Editing Calumet City, Illinois (section)

==In popular culture==
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Calumet City is featured or mentioned in a number of major movies. [[John Belushi]]'s "Joliet Jake" and [[Dan Aykroyd]]'s "Elwood" characters from ''[[The Blues Brothers (film)|The Blues Brothers]]'' were born in Calumet City, and so is the orphanage they grew up in, which they save "on a mission from God" by paying $5,000 in property taxes from a $10,000 record deal at their concert, as well as "Ray's Music Exchange" that holds the famed [[Ray Charles]] "Shake Your Tail-Feather" scene of the movie. In the book and film ''[[The Silence of the Lambs (film)|The Silence of the Lambs]]'', [[Buffalo Bill (character)|Buffalo Bill]] is thought to be hiding in Calumet City, when he is actually in [[Belvedere, Ohio]]. The Calumet City scenes in the film were filmed in [[Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania]], however. [[Lily Tomlin]]'s prim but assertive housewife/spokesperson "Mrs. Judith Beasley" is said to be a resident of Calumet City. She said, "Hi. I am not an actress, but a real person like yourself."

Calumet City is also referenced by a number of popular music acts. [[The Black Crowes]] included a video of the Smiley Towers in their 1990 video for "Hard to Handle". A photograph of the "Dolton" smiley water tower is featured on the back of the [[Dead Kennedys]] album ''[[Plastic Surgery Disasters]]''. Rapper [[Twista]] has referenced Calumet City. [[Kanye West]]'s reference to Calumet in his 2005 song "[[Drive Slow]]" does not refer to Calumet City, but rather to [[Calumet High School (Chicago)|Calumet High School]], which was located in the [[South Side, Chicago|South Side]] of Chicago and not in Calumet City.

The Smiley Tower is also featured in the movie ''[[Natural Born Killers]]''; it is seen out the window of Mallory's family home (part of that movie was filmed in Hammond, Indiana). In the [[Nine Inch Nails]] music video on the director's cut of the same film, the Smiley Tower and Dolton Avenue/State Street is featured.

The founders of the [[Calumet Baking Powder Company]] adopted its brand name from the original Native American word for the land that became Calumet City. They later named one of thoroughbred horse racing's most famed and successful enterprises, [[Calumet Farm]], after the company.

In 2004, [[Alan Keyes]] purchased a raised ranch house in Calumet City to establish residency in Illinois so he could run for the U.S. Senate in place of [[Jack Ryan (politician)|Jack Ryan]] against [[Barack Obama]], although instead of residing in the house, he officially moved into an apartment elsewhere in town, on Garfield Avenue.

In 2010, pop music group [[Hanson (band)|Hanson]] remade the "Shake Your Tailfeather" scene from ''The Blues Brothers'' for the music video for their hit "Thinkin' 'Bout Somethin'" in [[Tulsa, Oklahoma]], paying homage to Calumet City's Ray's Music Exchange, [[John Belushi]], and [[Ray Charles]].

[[Jean Shepherd]] (writer and narrator of the classic movie ''[[A Christmas Story]]'') in radio broadcasts from WOR radio, New York in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s and in his PBS specials of the 1970s and 1980s, and his many books, often refers to it as Cal City or just Calumet. He grew up in nearby [[Hammond, Indiana]].