It was July 17, 2005, Phyllis Diller’s 88th birthday. The butler pushed open the doors of the formal dining room. “This room was always off-limits when I worked here,” Carole Beams whispered as the butler stood aside and motioned for us to enter. The table was beautifully set with antique silver, elegant china and crystal wine goblets. Linen napkins and place cards marked every place. The tall candles in the center were lit even although it was the middle of the day. Phyllis had invited a select group of former secretaries, whom she dubbed her “Dustbiters” for the first of what would become many annual reunions. (She later explained her name for us on the Rosie O’Donnell Show, “they worked for me as long as they could stand it, then they bit the dust!”). This was the first time in nearly 30 years I’d been back. The house had not changed, but it was very… Read More »
Phyllis Diller had a flag …
Yes, it’s true. Phyllis Diller had a flag (and why do I feel like I want to add “e-i-e-i-o”?) and on that flag she had a rose (e-i-e-i…). Phyllis named her house Rosewall West because she had bought a lot of the furnishings from a house on the east coast named Rosewall. Hence, the rose on the flag. Phyllis had this flag specially designed for her and made at the same factory — I think in New York — that made the official U.S. flags that fly over the Capitol and the White House. It was not an elaborate flag — white with a lovely, large pink rose. The idea was that the flag would fly whenever Phyllis was at home, rather like the flag over Buckingham Palace which flew whenever Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth, was in residence. (In fact, now that I think of it, Phyllis once signed a note to… Read More »
