About this item
The story of the epic friendship between John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, the golden era of improv, and the making of a comedic film classic that helped shape our popular culture"They're not going to catch us," Dan Aykroyd, as Elwood Blues, tells his brother Jake, played by John Belushi. "We're on a mission from God." So opens the musical action comedy The Blues Brothers, which hit theaters on June 20, 1980. Their scripted mission was to save a local Chicago orphanage. But Aykroyd, who conceived and wrote much of the film, had a greater mission: to honor the then-seemingly forgotten tradition of rhythm and blues, some of whose greatest artists - Aretha Franklin, James Brown, John Lee Hooker, Cab Calloway, Ray Charles - made the film as unforgettable as its wild car chases.
About the Author
Daniel de Visé is an author and journalist. His first book, I Forgot To Remember (with Su Meck) , began as a front-page article de Visé wrote for the Washington Post, part of a 23-year career spent at the Post, the Miami Herald and three other newspapers. Andy & Don, his second book, began as a journalistic exploration into the storied career of his late brother-in-law, Don Knotts. The Comeback, his third book, rekindles a childhood obsession with bicycle racing. De Visé has won more than two dozen national, regional and local journalism awards, including a team 2001 Pulitzer Prize for deadline reporting. His investigative reporting twice led to the release of wrongly convicted men from life terms in Florida prisons. De Visé lives with his wife and children in Garrett Park, Maryland.
