Anne Bancroft 😂“Yma Dream”

Anne Bancroft - Lee Jay Cobb

in "Yma Dream "

1970 

It’s from Anne Bancroft’s Emmy-winning “Annie: The Women in the Life of a Man.” It was written by Thomas Meehan.
Apparently they cut out the final group of guests - Anno Moffo, Mata Hari and Pia Lindstrom - whom she introduces as “Anna, Mata, Pia.” 

Yes, that’s Lee J. Cobb playing the psychiatrist. 

Meehan wakes up one morning with an idea: “Uta... Ina... Hmm.” He compiles a list of euphoniously named luminaries: Ava Gardner, Yma Sumac, Oona O’Neill, Abba Eban, Ida Lupino, Aga Khan, Eva Gabor, etc. The result, “Yma Dream,” an instant-classic piece of short fiction, is published in The New Yorker, February 24, 1962.
Another nine years pass. Meehan gets a call from Martin Charnin, who is directing a television special starring Anne Bancroft. An “Yma Dream” admirer, Bancroft wants Meehan to adapt it as a comedy sketch, which he proceeds to do.

Along the way, he becomes friendly with Bancroft’s two-thousand-year-old husband, Mel Brooks, who asks Meehan if he’d ever like to collaborate on a movie. Meehan replies, “Yes!”

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/10/15/monster-career

• Hilarious: "Gia, Mia, meet Abba, Ava, Yma, Uta, and Ulu."
  Perhaps this is what Letterman's writers were aping with his notorious "Uma, Oprah" Oscar gaffe.
• rubtubsub M  Yonan: I love AnneBancroft , her matter of fact delivery and the rhythm is so comically impeccable 
• DODay:  I open the door and see Anna Moffo, Mata Hari, And Pia Lindstrom - Anna, Mata, Pia...

Christine Baranski
Recites Thomas Meehan's comic short story.

• Bancroft diction was superior - can't believe that Bancroft's version edited out Anna Mata Pia which was the best line in the story.
• Ms Bancroft brings a level of panache (and madness!) lacking in this version

A breathtaking, hilarious sketch from an early 70s 
Anne Bancroft TV special 
The late Bancroft proves herself a peerless comic performer in this tour de force

"The Yma Dream"