The Blues Brothers - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of The Blues Brothers or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to The Blues Brothers

[cameron]

The first line of dialogue that Jake (John Belushi) says is "Well thank-you. The day I get out of prison my own brother picks me up...in a Police car! " is a subtle homage to legendary comedy double act, Laurel & Hardy. Belushi and Dan Ackroyd were both big fans of Laurel & Hardy as children and as this film is also about a comedy duo of underdogs with a musical inclination, Ackroyd added the line into the script and Belushi deliberately said it in the style of Oliver Hardy to acknowledge the influence.

[claude]

Just before the Good Ol' Boys' RV drives into the river, it passes by a building whose sign reads, "Mister Bill's Barbecue," referring to the popular Saturday Night Live (1975) short.

[wallace]

Chaka Khan: In the choir at The Triple Rock Church.

[toni]

The Soul Food Café, where Aretha Franklin sings, was Nate's Deli on Chicago's famed Maxwell Street. It is now a parking lot.

[jessica]

The production used six Ford Pintos, four of which were wrecked, and 12 specially outfitted Bluesmobiles. Before the Pinto could be dropped 1,400 feet (120 stories) in downtown Chicago, Chicago officials and the F.A.A. required filmmakers to test drop two Pintos.

[amber]

The limousine seen outside the Chez Paul belonged to the owner of the restaurant. He almost had a heart attack when the stunt driver smashed through a letter box on his first attempt at parking.

[morris]

Permission to film in downtown Chicago was given after John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd offered to donate $50,000 to charity after filming.

[lynn]

The fleabag hotel where Elwood rents a room is the Plymouth Hotel at Van Buren and Plymouth Ct. next to the El in Chicago. It is the same hotel - and actually the same closet-sized room - rented by Kirk Douglas' character in "The Fury" released a year earlier. In that film, Douglas performs a remarkable stunt for a 63-year-old actor, by walking onto a ledge outside the building and leaping onto an El stanchion to escape pursuing villains.

[veronica]

Ralph Foody is a Chicago police dispatcher in this film. In Raw Deal (1986) he was a Chicago police captain.

[lonnie]

Before Elwood is pulled over the first time, Murph and the Magic Tones, in their Cadillac, are visible behind the Bluesmobile on the highway.

[scarlett]

The speaker that Elwood and Jake tie to the roof of the Bluesmobile is a Canadian CLM model 927290P air raid siren.

[jessie]

At the end, after the Universal Studios logo is shown, there is an ad for Universal Studios in Hollywood. Below "When in Hollywood, visit Universal Studios", it says "Ask For Babs." The same appeared in National Lampoon's National Lampoon's Animal House (1978) (Babs is the Animal House character Babs Jensen), and it reappeared in Blues Brothers 2000 (1998) underneath a new Universal Studios Hollywood logo at the end of that movie.

[camila]

Every time the window in Elwood's apartment is visible, a train goes past.

[jessie]

When Aretha Franklin is describing Jake and Elwood to Matt Murphy, she says "They look like they're from the CIA or something." The Blues Brothers wardrobe of dark suits and sunglasses originated as Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi's costumes on a few Saturday Night Live (1975) episodes in which they played Secret Service agents guarding Chevy Chase's President Gerald Ford. In those skits, they wore black suits and sunglasses.

[leo]

At the Bob's Country Bunker gig, Jake introduces "Stand By Your Man" by saying it's a favorite of the horn section. The horn section doesn't play in the song.

[kenzi]

Before the falling Pinto scene could be filmed, the filmmakers had to get an "Air UN-worthiness certificate" from the Federal Aviation Administration for the car. This was done by conducting preliminary drop tests, to ensure that it would drop "like a brick" when dropped from a great height.

[russell]

The rough draft of the script, written by Dan Aykroyd, was more of a free form than a clear story. It didn't have a clear beginning, middle, or end.

[fred]

The SCMODS (State County Municipal Offender Data System) Readout for Elwood is as follows: Blues, ElwoodIllinois License: B263-1655-2187Currently under suspensionWarrants Outstanding: Parking 116Moving Violations: 56 (Flashing) Arrest Driver. Impound Vehicle

[marc]

For the 30th anniversary of the movie, The Vatican newspaper "L'Osservatore Romano" called the film "a Catholic classic", recommending it as good viewing for Catholics.