PHYLLIS DILLER - AUTOGRAPH NOTE SIGNED - HFSID 270563

PHYLLIS DILLER
She sends an autographed note to Jack Carter
Autograph Note Signed: "Phyllis Diller" on verso of postcard, 5¾x3¾. 13-cent stamp affixed. Postmarked Miami, Florida. Color postcard depicting Alexander Calder's stabile, Flamingo, located on Dearborn Street in Chicago. Captioned on verso. Diller's note, in full: "He says he's hungry & we don't know what to feed it! Love". Typed label to Mr. & Mrs. Jack Carter, Beverly Hills, CA affixed at right. One of Diller's hobbies is adding funny captions to postcards and sending them to her friends. Carter's response to Diller's card: "Thanks for the card! You're a love - incidentally you don't feed this thing! You wear it! It's Dolly Parton's diaphragm! Or King Kong's prostate! Whatever it is Howard Hughes will never get it off the ground! Happy Holidays". A successful nightclub comedian, JACK CARTER has been a frequent guest on TV variety shows, quiz panels and series since the early 1950s. His film career as a character actor spans two-thirds of a century, from Charlie Chan's Courage (1934) to Play It To the Bone (2000). Comedienne Phyllis Diller (1917-2012), known for her outrageous appearance, zany outfits, distinctive laugh and a stand-up act that featured frequent references to her fictional husband, "Fang", and zingers about her sex appeal and numerous plastic surgeries, got her big break in March 1955 (at age 37), when she debuted at San Francisco's Purple Onion club. A subsequent appearance on The Tonight Show hosted by Jack Paar launched her national career, which got a big boost after Bob Hope saw Diller in a Washington, D.C. club. A favorite of the comedian, Diller would appear in three of Hope's films and 23 of his TV specials. Diller, who recorded her first comedy record album in 1959, took her groundbreaking "funny hausfrau" act to nightclubs and television variety shows and specials and she also appeared on the big screen. Her feature film credits include Splendor in the Grass (1961), The Fat Spy (1966), Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number! (1966), The Sunshine Boys (1975) and The Silence of the Hams (1994), and she provided the voice of the Queen in A Bug's Life (1998). By 2000, the comedienne, who had trained as a concert pianist before her marriage (1939-1965) to Sherwood Anderson Diller, had appeared as a piano soloist with 100 symphony orchestras across the U.S. Despite retiring from nightclub/stage tours in May 2002 at the age of 84, Diller continued to make films (Motorcross Kids, 2004; Forget About It, 2005) and occasionally appear on TV programs, including two episodes of 7th Heaven (2002, 2003) and a guest shot on The Wayne Brady Show (2004).  "USA" written (unknown hand) in red ink beneath label. Minor surface scratches (not evident head-on). Irregularly cut at lower edge. Otherwise, fine condition.