Phyllis Diller

Phyllis Diller

Lima-born stand-up comedian who started at 37 in 1955 and became one of the first solo women comics to be a household name, with fright wigs, a cigarette holder and jokes about 'Fang'.

Born July 17, 1917, Lima
Died August 20, 2012, Brentwood, Los Angeles, California

Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

At a glance

Born: July 17, 1917, Lima (Allen County) source
Died: August 20, 2012, Brentwood, Los Angeles, California source
Buried: Cremated; ashes scattered at sea source
Also known as: Phyllis Ada Driver, Phyllis Diller, Dame Illya Dillya
Education: Sherwood Music Conservatory
: Bluffton College, Bluffton, OH
Known as: Entertainment
Organizations: The Purple Onion

Life story

Phyllis Ada Driver was born in Lima in 1917, the only child of an insurance agent and his wife, and was raised Methodist though she called herself an atheist from childhood.

She studied piano at Sherwood Music Conservatory and attended Bluffton College, studying literature, history, psychology and philosophy.

She married Sherwood Diller in 1939 and raised six children. At 37 she made her stand-up debut on March 7, 1955, at the Purple Onion in San Francisco, where a two-week job turned into 89 weeks.

She became known for wild hair and clothes and a cackling laugh, and later influenced Joan Rivers, Ellen DeGeneres and Roseanne Barr. She retired from stand-up in 2002 and died in 2012.

Ohio ties

Lima (1917-mid 1930s)
birthplace and childhood; Central High School Allen County · source
Bluffton (late 1930s-1939)
studied at Bluffton College, where her parents wanted her to earn a music-teaching degree; eloped with Sherwood Diller in November 1939 and settled in Bluffton Allen County · source
Lima (1949)
inherited the family house and another Ohio property when her mother died in March 1949; both were later sold Allen County · source
Dayton (National Museum of the U.S. Air Force) (2002)
performed at a ceremony honouring Bob Hope Montgomery County · source
Lima (Allen County Museum) (2015)
the Allen County Museum holds a Diller dress, two of her paintings and publicity photos; a Lima comedy club raised money for a permanent exhibit Allen County · source

Timeline

1917 Born Phyllis Ada Driver in Lima on July 17, the only child of Perry Marcus Driver, an insurance agent, and Frances Ada Romshe. source
1930s Attended Lima's Central High School, then studied piano for three years at the Sherwood Music Conservatory in Chicago before transferring to Bluffton College. source
1939 Eloped with Sherwood Diller, brother of a Bluffton classmate, and married him in Bluffton on November 4. source
1945 The family moved to Alameda, California, when Sherwood Diller was transferred to Naval Air Station Alameda after war work at the Willow Run bomber plant in Michigan. source
1949 When her mother died in March, she inherited the family's big house and another property in Ohio; on a real-estate agent's advice the Dillers sold both and lost the money. source
1952 Began working in broadcasting at KROW radio in Oakland. source
1955 Made her professional stand-up debut on March 7 at the Purple Onion in San Francisco as a two-week substitute, and stayed a record 89 weeks. source
1958 Made her first national television appearance as a contestant on Groucho Marx's You Bet Your Life. source
1962 Alex Haley profiled her in The Saturday Evening Post (March 31) as 'the unlikeliest star'. source
1966 Toured with Bob Hope's Christmas show to US bases in Southeast Asia, arriving at Korat Air Base, Thailand, in December. source
1975 Received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for television on January 15, at 7001 Hollywood Boulevard. source
1981 Inducted into the Ohio Women's Hall of Fame, representing Allen County. source
2000 Recorded a long oral-history interview for the Television Academy Foundation on March 8 in Los Angeles, beginning with her early years in Lima. source
2002 Performed at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton at a ceremony honouring Bob Hope. source
2003 Gave the National Museum of American History costumes and her gag file, a 48-drawer steel cabinet holding more than 50,000 jokes on index cards. source
2012 On May 15 gave her final interview while accepting a lifetime achievement award from her hometown of Lima; she died at home in Brentwood, Los Angeles, on August 20, aged 95. source
2015 Limaland Comedy's third annual Lima's Funniest Lady festival raised money for a permanent Diller exhibit at the Allen County Museum. source
2017 The Smithsonian invited the public to transcribe the more than 52,000 jokes and stories in her gag file online. source

What Phyllis is known for

Pioneer woman stand-up comedian
American Comedy Award for Lifetime Achievement, 1992
Stand-up career 1955-2002

Stories

The unlikeliest star

Alex Haley's 1962 Saturday Evening Post profile traced Diller back to Lima, where she grew up the only child of an insurance sales manager. Her parents insisted she earn a music-teaching degree at Bluffton College. Late in her senior year a fellow student introduced her to his brother, Sherwood Diller; she said she took one look and started planning a large family. They eloped in November 1939 and settled in Bluffton. Ten years later, when her mother died in March 1949, she inherited the big house and the family's other place back in Ohio, but a real-estate agent talked the couple into selling and the money was lost. Sherwood kept telling her she ought to turn professional, and on March 7, 1955, she walked onto the stage of the Purple Onion in San Francisco as a two-week fill-in and stayed a record 89 weeks.

