Dear Lee,

Phyllis Diller (1917-2013) was a hilarious comedian who became famous in the 1960s when she appeared on many Bob Hope specials and joined him on USO tours in Vietnam. Her costumes, wigs, jewelry, artwork and other memorabilia from her estate were auctioned in September.

Diller was a guest on our Discovery Channel TV series, and we spent two days filming at her house. Although her comedy routines were based on her supposedly muddled brain, unusual husband and the pitfalls of being a housewife before women’s lib, she was a talented concert pianist, wrote her own jokes and kept amazing records of every one of her performances, including where she was, what dress she wore, what accessories and wig she used, and her scripts. Jokes were filed on individual cards sorted by subject matter. And she was a shrewd business woman.

One bedroom in her house had been turned into a huge closet. She opened one of the jewelry drawers to show us hundreds of pieces sorted by color—not value. We saw sapphire rings set with diamonds lying alongside strings of blue costume jewelry beads.
“Does anyone know you keep valuable jewelry in the same drawer as costume jewelry?” we asked her. Her answer: “It’s all part of my show business wardrobe, and it’s going to be a problem for my heirs to worry about.”

She saved every one of her specially made costumes, too. You may remember her typical outfit: an above-the-knee dress shaped like a sack but made of unusual material. And she often added a bright-colored feather boa.

The strangest thing in the Diller house was a tall, narrow painting of animals on a hillside. It hung next to the stairs. I kept staring at it and finally decided the animals were sheep standing on their hind legs. Then I realized the picture was hung with its side at the top.

“Why is the picture hung sideways?” I asked. “Because I don’t have a wall long enough to hang it the right way,” she said. Then she gave one of her trademark laughs. Maybe it was a clever decorating idea, maybe an inside joke, or maybe she really didn’t think it mattered which way you hung a painting.

Our TV episode featuring Diller was great. Every one of her comments made us laugh. She collected postcards and showed us hundreds piled on a table. Most were from show business friends who wrote to her from abroad. So most were signed by celebrities—what she really had was an autograph collection.

She said she promoted upcoming out-of-town engagements by writing hundreds of postcards to people who had sent her fan mail. How much easier it would be today. She could have emailed.