Diller was Dynamite!

Ellen DeGeneres, Whoopi Goldberg and other female comedians owe a debt to Phyllis Diller. She was a nearly 40-year-old housewife when she got into standup in 1956.

Women comics weren't widely accepted then. However, Diller told reporters in 1998 that she thought being a woman actually helped her. She said she was never made to feel like she was ``a girl'' among men. Her relatives were appalled that she was working in nightclubs. She said they thought she'd gone to hell.