In the 1950s, when Diller started being funny for a living, there were no female standup comedians making it big. Some critics have said she... Comedy's Self-Deprecating Pioneer Phyllis Diller Dies A ...

(AP) Phyllis Diller, the housewife turned humorist who aimed some of her sharpest barbs at herself, punctuating her jokes with her trademark cackle, died Monday morning in her Los Angeles home at age ...

(AP) Some of the most promising talent in show business was on the bill one day and night in 1955 at San Francisco’s Purple Onion: Eartha Kitt and Alice Ghostley; Paul Lynde and Robert Clary; a singer ...