20 Things You Didn't Know About The Blues Brothers
2. A Skateboard Almost Derailed The Entire Musical Climax Of The Movie
The concert finale was filmed at the Hollywood Palladium. Extras had been lured there by the promise of seeing the Blue Brothers and Cab Calloway in concert after radio stations and media played the event up. As a result, thousands of hopeful extras showed up.
During the day, Belushi was mingling with the crowd and asked one young lad in attendance to borrow his skateboard. The starstruck kid gave up his board, which Belushi immediately used to try (and fail) a trick, fell, and seriously injured his knee
This was extremely problematic, as in a few hours Belushi was expected to dance, flip, and do cartwheels on stage.
Universal president Lew Wasserman used his clout and bankbook to convince one of the top orthopedic surgeons in LA to come to the Palladium, examine Belushi's knee, and shoot him full of cortisone, which would kill the pain long enough to let Belushi do his thing. The surgeon then proceeded on with his weekend plans, which he had delayed for Wasserman.
When you watch the two songs they performed on screen, you would never know that Belushi just about took himself out of the show.