North Park Grad Recalls ‘Blues Brothers’ Filming

CHICAGO, IL (September 26, 2006) – Whether it was getting the inside information on the making of The Blues Brothers movie, racing in the First Annual River Run, or touring various sites mentioned in a popular work of fiction, celebrants at North Park University’s homecoming this past weekend enjoyed opportunities to experience different parts of the “Windy City.”

The homecoming theme this year was “Sweet Home Chicago,” based on the song of the same name that was featured in The Blues Brothers movie – much of that movie was filmed in Chicago. On Thursday night, Bill Birch, a 1938 graduate of North Park, shared his experience of serving as part of the filming team for the groundbreaking John Belushi-Dan Aykroyd comedy released in 1980. John Landis was the director.

“There are a lot of fun memories, a lot of bad memories,” Birch said. “It was an experience of a lifetime I will never forget.”

Among the fun memories was working with Belushi. “Everybody liked him,” Birch said. “He was a wonderful man, but he had a bad habit.”

No one died, but there was at least one injury and at least one close call involving Birch, who was in a vehicle filming a pileup scene when one of the stunt cars overshot its mark and crashed into his vehicle.

Birch recounted filming adventures throughout the city – that urban environment became as much a character in the movie as the actors. “I didn’t think they would let us do half the things we did,” Birch says. Audience members who followed Birch’s talk by watching the movie in Hamming Hall said they enjoyed seeing parts of the movie in a new light.

Birch, an inductee of the National Journalism Hall of Fame, began his career as a newsreel cameraman. He worked with legendary film director Frank Capra on several pictures while serving in the U.S. Army Signal Corps.

Homecoming participants enjoyed a different view of the city as they toured the sites mentioned in Erik Larson’s bestseller The Devil in the White City. The book focuses on the true stories of two men – Daniel Burnham, the brilliant architect behind the legendary 1893 World’s Fair, and serial killer Dr. H.H. Holmes, who used the fair to lure his victims to their deaths.

Others enjoyed the neighborhood around the university on Saturday morning. The First Annual River Run attracted hundreds of participants who were able to get in a two-mile race before thundershowers soaked the area for the rest of the day. The Viking Athletics Department and Galter LifeCenter presented the run, which also had several sponsors.