a seamstress. A wonderful lady.
Gay guys get it. We get it!! Right before you said you’re first supporters were gay, you said, “now it’s *my* mother-in-law, *his* mother, *his* sister hahahahaha” and I freakin cracked up with you. That laugh reveals so much about you. Your struggles; your vindications. What a great storyteller. A joy to watch ❤️
I opened for her once (in Indianapolis), and it was a master class in timing. My musical director played for her, and she schooled him exactly how and when to play, how long each laugh would be…she knew it all in advance. She was incredibly kind and gracious to me-when we took a photo together backstage, I stooped down so our faces would be closer, and she snapped at me to stand up straight. Such a trip! 🙏🏻❤️
I babysat Phyllis's grandson back in the 70s, and once his parents brought her home from a party, too tipsy to drive...while we were waiting in the living room for the dad to get my payment together, she caught sight of my history textbook: "Homework?" "Yes." She leaned over and said in a conspiratorial tone, "Don't believe a WORD of it. It's all LIES!" (Which was probably fairly accurate ;-)
@@StevenCampsOut: I went to his funeral in 1982 in West LA Ca. Peter Marshall came with an ugly green older Rolls Royce. Joan Rivers, George Gobel, The Lennon Sisters were there. The Sisters sat behind me and at point got up and moved front to sing. Very old Miss Miller super fan of Merv Griffin was there with her caregiver. His body was not shown and was sent to Ohio his birthplace for burial. RIP Paul! You will be missed!
I can't imagine having that much faith in yourself, you just keep going. Most people would just give up, but people like her are like tanks, they just keep pushing through. Love her.
I was so fortunate to meet her, in her home, 6 mos. before she died. She was still extremely intelligent and making incisive comments. Her first laugh from me was me saying, "Hi, I'm Matt!" and her replying, "Hi, I'm blind!" (She was, mostly, by then.)
She doesn't get talked about enough anymore. She was a major deal in the '60s and '70s. I went to the library in the '70s and found a book about comedians and she was practically the only woman stand-up in it. She went from housewife to star and paved the way for the rest.
Phyllis was Always a joy to see working.! It's all too easy to forget in these days of over-exposure just how damn good they had to be back in the day in order to make it work. Amazing.!
She was so smart.. and so Aware. She knew timing... comedy .. lighting.. stage management.. a brilliant artist... a fantastic cook.. a concert pianist. An achiever's achiever... and an entertainer's entertainer. We won't see another one like Phyllis come along anytime soon.
I'll never forget, she once came into a bar at a 5 star hotel I used to work at, and she ordered "a glass of champagne with two shots of vodka in it." And she had like 3 of them! And was fine by the time she left with her friends! This was in the late 80s-early 90s.
I adore her laugh. I could have a blindfold on and the minute I hear that laugh - I'd know it is the iconic Phyllis Diller. Her voice, too....but if it was just her laughing, yeah, I'd know it anywhere. Love watching the old Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts with her on the dais.
Phyllis Diller is EPIC! Among the cars in her garage was a right-hand drive Rolls-Royce she seldom drove 'cause she couldn't turn left. Her favorite car was a Checker.
I saw her on a TV show years ago when I was a kid and I thought she was obnoxious and cringey. I never saw her just being herself and I loved her! She was so warm hearted and human. But when you're 9 years old you don't see that, you just think, "Dame needs a hairdo." Thanks for a wonderful interview.
Phyllis Dillar really took sexist stereotypes and made chop suey of them through sheer, endearing buffoonery. Her "setting the bar low" for women really freed women up to feel better about themselves. Like: "well at least I didn't screw up as much as Phyllis Dillar, and people still love her, so maybe it's not as serious as it feels for me." I don't remember the movie, but the first scene I ever saw Phyllis in was a crazy car driving scene. She was driving through fountains and chicken coops and causing general destruction and mayhem. When she got out of the car, her hair was WILD! 😂 She really took the stereotype of "women drivers" and drove it into the ground! 😆 My grandma loved Phyllis Dillar so much. My grandma was from a poor, rural part of Europe that had no cars, and then she immigrated to NYC, where nobody drives, they all just use the transit system. So when she moved out West in her 40's, she had never driven in her life. I remember her practicing to get her liscence in her 50's. She was so nervous. She really cracked up watching Phyllis Dillar drive like a mad woman! Phyllis was the best! ❤
When I was 14 I was Phyllis Diller for Halloween (I'm a 71 year old guy now). It was very freeing although the neighbors confirmed at that point I was weird. I was weird l but self-deprecating humor helped me through being weird.
I met her when she did an interview where I worked at the time. She was really tiny and thin. She was easy going, but wasn't "on" until the camera turned on.
I always loved her laugh. She wrote a book, illustrated by Suzanne Perl, titled "I Hate Housekeeping" back in the day. OMG, it was hilarious! The copy my dad gave to my mom she tossed after their divorce became final, I bought a copy because I loved it, but I think mom made me toss that too. If I ever get the chance to buy a third copy, I'm going to hang on to it so they'll have to pry it out of my cold dead hands!
Phyllis to audience: I wore. peek-a-boo blouse. They peeked and booed! Hysterical! Phyllis: On Thanksgiving I couldn't do the turkey dressing. I couldn’t dress myself-I think that’s how the joke went.
For the longest time I assumed Phyllis Diller was a smoker mainly because of her raspy deeper tone voice...I'm sure I'm not the only one who thought this.
I used to wear gloves 🧤 onstage too😂 I did it cause Eddie Murphy used to do it and I thought it was cool to wear and match with my leggings. Then I started wearing the black leather pants😇
I'm grateful she broke down barriers for female comics, truly. But listening to her talk about her appearance and her too long nose that her plastic surgeon had to point out to her and how if a girl is pretty what could she possibly have to complain about that has any depth....it makes me cringe. I'm old enough to remember seeing her on TV and and I hated her jokes then too. Because, while I realize she had to work within the circumstances given to her (every male dominated & incredibly sexist), it makes me sad when a woman has to resort to making herself the butt of the joke in order to get a laugh.
"Gay" is *NOT* the opposite of "Straight". "Gay" is the opposite of "Morose". "Straight" has two opposites, in the geometric sense, "bent", "curved", angled" and in the ethical sense, "crooked", "shifty", "untrustworthy".
When I was 12 I was in a serious play with her on Long Island. She wasn't in the 2nd act so she didn't stay for the curtain calls. She was a riot backstage though.
