Phyllis Diller

In her three-hour-plus interview, Phyllis Diller (1917-2012) speaks of her beginnings as a successful comic breaking out of her shell as a middle-aged housewife when she appeared for the first time on stage at San Francisco's Purple Onion. She speaks of her first appearance on television, on Groucho Marx's You Bet Your Life. She talks of her many appearances on television variety shows including numerous appearances on The Jack Paar Show and The Ed Sullivan Show. She discusses her long association with Bob Hope in films and on television— making more appearances on his specials than anyone else. She talks about her television series The Pruitts of Southampton (1966-67), a sitcom, and The Beautiful Phyllis Diller Show (1968), a variety-talk series, as well her roles on the comedy-anthology series Love, American Style. She describes her appearance as a regular panelist on television's The Gong Show (1976-80) and her regular role from 1995-96 on the daytime serial The Bold and the Beautiful. She describes her work as a trend-setting female comic and details her successful formula for stand-up comedy. Fred Wostbrock conducted the interview on March 8, 2000 in Los Angeles, CA.