did Dolly Levi actually exist
was she a real person or just made up?
shareFictional.
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MovieChat Forums > Hello, Dolly! (1969) Discussion > did Dolly Levi actually exist
Hello, Dolly is a musical adaptation of the 1955 play The Matchmaker by Thornton Wilder. The play was made into a non-musical film in 1958, starring Shirley Booth, Paul Ford, Anthony Perkins and Shirley MacLaine.
And yes, it's fiction.
All the universe . . . or nothingness. Which shall it be, Passworthy? Which shall it be?
The story of Hello, Dolly! goes all the way back to John Oxenford's 1835 one-act play A Day Well Spent, which Austrian playwright Johann Nestroy adapted into a full-length play called Einen Jux will er sich machen (1842). Thornton Wilder used Nestroy's play as the basis for his 1938 play The Merchant of Yonkers, which was a failure. Wilder rewrote the play as The Matchmaker, which was a success (Edinburgh, London and Broadway 1955, film version 1958) and was musicalized as Hello, Dolly! (1964, film version 1969).
Tom Stoppard adapted Einen Jux will er sich machen as well, as On the Razzle (1981, filmed for television 1983). The 1891 Broadway musical A Trip to Chinatown also bears a resemblance to this story but credits no prior source. The Nestroy play was also made into a 1953 film Einmal keine Sorgen haben (1953) and done on German television in 1956 and 1962 under its original title. There also seems to be a 1955 German adaptation for television called Die Heiratsvermittlerin, which from its title must be based on Wilder's Matchmaker, though 1955 seems rather quick for that to happen.
I'm not sure where exactly the Dolly Levi character entered the procedures. She's not in On the Razzle, and she's a supporting character in The Merchant of Yonkers, so as far as I know she may not be in the earlier versions.
I've been married to one Marxist and one Fascist, and neither one would take the garbage out.
The persona of Dolly Levi may be fictional but there WERE matchmakers (make me a match) in those days and in a man's world (still is to a point) it was a legitimate way for a female to support herself before marriage. Probably more so in a big city then out in rural areas.
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