Source

Fifty thousand jokes in a steel cabinet

Diller wrote her jokes on index cards and filed them by subject in a steel cabinet with 48 drawers. In 2003, after hearing that Archie Bunker's chair had gone to the Smithsonian, she offered the National Museum of American History some of her best-known costumes and the gag file itself, with more than 50,000 jokes. In 2011 the museum's Albert H. Small Documents Gallery showed the cabinet with an unkempt wig, wrist-length gloves, cloth-covered ankle boots and a jewelled cigarette holder. Legal scholars who studied the file later found hundreds of Lockhorns comic-strip panels mounted on its cards, evidence that some of her jokes about 'Fang' began in the newspaper funnies.

Source

Lima's funniest lady

Historians say Diller spent her childhood in Lima, and the city has worked to keep her memory there. In 2015 Limaland Comedy, a Lima comedy club, held its third annual Lima's Funniest Lady festival to raise money for a permanent Phyllis Diller exhibit at the Allen County Museum. At the time the museum held only a few Diller pieces: a dress, two paintings by Diller herself and some publicity photographs. Its director, Patricia Smith, said she would like to see a more elaborate display for the hometown comic.

Source

Honors and things named for them

Hollywood Walk of Fame star, 1975 (record)
American Comedy Award for Lifetime Achievement, 1992 (record)

Family

husband: Sherwood Anderson Diller
husband: Warde Donovan
father: Perry Marcus Driver

Sites to know

Homes, graves, markers, museums and monuments; the numbered ones are on the map.

1 Allen County Museum, 620 W. Market Street (holds a Diller dress, paintings and publicity photos)
Lima Allen County · source
2 Bluffton University (Bluffton College in her day)
Bluffton Allen County · source

Ohio places

Where Phyllis Diller was born, lived, worked and is remembered, with the ZIP code, town and county pages for each.

Born: Lima, Allen County ZIP 45801 · Lima · Allen County
School: Bluffton (Bluffton College), Allen County ZIP 45817 · Bluffton · Allen County

Myths and corrections

Things often said about Phyllis Diller, and what the record shows.

Often said Diller wrote all of her own jokes.

The record She wrote much of her material and kept it in her gag file, but she also bought jokes from writers, and a 2008 Virginia Law Review study of the file at the Smithsonian found hundreds of Lockhorns comic-strip panels mounted on her index cards, suggesting that many 'Fang' jokes were inspired by the strip. source

Often said The cigarette in Diller's trademark holder was real.

The record It was a wooden cigarette. She did not smoke; the holder was a prop for her stage character. source

Documents

Primary records: patents, letters, court and government files, nominations and old county histories, each at the archive that holds it.

Phyllis Diller: The Unlikeliest Star, by Alex Haley (The Saturday Evening Post, March 31, 1962) 1962, Alex Haley estate (alexhaley.com)
Phyllis Diller interview, The Interviews: An Oral History of Television (March 8, 2000; interviewer Fred Wostbrock) 2000, Television Academy Foundation
Phyllis Diller Gag File transcription project (Smithsonian Transcription Center) 2017, Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of American History

Pictures

Free to use with the credit shown. Select a picture for the original and its license.

PHYLLIS DILLER Star, "The Beautiful Phyllis Diller Show" Sundays, On The NBC Television Network
Public domain
2003.0289.01.01; 2003.0289.01.02; Cabinet containing over 50,000 joke cards, Phyllis Diller's Gag File.
Public domain
Composite of stars of ABC-TV's comedy television programs in 1966. Top from left:Phyllis Diller and Milton Ber...
Public domain
Comedian Phyllis Diller arrives at Korat Air Base, Thailand, with the Bob Hope Xmas show, 1966
Public domain
Public domain
Phyllis Diller hamming it up for the camera.
CC0
DAYTON, Ohio -- Phyllis Diller, a stand-up comedienne, actress and voice artist, performed at the museum in 20...
Public domain
Phyllis Diller. Picture taken at the her home in Brentwood, Los Angeles, Southern California.
Public domain
Comedienne Phyllis Diller is the center of attention as she becomes honorary house mother of Alpha Epsilon Pi ...
Gene Hackley, Los Angeles Times / CC BY 4.0
Comedian Phyllis Diller surveying her wardrobe in her 18 by 30 feet (5.5 by 9.1 m) closet
Larry Armstrong, Los Angeles Times / CC BY 4.0
Jim Bailey (entertainer) with Phyllis Diller.
User:Campbellman222 / CC BY-SA 3.0
Phyllis Diller taken in Reno Nevada
Allan warren / CC BY-SA 3.0