My friend, Shawn, having helped me set up a facebook account said, “Have you seen the clip of Phyllis playing the piano with Liberace?” I am a technology dweeb and was fascinated when he zipped through You Tube and clicked on a video. We watched it and were both laughing. http://youtube/3mRK5A45Qrc (I’m still a dweeb because I still can’t make this a link, but you can copy it into your browser. It’s about a 3 minute clip.) When I saw this, I was startled at the shortness of her dress. I came to work for her less than two years later and by then she had changed that look to mid-knee length, partly to make her look awkward. That and the ankle-high boots gave a choppy appearance that worked well with her short, choppy joke delivery. But I digress … Many people don’t know that Phyllis Diller studied piano and even composed several… 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 »
Phyllis’s First Reunion
The thought of the auction of Phyllis’s things made me nostalgic. I came across this picture of the Dustbiters at the first reunion — the first time Phyllis invited us all to her house for a party. I noticed the picture on the wall behind us — it’s in the auction catalog. However, the picture that intrigues me is of us all gathered in the dining room with Phyllis. That was the day I met Corrine The Perfect (standing directly behind Phyllis) and the two other secretaries I didn’t know, Heidi Rotbart and Carole Beams to Corrine’s right. My long time friend/roommate, Ingrid Chapman is to Corrine’s left along with Sandy Beach (yeah, yeah, I know), and Carol Eschler. In the back is Mercer Helms, the magician who was Phyllis’s opening act for the last 20 years of her stage career. And then in front is me to Phyllis’s right and Karen… Read More »
PHYLLIS DILLER’S STUFF GOES TO AUCTION!
Oh, my gosh, it’s here — or nearly. Fellow Dustbiters Ingrid and Corrine both sent e-mails about THE AUCTION! (If you’re new to this blog, Diller’s Dustbiters was the small group of Phyllis’s favorite secretaries and her friend and opening act for many years, Magician Mercer Helms.) It has been a year now since Phyllis died. We had known it was imminent since the cancellation of our annual Dustbiter’s reunion at Phyllis’s house. Still, we all felt a loss. Phyllis Diller had been a big part of all our lives. So we phoned and e-mailed each other, talking about meeting at the service and then going someplace afterwards to reminisce and have our own private memorial. It turned out she had left instructions that there would be no funeral or memorial service. This was a shock to not only the Dustbiters, but I’m sure to her many friends and fellow entertainers. As for the house, Phyllis’s son and executor of… Read More »
