“Thank you for coming to speak to us.” After my most recent book talk a lady came up to chat. “I always loved Phyllis Diller. I saw her when she appeared here in Las Vegas back in the 70s.” “Wow! I was with her then. You saw her at the Riviera?” “Yes. Back when it was the classy hotel. That and the Desert Inn.” “Oh yes, I remember them well — the DI was the place for high rollers. It was beautiful.” We reminisced a bit, she bought a book and left, leafing through the first few pages as she headed for the door. It made me happy to connect with one of Phyllis’s fans. One of the things I like best about giving talks about Phyllis is that everyone seems to have loved her. I’ve not had a single person say anything like, “well, she was okay …” No. 100% of… Read More »
Did Phyllis Diller Wear a Wig ?
“Did Phyllis always wear a wig?” The question came after one of my recent talks. I’ve had a great time visiting book clubs and other groups telling about my time as personal secretary to Phyllis Diller in the early 70s. “Yes, she pretty much did,” I answer the wig-question lady. One of Phyllis’s trademark looks was the wild hair which she teased to stand on end. That, along with the dresses that stopped at her knees and the boots which came just past the ankles gave her a decidedly awkward look — exactly what she wanted. She had started by teasing her hair until she realized that she was doing real damage, then she took to wearing wigs. At first the wigs were just for her stage act, but eventually she realized it was much easier to put on an already-styled head of hair than to set and style her own… Read More »
Phyllis’s Shoes …
Okay, Micheline told me to buy something from the auction but I wasn’t actually at the auction — just the preview party. And friends who did buy at the auction got soaked on the shipping — really, Julien’s charged them 500% over the normal cost of shipping. So yeah, I’m glad I didn’t bid on-line! Imagine if Julien’s charged $60 to ship a few ounces of silver what they would have charged to ship that grand piano. Good thing I didn’t succumb to temptation. Wait — was I tempted? Actually, no. Well, okay, maybe for about 46 seconds. I had stopped at Cherry Picked, the thrift store in Santa Monica where Phyllis’s son Perry had donated some of her things. Justine showed me a pair of shoes that I remember Phyllis wearing and when I squealed with glee, she insisted on giving them to me. I felt sort of bad about that, although I had already… Read More »
All right, all right, I’m GOING to the Party!
I’m sitting here with the invitation to “A Private Gala & Preview Party” for the auction of Phyllis Diller’s estate. Bob and Dolores Hope’s estate is also being previewed. With a few nudges — and a couple of actual shoves — from friends, I realized it would be silly to not accept the invitation to a once-in-a-lifetime event. So this morning I called Julien’s Auctions and RSVPd. Susie, my catsitter, has agreed to watch after my fur family for the night. Now all I have to do is figure out what to wear. “Casual Attire,” it says. That means not formal attire, right? But not something you’d wear to mow the lawn, either. I’m glad that this is just a preview and not the actual auction. When I lived in England several decades ago, I went to an actual, real live auction at Sotheby’s. I’m pretty sure my friend and former Foreign Service roommate, Barbara, was visiting… Read More »
Where are the roses?
You know how you are driving down a street you haven’t been on in awhile and suddenly you see a building that’s been painted and you think, “what color was that before?” Or worse, a space where a something used to be and you think “what was there before?” Surely I’m not the only person that happens to. So, I was looking through the Phyllis Diller auction catalog on-line and the living room looked the same only different. Here was this huge painting of Bob Hope, but what was really different was the red roses. They were gone. I suppose they’d been gone a long time, considering that I was first in that living room in 1970. Even the most exquisitely produced silk flower can only last so many decades, after all. There used to be dozens of them, however, in tall vases on every flat surface. Phyllis loved red roses.… Read More »
