The film was released in both 35mm and 70mm versions. According to modern sources, Thornton Wilder's play, on which the musical Hello Dolly! was based, was itself based on a 1938 Wilder play The Merchant of Yonkers. The Merchant of Yonkers was in turn based on a Viennese farce. The Matchmaker was also the basis of a 1958 film of the same title, starring Anthony Perkins, Shirley MacLaine and Shirley Booth, directed by Joseph Anthony.
       Following the Jan 1964 Broadway debut of Michael Stewart and Jerry Herman’s Hello, Dolly!, items in the 8 Mar 1965 NYT and 10 Mar 1965 Var announced Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corp. had acquired screen rights to the musical for $2 million plus twenty-five percent of the film’s gross. Since Paramount Pictures Corp. had originally controlled screen rights to Thornton Wilder’s 1954 play, The Matchmaker, upon which Hello, Dolly! was based, Paramount had previously been given first right of refusal to the property but had declined to option it. For doing so, the 8 Dec 1965 DV reported that Paramount received a “substantial” sum as part of the Fox deal, said to be the second largest of its kind after Warner Bros. Pictures’ $5.5 million acquisition of the 1956 musical, My Fair Lady. When Ernest Lehman was hired to write and produce the film version of Hello, Dolly! as part of a five-picture deal with Fox, the studio agreed to fully finance the project while Lehman’s company, Chenault Productions, independently produced, according to the 10 Mar 1966 DV. Hello, Dolly! was set to be Lehman’s fourth musical motion picture, after 1956’s The King and I, 1961’s West Side Story, and 1968’s The Sound of Music (see entries).
       Barbra Streisand’s casting was announced in the 9 May 1967 issues of LAT and DV. Since she had yet to make her screen debut in 1968’s Funny Girl (see entry), Streisand’s deal was touted by Fox as the largest ever for a performer who had not yet appeared in theatrical motion pictures. The choice of the twenty-five-year-old actress sparked controversy, as stated in the 22 May 1967 LAT, partly because she was the youngest woman ever to portray the widow “Dolly Levi,” a role originated onstage by Carol Channing, who was twenty-one years Streisand’s senior. Ernest Lehman took responsibility for her casting, and in his own defense, noted that Dolly Levi was described in Thornton Wilder’s original play as of an “uncertain age.”
       The production budget was initially set at around $10 million. However, the 4 Mar 1968 LAT estimated that production costs would be anywhere between $15 and $25 million, and the 12 Mar 1969 Var cited a final expenditure of $22.5 million. The picture was later described in the 18 Dec 1969 NYT review as “the most expensive musical film ever made.”
       Rehearsals began at Fox’s studio lot in Century City, CA, sometime in Feb 1968, as indicated in the 15 Feb 1968 DV and 4 Mar 1968 LAT. A production chart in the 19 Apr 1968 DV confirmed principal photography began on 15 Apr 1968. By late Apr 1968, location shooting was underway in the Hudson Valley area of New York, where planned locations included the hamlet of Garrison and a site near West Point, NY, according to items in the 21 Aug 1967, 7 Feb 1968, and 24 Apr 1968 DV. Some Los Angeles, CA-based filming was set to take place at Fox’s ranch location in Malibu, but the bulk of shooting occurred at the Century City Fox lot. There, a parade sequence which took three days to shoot was described in the 18 Jul 1968 LAT as “Hollywood’s most massive logistical experiment,” requiring 3,108 extras, seven cameras, fifteen assistant directors, twelve firemen, thirty-five policemen, and five detectives who wore costumes and moved about the mass of background actors to ensure safety. An article in the 1 Sep 1968 LAT added that 106 animals were used, as well as a 160-piece marching band from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). The sequence was filmed on an outdoor set modeled after 1890 New York City that took six months to build and cost $1.7 million. According to an item in the 23 Apr 1969 DV, the set representing “Harmonia Gardens” was later repurposed for the filming of Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970, see entry).
       The 28 Aug 1968 Var reported that principal photography had recently wrapped “only four days over the 89-day shooting schedule.”
