Comedienne Phyllis Diller, who died in August 2012, spent time in Florida, including performing her comedy act at the Fontainbleau, the Eden Roc and many other locations across the state. She was also in Cape Coral in 1964 to film ‘Fat Spy’ with fellow stand-up comedian, Jack E. Leonard. She writes in her autobiography that, while in Cape Coral, she felt she “was in the Hell hole of America”. She hated the heat, humidity and the vast amount of mosquitoes. Blonde bombshell Jayne Mansfield was also in the film and apparently she was tough to work with as age worked to unthread her bombshell-ness. The experience was topped when Diller was in Las Vegas and screened the film when it came out in 1965. She claims after she saw it she quickly crawled out of the theater.

This photo is from ‘Lee County – A Pictorial History’ by Prudy Taylor Board & Patricia Pope Bartlett.
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The story is referenced from ‘Like a Lampshade in a Whorehouse – My Life in Comedy’ by Phyllis Diller.
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