I spent a decade at the Michigan City Prison as an adjunct instructor for Purdue University, and then, in a twist of fate, was cast in a small speaking part role as a reporter in the 2009 Universal Pictures film “Public Enemies” starring Johnny Depp as John Dillinger, shown in the opening film scenes breaking his gang out of the Michigan City Prison in 1933.
However, it wasn’t the real Michigan City Prison as the co-starring landscape in the completed film.
Instead, director Michael Mann opted to use the Old Joliet Prison as a scenery substitute to film the Michigan City Prison breakout recreation.
Singer Steve Lawrence played entertainment agent Maury Sline in the 1980 film “The Blues Brothers,” opposite Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi in the title roles. (Universal Pictures Archive/provided)
Old Joliet Prison has a far more famous star association with Hollywood on location shoots.
Most famously, it has earned the forever pop culture reference to a fictional inmate: “Joliet” Jake Blues from the 1980 film “The Blues Brothers.”
Starring Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi, “The Blues Brothers” is celebrating its 45th anniversary next month with a special 7 p.m. screening at the Old Joliet Prison (prison gates open at 4 p.m.), where guests can see where scenes were filmed for the movie on the vast walled property at 1125 Collins St. in Joliet. Tickets are $35 and available at www.jolietprison.org or by calling 815-723-5201.
The late Belushi, who died at age 33 in 1982 and attended College of DuPage, was cast as “Joliet Jake” and played opposite co-star Aykroyd and a roster of who’s who names in various scenes in the film, from singer Steve Lawrence as the duo’s agent, Aretha Franklin as a waitress, Carrie Fisher as a former fiancé, John Candy, Frank Oz and John Landis as officers, model Twiggy as a gas station customer, character actress Kathleen Freeman as filmdom’s most famous punishing nun, and James Brown, Cab Calloway and Ray Charles all singing in beloved scenes.
Northwest Indiana also gets to have a slight nod with a few captured on film scenes, including the state line car chase scenes and bordering U.S. South Works Plant along Lake Michigan. Many fans recall the three days in the summer of 1979 during filming when Calumet Fisheries hosted the movie crew from “The Blues Brothers” during the scene when the two race across the open draw bridge over the Calumet River.
As for Joliet Prison, it was opened to replace the first state penitentiary in southern Alton, Illinois, which was built on a bluff and opened in 1831 overlooking the Mississippi River. Privately managed, Alton quickly gained an infamous reputation for “horrendous living conditions,” as accounted by Dorothea Dix, history’s noted champion for prison and asylum reform. She personally petitioned the Illinois General Assembly to construct a new penitentiary after her very publicized visit to inspect the Alton prison in 1847.
When the Joliet Prison opened, The Chicago Tribune, after journalists toured the space, declared: “We came away fully impressed with the belief that the important trusts at Joliet are in good hands, that there is growing a State work which will be for long years to come the pride of her citizens.”
The 1926 construction of Stateville Penitentiary, just a few miles north of Old Joliet Prison in what is now Crest Hill, was intended to close the Joliet Prison, but the property continued to house offenders until 2002, when it was closed by Governor George Ryan for budgetary savings.
The prison sat abandoned with deterioration until public outcry asked for suitable options for reuse, including a campaign led by the Collins Street Task Force, formed with concerned public and private leaders. Joliet Mayor Bob O’Dekirk petitioned the state government to allow the city of Joliet to take control of the property in December 2017. Now it is operated by the Joliet Area Historical Museum.
The prison property has made appearances in many films and television series, including as the identity of fictional “Fox River State Penitentiary” in the Fox series “Prison Break” from 2005 to 2009, as well as the cable series “Empire.”
Philip Potempa is a journalist, published author and radio host on WJOB 1230 AM. He can be reached at philpotempa@gmail.com.
