I had lunch with Phyllis Diller. I was tending bar at Stockdale Country Club when they first launched the Bakersfield Business Conference. It started out as a small affair, maybe 100 people on the back lawn behind the clubhouse. She was one of the entertainers for the day. Once lunch was served to the guests the waitresses and I sat down at a huge table in the clubhouse just inside the back doors to eat. Phyllis got her lunch and came over and asked if she could sit with us. Nicest lady! And kept us laughing all the way through lunch.
In 1975 Phyllis hosted a two hour TV special called “Phyllis Diller’s 102nd Birthday Party”. The setting was a huge Hollywood mansion; all the comedy superstars were there doing a celebrity roast where the guests circulated and dropped their one liners and my gut hurt for days afterward I was laughing so hard.
Belongs to another time. Anything similar today would be an all night Trump hate fest. Wait a sec - they just did the Emmies.