HELLO, RUDOLPH

Hello, Dolly! is a 1969 American musical romantic comedy film based on the 1964 Broadway musical by Michael Stewart, which was based on Thornton Wilder's 1954 Broadway play The Matchmaker. Directed by Gene Kelly and written and produced by Ernest Lehman, the film stars Barbra Streisand, Walter Matthau, Michael Crawford, and Louis Armstrong (whose recording of the title tune had been a number-one hit in May 1964), with Marianne McAndrew, Danny Lockin, E. J. Peaker, Tommy Tune, and Fritz Feld. The film follows the story of Dolly Levi, a strong-willed matchmaker who travels to Yonkers, New York, to find a match for the miserly "well-known unmarried half-a-millionaire" Horace Vandergelder. In doing so, she convinces his niece, his niece's intended, and Horace's two clerks to travel to New York City. The film won three Academy Awards: for Best Art Direction, Best Score of a Musical Picture and Best Sound, and was nominated for four other Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Hello, Dolly! was one of the highest-grossing films of 1969 in the United States.