Phyllis Diller tribute: photos, videos & memories

I saw Phyllis Diller in person exactly once and I’ll never forget it. I was a staff writer at The Hollywood Reporter and covering the American Film Institute tribute to Barbra Streisand at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

The first celebrity to take the stage at the star-studded affair (Elizabeth Taylor, Lauren Bacall and Jack Nicholson were also among those on hand) was the one and only Phyllis Diller, then a mere 83 years old.

“I can see it in your faces,” she told the crowd. “Half of you are thinking, ‘What the hell is she doing here? And the other half are thinking, ‘Oh my God. I thought she was DEAD!’

Then she let out one of her trademark cackles and the audience roared. (see video below)

But the connection between Streisand and Diller dated back to the early 60s when Streisand, then an unknown, opened for the comic at a Greenwich Village club called The Bon Soir. (“I still had my original face then,” she joked). So Diller repaid the favor on that memorial night by opening for Streisand.

Shortly after Diller’s death was announced earlier today, Streisand released this statement: “I adored her she was a wondrous spirit who was great to me.”

Anyway, Miss Diller is memorable to my family because in the 70s, when there were about four channels and one summer, one of the stations kept showing Boy Did I Get the Wrong Number starring Miss Diller, Bob Hope and Elke Somer. I seem to recall every day for a week. I know it seems strange but they did and me and my five siblings watched it every night to the point where we knew all the lines. We thought it was a hoot and the absolute funniest scene was Miss Diller washing dishes and looking into a plate and saying, ‘Mirror mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all? Oh shut up who asked you anyway.”

Ha!

There was also a hilarious motorcycle chase scene where she squirts the bad guys in the face with bottles of mustard. (Here is a LINK to that scene).

My sister and I were laughing about that on the phone today.

What a wonderful legacy of laughter.

She will be so missed.

Here are some more videos of the great Miss Diller, including an appearance last year on Anderson Cooper 360: