Blues Brothers
One of my favorite movies of all time is the 1980 flick entitled the Blues Brothers, staring John Belushi and Dan Ackroyd. Another favorite documented in this previous blogpost is Animal House, also featuring Belushi. No doubt you appreciate my taste in movies, unlike my wife, as every time one or the other turns up while channel surfing, I have to watch the show, to her perpetual chagrin!
Belushi was on my radar before the Blues Brothers, since Animal House preceded it in 1978, and he was on Saturday Night Live as well. But my true appreciation for his talent came about quite by accident, as my wife and I were spending a long weekend in Chicago back in the summer of 1980. We stayed in a downtown hotel on the city’s so-called Magnificent Mile close to the many shops that lined the avenue, which my wife definitely wanted to peruse. Fortunately next to the hotel was a theater that was premiering The Blues Brothers, as it was filmed right there in Chicago. So with time to kill, I took in the show.
The theater was adjacent to Water Tower Place and early in the movie, the two brothers in their legendary Bluesmobile, a battered ’74 Dodge former cop car, were driving through downtown Chicago right past the theater where I was watching the show after Elwood (Ackroyd) had picked up his paroled "blood brother" Jake (Belushi) from Joliet prison.
The brothers were on a ‘Mission from God” to save the Catholic orphanage where they had lived as kids. To raise some money for the orphanage’s delinquent property taxes, they decided to get their old R&B band together for a final gig to pay the taxes and avoid closure.
Between the unforgetable music and the notorious chase scenes, the entertainment was non-stop. One especially memorable sequence occurred when the brothers got picked up for speeding and escaped by crashing through a mall. 105 cars were destroyed and the mall demolished. Hilarious! Recognize the background music during the chase, Buckeye fans? Now you know the origin!
One of my favorite scenes is when Elwood connects up with a cute girl in a Jaguar E Type played by Twiggy who briefly distracts him from his "Mission from God”.
Speaking of origins, the Blue Brothers actually appeared first in this 1976 SNL skit as the King Bee Band.
My BB memories are resurrected each August during the annual Woodward Dream Cruise when there’s always a Bluesmobile replica roaming Woodward, with oversized speakers blaring an invite to the Blues Brothers gig!
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