       The picture’s release date became a point of contention, according to a 3 Mar 1969 LAT column. As explained in the 10 Mar 1965 Var, the original deal Fox had made with Broadway producer David Merrick, who controlled rights to the musical version of Hello, Dolly!, barred the studio from releasing the film until 1970 or 1971, depending on how long the musical remained on Broadway. As of spring 1969, despite studio reports that the release issue had not been settled, some exhibitors were claiming slots had already been booked for a fall 1969 opening, and an unnamed source told LAT that plans for a Dec 1969 premiere were in the works. The first sneak preview occurred on 28 Jun 1969 in Phoenix, AZ, according to the 30 Jun 1969 DV. The following day, a 1 Jul 1969 DV item stated that the test audience had given rave reviews, and quoted Lehman as saying that “not a frame” of the current two-and-a-half-hour version would be changed. By that time, disagreements over the release date were rumored to be resolved. An article in the 23 Jul 1969 DV confirmed that Fox paid Merrick $1-$2 million to allow a pre-1971 release. A 16 Dec 1969 world premiere at New York City’s Rivoli Theatre was then announced in the 16 Oct 1969 LAT, which stated that a Los Angeles premiere would follow three days later at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. By mid-Nov 1969, advance ticket sales exceeded $1.5 million, according to a 21 Nov 1969 DV brief, and Fox’s president, Richard D. Zanuck, was quoted as saying that sales had been “considerably higher than any other Fox roadshow” release, to date. Hello, Dolly! went on to become a commercial success, and was listed in the 6 Jan 1971 Var as the sixth highest-grossing picture of 1970, with domestic film rentals of $13 million, to that time.
       The picture received Academy Awards for Art Direction, Sound, and Music (Score of a Musical Picture – original or adaptation), and Academy Award nominations for Cinematography, Costume Design, Film Editing, and Best Picture, as well as Golden Globe Award nominations for Best Director – Motion Picture; New Star of the Year – Actress (Marianne McAndrew); Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in Any Motion Picture (Marianne McAndrew); Actress in a Leading Role – Musical or Comedy (Barbra Streisand); and Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. As reported in the 31 Dec 1969 DV, Streisand was also named Cue magazine’s “Entertainer of the Year” for her performance.
       Shortly after the film’s release, a 16 Feb 1970 DV article announced that Paramount Pictures was suing Fox, David Merrick, and Merrick’s Dolly Venture Co. for “one-third of all monies” that had been paid to Merrick by Fox. As the basis for its claims, Paramount cited its 1963 agreement with Merrick, which promised the studio one-third of the sale of film rights to Hello, Dolly!, as well as its 1965 agreement with Fox, and a 1968 negotiation that occurred between Merrick and Fox over release plans, which had allegedly been done without Paramount’s knowledge.
       Items in the 7 Feb 1968 and 15 Aug 1968 DV identified Lew Tate as location manager; William Huffman and Richard Borland as gaffers; Frank McGarry as key grip; and Leslie Gorrall as an assistant director. The following actors were listed as cast members in DV items published between 17 Jan 1968 and 5 Sep 1968: Melanie Alexander; Robert Bakanic; Budd Bryan; Robert Cole; Fred Curt; Sheila Dehner; James Hibbard; Jim Hutchison; Ed Kerrigan; Kittle McCue; David Moffat; Herad Sanders; Jet Sharon; Dan Siretta; Bonnie Evans; Bradford Craig; Clay Tanner; James McEachin; Guy Wilkerson; Charles Lampkin; Harry Stanton; Will Ahern; Sherry Stoner; Jamie Bennett; Madelon Tupper; Jimmy Cross; Gene Tully; John Arnold; Lavina Dawson; Randy Lane; George Barrows; Ralph Roberts; and George Tatar.
       E. J. Peaker made her feature film debut in Hello, Dolly!, which also marked actress Marianne McAndrew’s first credited appearance in a theatrical motion picture. In an interview published in the 9 Jun 1968 LAT, McAndrew expressed surprise at having won the coveted role of “Irene Molloy” despite her inability to sing, and revealed that a voice double would be used for her singing sequences.
       In 2008, the Walt Disney-Pixar animated film WALL•E included clips of Hello, Dolly! Within the story, the robot "WALL•E" loves to watch a videotape of the film, especially part of a dance sequence of "Put On Your Sunday Clothes," and the romantic ballad "It Only Takes a Moment," featuring Michael Crawford and Marianne McAndrew. Both the clips and the songs are repeated several times throughout WALL•E, and "Put on Your Sunday Clothes," sung by Crawford, is heard on the soundtrack at the beginning of the film.