Comedienne Phyllis Diller occupies a unique position in the annals of American stand-up comedy as the first woman to make her name in that previously all-male preserve. Remarkably, her show business career began in 1955 when she was 37 years old. In four decades, Diller progressed from being the only touring female come-dienne within the United States to one of the world's most successful and best-loved comics, and the acknowledged forerunner to the many female comics who have followed her.

Diller was born Phyllis Ada Driver in Lima, Ohio. She studied classical piano at the Sherwood Conservatory of Music and received a music education degree from Bufferton College, but shelved her music career to marry Sherwood Diller and start a family. It wasn't until almost fifteen years and five children later, in California, when desperation rather than dormant ambition drove her to reconsider a stage career...