For a mid-sized town some 40 miles southwest of Chicago, Joliet certainly has an interesting side to it!

The old Joliet Prison, near the downtown district, was used as the backdrop for the opening scenes of the 1980 film “The Blues Brothers” starring John Belushi as “Joliet” Jake Blues and Dan Aykroyd as Elwood Blues.

Bob Dylan’s “Percy’s Song” tells the story of a fatal car crash and a subsequent manslaughter conviction and 99-year sentence in the Joliet Prison that is handed down to the driver, a friend of the first-person narrator. The narrator goes to ask the sentencing judge to commute his friend’s sentence which he considers too harsh. The sentence stands. The song, an outtake from the sessions that produced Dylan’s album “The Times They Are a-Changin” has been covered several times.

And, the Rialto Square Theatre was a favourite haunt of Al Capone! Oliva Newton John will be performing there next weekend!

The opening scenes of “The Blues Brothers” were filmed at the Joliet Prison in Illinois!